About two weeks ago, I got to spend Saturday noon with my friends under the warm sun, listening to free, experimental ambient soundscapes. The stage was the basketball court in front of Walker Beach, and the audience was scattered around the field, lying on picnic blankets in small circles of friends. It was an hour of Nate Mercereau on guitar, Carlos Niño on percussion, and Aaron Shaw on saxophone, and it was one of the dearest concerts I have witnessed to this day.
Nate is a multifaceted artist, a guitarist, composer, producer, and songwriter with an impressive portfolio of solo jazz and ambient work, as well as collaborations with Jay-Z, Andre 3000, and The Weekend. When René, leader of Pomona’s Musician’s Coalition and organizer of the concert, asked Nate in preparations for the concert, “What would it take you to come here?”, he said, “Not much”. Mount Baldy’s views and the words on Walker Wall were enough to settle down the musicians for a free and open concert at the College.
Without an extensive introduction, Nate, Aaron, and Carlos sat down and prepared to play an hour set for a crowd of around fifty people. From the first piece they played, you could notice the amount of care and passion each of them put into the music. Carlos had an interesting array of percussion instruments – in many instances, he used (what seemed to be) a broom to create windy sounds, a spinning pipe, some shakers and clackers – which added texture and color to the sound. When Nate’s guitar took over the sound field, you would notice the unusual effects his strumming produced, partly thanks to the complicated pedal board in front of him and his genius way of using them together. Aaron’s saxophone lingered in the ether, it sounded nostalgic and gave me goosebumps. It was slow and steady at some parts, and intense at others; it played with one’s feelings.
All three of them were communicating with each other through their music. This was noticeable from their obvious smiles and apparent contentment, but also from the equilibrium reached through experimentation and improvisation. There were no specific conventional songs, at least none that I could pick up – the pieces blended into each other. I wondered if what I was listening to was previously rehearsed or entirely improvised on the spot. Nate later clarified it was a mixture of both, which impressed me. After an hour of playing, they wrapped up with a very sweet “That’s it. Thank you!”
I was grateful that the three of them stayed for a Q&A and answered some of René and the audience’s questions about their musical upbringings and future plans. Witnessing and feeling their performance was one way they proved their artistry, but hearing them talk about their connection with music was even more inspiring. “Every concert is a process of discovery for us,” said Nate. “My whole life is a creative process. We bring our whole lives into [music] and I want my life to be represented by it”. On the importance of working with others, Aaron said that “after a while I can get pretty bored by myself, so collaboration is part of the process. Art is to be created and shared”.
As they were packing their instruments, my bandmates and I approached Nate and exchanged a few words about the pedals he uses and his production process. He was extremely kind and supportive, and even asked to listen to some of our songs. During that hour and a half of music and conversation, I felt a lot of love and gratitude in many forms – from the melodies, the people in the audience lying under the sun and all carefully listening to the music, and the words that these three artists shared with us.
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