Pulse - Artist spotlight: Garland Nelson

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Nelson moved to Saratoga Springs in 1992 when he entered Skidmore College as a Government major. Although he was interested in politics it was not where his passion lied, so he started performing with the college’s Gospel Choir and eventually at open mics around the city. His performances eventually culminated with him joining the New York Players – one of the premier entertainment and wedding bands in the Capital District. For more than five years, Nelson performed with the group as its lead singer/emcee until he left in 2005 to start what is now one of the most recognized groups in the area in Soul Session.

Aside from his work as frontman with the ten member multi-genre entertainment band, Nelson also performs locally with the jazz/hip-hop trio Flavor and acoustically with guitarist Mike Steiner.

Over the years, Nelson has also received numerous accolades including being chosen as the New York State Representative in 2000’s National Singing Championships. Nelson has also found a niche in educating people on the history of black music. I recently sat down with Saratoga’s premier “soulist” to discuss his passion for music, performance and education.

Where did your passion for music begin?

I have no musicians in my family, but I did have avid record collectors. In the early 70s, I was really intrigued by the Bee Gees and Earth, Wind & Fire; in particular this Ramsey Lewis song called Sun Goddess, which he recorded with Earth, Wind & Fire. The album that the song was on had a picture of King Tut on the cover and it always grabbed my attention. I would constantly crawl over to my uncle’s record collection and pull the record out and mimic what he would do with them by putting it on his wooden floor and spinning it. Needless to say he went through several copies of that particular album until he started putting it on the top shelf to keep it away from me. That is my earliest recollection of being very passionate about music and the rest has happened as I went along.

You were a government major in college, how did you go from being interested in politics to being interested in music?

Well I minored in music, so I was always involved with music at Skidmore. But when I first got there a guy who became a dear friend of mine had heard I was a singer and came to my door the first day I got to school and asked if I would try out for his gospel group. I agreed. Then I got involved with the school’s chamber ensemble and the Skidmore Gospel Choir. I was always involved with it behind the scenes, but at the time I never thought about it as being a career option.

I know originally you were vocalist but over the years you have taken the time to learn the drums, percussion, guitar, bass, piano and most recently saxophone and trumpet. What has driven you to try to become such a diverse musician?

Going back to Earth, Wind & Fire, I was always fascinated with how they did it, so I had a natural interest to mimic what I was hearing and reproduce it somehow. Ultimately, I knew that I was going to have to put an instrument in my hand and sit down and do scales if I was going to be able to do it. The other part of it has to do with the fact that I knew if I was going to run a band, I was going to have to talk the language – you can’t live in a foreign country without eventually picking up the language and the same goes for music. So when you are trying to communicate to other instrumentalists who are great at what they do, you have to be able to talk their language so that is what started my journey. I never thought I would be the man at it, but I didn’t just want to be a singer – singers don’t dictate their own paths. I wanted to be able to talk to people on their level.

What do you like most about performing music live?

I am a crack head [laughter]. All joking aside, I am a closet-introvert and most people don’t know that, but if my Mom was sitting here right now she would tell you how shy I used to be. I guess you could say I had rollercoaster syndrome. But a very dear friend of mine along my journey reminded me that the reason I was so scared was because I was afraid of letting people know who I really am. So I thought since I am a little bit of a crack head I might as well just be that way. Then I also started to realize that it wasn’t about me when I performed, but about everyone else and that’s what got me completely over it. Now performing is my number one thing because I get a chance to make eye contact and touch people and they also can touch me. That is the way it is supposed to be.

What is the best complement you have ever received about your performance?

I am not really good at taking compliments. So the biggest compliment to me is when people lend me their time. If people are taking time out of their own lives to sit down and watch me and be engaged in what I do that is the biggest compliment I could ever receive.

I know you take part in various educational programs concerning African-American music. Why do you feel it is important to help educate people about this topic?

It is not really educating we are just exposing. If I was to change the demographic of Saratoga Springs to look like me, I wouldn’t be educating them anymore; they would already know. It is just a matter of exposing people to different cultures. So by being residents of Saratoga – calling this our home – we all have something to share with one another based on our experiences or from our cultural extensions. My spin on this is to help expose everyone in the room of my spin on life or one of the cultural things that my people have brought through as being an African-American. I am just trying to expose my perspective of it. Hopefully this will spark off on somebody else doing the same thing and that is why I call myself an Edu-tainer.

To learn more about Garland Nelson, visit www.soulsession.com.