Based in Los Angeles after a move from Portland, Oregon, Nicole McCabe is a composer, improviser, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist with a focus on the alto saxophone. She has recorded a handful of albums as a leader across the last half-decade that illuminate her strong grasp of tradition and a desire to explore fresh possibilities. McCabe’s latest, and her second LP for the Colorfield label, is Color Theory, a set as melodically rich as it is boundary-pushing. Produced by Jason Moran, it’s available on vinyl and digital on February 20.
Originally from Marin County, California, Nicole McCabe was living in Portland when she recorded her debut CD for the Minaret label. She moved to Los Angeles the day after recording the set. The year was 2020, and Introducing Nicole McCabe unveiled six compositions from the saxophonist, one standard (“You’ve Changed”), and one piece credited to the session’s pianist, George Colligan.
Bassist Jon Lakey and drummer Alan Jones shape up the core quartet. They get joined on three of McCabe’s originals by Charlie Porter on trumpet. Introducing is essentially a hard bop album, but the playing is uniformly strong, and the blowing often works up to very engaging intensities.
Once settled in Los Angeles, McCabe got another group together, with Paul Cornish playing piano, her partner Logan Kane handling the upright bass, and Myles Martin laying down the drums, for the recording of Landscapes in 2022, the first of two CDs for the Spanish Fresh Sound label.
The sound of Landscapes is a perceptibly more laid-back affair (California has that effect on people), but for her 2024 follow-up Live at Jamboree, McCabe traveled to Barcelona with Kane, where they met up with pianist Iannis Obiols and drummer Ramon Prats for a terrific night of jazz.
Landscape is all McCabe originals, but Live at Jamboree unsurprisingly leans into standards. Along with an opening “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)” (that Brooks Bowman tune long associated with Charlie Parker), there’s Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” and Monk’s “I Mean You,” plus two from McCabe. Overall, the vibe of an American heartily blowing on a European stage is a very appealing extension of the Dexter Gordon-Don Byas tradition.
Back in the States, McCabe expanded a bit in terms of sound and instrumentation on Mosaic, which was released in 2024 on the Ghost Note label. Along with Julius Rodriguez on piano and Rhodes, Kane on bass, and Tim Angulo on drums, there’s Jon Hatamiya on trombone and Aaron Janik on trumpet for two tracks and for “Tight Grip,” Jeff Parker on guitar (he also executive produced Mosaic).
Mosaic revealed an artist coming fully into her own, and then A Song to Sing, released in 2025 and McCabe’s first for Colorfield, pushed into electronic-jazz territory with a foundation of solo processing, looping, and layering. Dolphin Hyperspace, McCabe’s project with Kane, established some precedent for this development.
There are contributions on A Song to Sing from Kane on his upright, Cornish on piano, and drummer Justin Brown, but it was McCabe’s input that considerably widened, as she added woodwinds, synthesizer, piano, percussion, and voice to her arsenal.
Although it does find McCabe scaling back to just her alto, Color Theory isn’t a stylistic retreat so much as an emboldening of her robust jazz roots, with her strongest set of all originals cut with a fresh band. There’s Yvonne Rogers on piano and synthesizer, Eliza Salem on drums, and Kanoa Mendenhall on bass with Adam O’Farrill on trumpet for four tracks and Maya Paredes on cello, Christie Dashiell on vocals, and Justin Brown on drums for a track each.
Opener “Air Sign” retains the instrumental layering from her prior record and deepens it with the warm jazz flow of her earlier work. “Hues” finds the group settling into a lively and approachable groove as groundwork for McCabe’s soloing to catch fire. Rogers and Salem follow suit as Mendenhall delivers the sturdy but supple lines.
“Twister” is a potent rhythmic brew with O’Farrill and McCabe wiggling and gliding atop. Compositionally and dispositionally, “Cent Cinq” harkens back to Landscapes a bit, and the first half of “For You is an exquisite sax-bass duet; the entrance of piano and drums doesn’t disappoint. Dashiell’s wordless vocals are a treat in “Sifting, Shifting,” getting into glorious sync with the sax as Rogers hits like LaMont Johnson and Don Pullen in a few spots, and McCabe lets beautifully loose for a stretch.
“Loop” is a short piece of prettiness leaning into that electronic-jazz zone, and then “Hope” swaggers in as a funky bit of business and gets quite boisterous. Mendenhall’s bass solo in “Hype Meter” is a monster, and the whole track moves with high energy. From there, “Assumption” has some wonderfully roving sax as a lead-in to a sweet closing burst of thunder-abstraction in “Improv 2.” Altogether, Color Theory is a sweet and tough, occasionally surprising delight.
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