Today we’d like to introduce you to Triple Dare Jazz Band.
Hi Triple Dare, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Joe Hamm, Drums: Jazz is a musical home for me, and building a quintet is something I’ve always wanted to do. Moving to Nashville in 2024, knowing no one, it took some time to identify bandmates that I thought would make for a great group, but it didn’t take long to find great players and even greater people.
Tim Grieme, Sax: I had met Joe at a jam session in town at the Grandpa Bar and he approached me as I was on my way out about starting a jazz group together. We got coffee a couple days later to get to know one another better and then got to work trying to fill out the rest of the band. Nigel Cathéy joined on trumpet, Gabe Feldman on keys and Chris Mondak on bass. We threw around a couple different band names and ultimately decided on “Triple Dare,” credit to Joe for the idea! We got together and recorded a couple of jazz standards that we put together as our EPK (electronic press kit) and started sending it out to venues. We got our first gig at the Flamingo Cocktail Lounge in Wedgewood where we still play regularly. That gig has led to a lot more playing opportunities for us. We stay active around town today still playing at the Flamingo, as well as other venues such as Arrington Vineyards, the W Hotel, The Grand Hyatt, and more!
Nigel Cathéy, Trumpet: Triple Dare began as a group of Nashville musicians who wanted to bring fresh, high-energy jazz to local stages. What started as a few jam sessions turned into a steady Friday night quintet at The Flamingo.
Gabe Feldman, Piano: This group is special, and is composed of 5 amazing people who love music. The idea when we formed this group was to start playing standards people know, only to add more obscure tunes to our ever-growing setlist. Now we have a whole arsenal of tunes, but we will look to add original compositions as well!
Joe Hamm: I met everyone in our band individually through playing and attending jam sessions throughout Nashville at places like Rudy’s Jazz Room, Grandpa Bar, & Americano Lounge. Tim Grieme and I got coffee after meeting at a jam session and we exchanged visions for how a band could be built and the kind of sound we both wanted. I had similar conversations with Gabe, Nigel, and Chris all on an individual level. Once I identified players that I enjoyed and shared a vision with, I invited everyone to a rehearsal. We’ve had two rehearsals total in our first year but have performed over 25 times. There’s a lot to look forward to.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Joe: Establishing ourselves as a band in the Nashville music community takes time, and I’m grateful for the relationships we’ve formed in our first year as a band. Our fans that have seen us over and over again have made our first year so special and memorable! Flamingo Cocktail Club and Arrington Vineyards have both become musical homes for us. Angela and Sarah at Flamingo Cocktail Club, Ryan and the team at Arrington Vineyards, Kris and Matt with YODL, and Amanda and Abbie with Wed Society have all been enthusiastic partners in our first full year as a band and we are so grateful. Our friends at Jam Factory are also looking out for us and we’ve put on some great shows together. We’re looking forward to establishing new partnerships in the years to come and continue to connect with our fans!
Chris Mondak, Bass: The only struggle I can think of is that we are all so busy it’s hard to get rehearsals! Our next big challenge as a band is to try and come up with some original music!
Nigel: Like any group balancing busy schedules and creative visions, we’ve had to stay flexible and patient. Those challenges ultimately helped us tighten our sound and strengthen our chemistry.
Gabe: I feel each time we play together we find more things to improve on as a group. Every band of musicians, just like every group of people in a given space, has to understand the language we have collectively agreed upon to carry on conversations. Knowing what each musician is doing with their part is important, because acting on it and conversing with them makes the music flow better. We are growing in that department, and it feels like we are finishing each other’s sentences.
Joe: It takes time and experience for musical chemistry to develop. About half way through our first full year, I started hearing and feeling that bond deepen and there are a lot of inside-jokes, motifs, and go-tos that are really making performing fun. We’re growing our sound and continuing to expand musically and I’m excited for the future.
Tim: Working as musicians, the road is rarely if ever considered smooth. Being newer to town, making new connections with musicians, making connections with venues, venues not responding, finding rehearsal spaces, finding rehearsal times among busy schedules, etc. are struggles that we and I think most musicians face very regularly. That being said, all of the guys in Triple Dare are not only great players but great people too. Everyone is a team player and we all help each other out as best we can so at the end of the day, while we’ve had our share of struggles like anyone else, the overall atmosphere and vibe of the group make those challenges easier to overcome.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Joe: I named the band Triple Dare after the feeling of taking a risk. There’s something about being challenged, or taking a risk that is thrilling. It’s stimulating, scary, exciting, and engaging. I want my life to feel like I’m really going for it, and sometimes that means I need to challenge my comfort zone. I want our fans and our audiences to share that experience with us. The essence of that feeling is the Triple Dare. Not the dare, not the double dare, it’s the full go-for-it experience. Jazz is an art form that tests my creative boundaries and expands my expressive potential both technically as a musician, and emotionally unlike any other. It really includes a full spectrum of experiences. I love many genres of music and need to mash drums on a stadium level of power alongside a Les Paul with powerful distortion. I also need to access finesse and detail. When you hear Triple Dare, you’ll hear all of that in our music in some way or another.
Nigel: Triple Dare specializes in modern post-bop jazz that blends classic sophistication with a lively, contemporary feel. We’re most proud of delivering shows that connect serious musicianship with real audience energy.
Gabe: I am the band’s piano player, and I enjoy writing. It’s a passion that I’ve held since my days in high school. Though college drove me to take composition classes, which changed my life, I have been composing music on Logic Pro for over 7 years. Each song I write is different from the other, because one of my self-made laws is that I ADORE musical references that disperse genres. To incorporate original works in this group will be an exciting process.
Tim: Our band name is “Triple Dare Jazz Band.” We are a group of musicians that specialize in playing jazz music. Within the genre of jazz, we offer lots of diversity and play anything from old jazz standards that everyone knows to lesser known modern compositions to original music as well. What sets us apart from others is that we really are a band that plays together at almost every gig/show we have. Most jazz groups in Nashville tend to be under the name of the band leader, followed by how many musicians are in the group. For example, the Miles Davis quintet. There isn’t anything wrong with this but we’ve noticed a lot of these groups rotate through personnel frequently, with the band leader being the consistent piece. With Triple Dare, we have our 5 core members and if you come see us play, you’re going to hear and see the same 5 people every time. That is something that we’re really proud of.
Joe: I’m proud of our sound because each individual is free to bring themselves as individuals to the group. I may be the band leader and have started and initiated the group, but it’s not my band, or my sound. It’s our sound, our look, or expression. Each each member’s individuality and expression is valued, and the culmination of personalities makes our sound special. It’s my intention to do whatever I can to make sure every band member feels free and supported to access their creative and improvisational potential. It’s my intention to do whatever it takes both as a drummer on the musical side, and as a band leader on the business side to make that happen.
Chris: I’m a professional bassist here in Nashville, primarily on jazz upright bass but I just love to play. I specialize in having that stanky Ray Brown, Charles Mingus and McBride style of bass playing, aka actually singing my butt off and actually pulling the strings.
Joe: Our bass player Chris goes into another dimension during his solos. He is both intelligent and a composer by playing within the musical form but traveling to far away places within it. Nigel is a showman, and really makes the most of his voice as a trumpet player. I love his references, as well as both his bright and soft expressions. You’ll know it when you hear it. Gabe plays the piano like a painter paints with all the colors. His thinking is wide and the best way to understand Gabe is through his soloing when he really has the space to be himself. Tim is a great communicator and highly interactive. He’s a great listener too and is highly responsive during his improvising. Each bandmate pushes me creatively, and I think they’re making me a better drummer by both challenging me and having my back.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Tim: I’m not sure exactly where I see the industry going. Obviously AI is the big talk and buzzword right now and perhaps we may see a heavy increase of AI made and produced music infiltrate the market. I see it on social media all the time and some of it is getting very good. I think that ultimately if this ends up being the case, my hope would be that people recognize how much the human element positively impacts the music when it is really stripped away. It would be awesome to see a resurgence and renaissance of sort for the live music industry as a result of an over saturation of AI produced music. I think that would be really cool.
Nigel: Over the next decade, I see Triple Dare expanding its reach through live sessions, collaborations, and digital releases. Jazz is moving toward more genre-blending and accessibility, and we plan to be part of that movement.
Gabe: I see Triple Dare becoming one of the premier musical groups for jazz and contemporary improvisation in all of Nashville. We have the talent, we have the stamina, and we have the grit to play all over the city, and eventually around the country and even internationally!
Chris: We are gonna be a well in demand band! I think we are taking the right steps. The music industry-who knows, everything is crazy now. AI can take over, but I think true music that speaks to the soul is always going to be around.
Joe: Jazz is not a museum, and while we honor our musical lineage, we also have something to contribute. We continue to dig deep within ourselves to find our sound as individuals and as a band. The biggest challenge I foresee is the contrast between AI and human made music. AI is a tool, and like the inventions of the telephone or the internet, new technology is not to be rejected, but rather understood and put into context. Triple Dare confronts what it means to be human, and to test our limits creatively and emotionally. As we grow and develop as a band, highlighting this concept and sharing that fundamental human experience with our audience is what it’s all about!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tripledarejazz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tripledare.jazz/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TripleDareJazz
