When you think of Nashville, Tennessee, images of cowboy hats, boots, fiddles, honkytonks and country music quickly come to mind. However, that’s not all that you’ll find in Music City.
Throughout Nashville’s bustling community of creators, you’ll also discover small pockets of unique talent and artistry that are vastly unrelated to the country genre, which is where we find Alison Brazil.
An immensely talented violinist, Brazil came to Nashville by way of Louisiana, though she’s also spent time as a resident of Texas, Costa Rica and Honduras. Coming from a family that believed in the importance of music, she originally came to town with her own musical dreams.
“I came to Nashville with a band and we cut a record, but shortly after that the band dissolved. We learned how to play and write songs together so that whole process was kind of connected for me.” Brazil continues, “I went on hiatus. I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t write. I was just so heartbroken.”
Pivoting from the artist route, Brazil decided to become a teacher where she taught Spanish, music and dance in Metro schools. After a few years of healing her musical scars, she began to wade back into creative waters and got involved with some of the creative organizations and the communities they serve in and around Nashville.
Now, notching over 15 years in Music City, Brazil is back to being a full-time musician, artist and songwriter, while also serving as a teaching artist with groups like Girls Write Nashville, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Borderless Arts. She has also started her own company, Diverse Musical Solutions, which focuses on corporate team building through songwriting and building cultural bridges through music.
“Being an artist and then having all those years of being a teacher really helped me cement the pedagogy of what I believe in and what I believe teaching in the arts can do,” she explains. “I believe that the arts are super powerful and that’s what fuels my teaching artist work.”
That central belief is also what fuels Brazil’s work with Music for Seniors.
She originally got connected to Music for Seniors a few years back through her work with local musician collective, Soul Vibes Global, who played a concert as part of Music for Seniors’ annual FREE Daytime Concert Series. After meeting the team and the founding force behind the organization, Sarah Martin McConnell, she was instantly drawn to its mission.
“They said, ‘We are always accepting musicians if you’re willing to outreach to the senior community,’ which is something I’ve always done.” Brazil recalls, “When we were kids, my best friend played piano and, during our freshman year of college, we would go to nursing homes. She would play piano and I would play violin. I look back and ask, ‘What were we doing?’ We were so nerdy, but that was our idea of fun. We really enjoyed talking to [the older adults] and being there.
“When Music for Seniors opened that opportunity up, it was something I really wanted to do,” she continues. “They said they weren’t expecting me to do it for free, which was another bonus because I also didn’t have a lot of free time and energy to be able to do that. [The payment aspect] really caught my attention.”
Brazil quickly got involved with the organization and felt an immediate connection with the people she was serving. Armed with a diverse catalog of music and her trusty violin, she began facilitating more and more Outreach programs with Music for Seniors. Now, years later, Brazil is one of Music for Seniors’ phenomenal Musician Partners, and this June will mark the third year that she and her band have shared their music and their talent through Music for Seniors FREE Daytime Concert Series.
With her teaching artist background, one of Brazil’s biggest desires when teaming up with Music for Seniors was to be able to interact with the communities they serve. While every group is different, she explains, there are some communities that really enjoy and crave the interpersonal and artistic connectivity that live music provides.
“Everybody wants to interact in their own way. A lot of times, it’s singing along with me, so I’ve started asking for requests, which is a really dangerous thing to do,” she says with a laugh. “What I find, though, is that the more that I ask for a request, the more I get to curate these shows that bring back memories or make somebody feel a certain way.”
With a sundry songbook, Brazil includes a variety of genres and styles in her programs, including selections from the Great American Songbook, as well as a healthy dose of classic pop tunes. She notes, however, that some communities especially enjoy Motown.
“I find that Motown really opens up and readies everybody to say what they want. It truly is an integrative music. It brought white and black people as well as different generations together, and I believe it’s still doing that.” Brazil continues, “Sometimes while I’m setting up, I try to strike a conversation. There’s not a lot to talk about, but as soon as you start singing, there’s a lot to sing about.”
She explains that at a recent Outreach program, a man had requested ‘I Saw The Light’ by Hank Williams. Not knowing it was originally performed by Williams, Brazil recalls that afterwards, the man told her the song’s entire origin story.
“Before that, he wasn’t talking to his [caregiver] or to me. There was nothing to talk about, but that song built this bridge and there was an immediate connection between us through that song,” she beams.
It’s those bridges and connections that keep Brazil coming back to Music for Seniors, and she believes that music provides the single best, and quickest, route for connection to the older adults who live in these residential care communities.
“If I were going to connect with some of the communities that we serve without music, that would have to be my job. I would need to be there at least weekly, if not several times a week. But with music, I can go and I may not see [the older adults in] that community again for six months, but we connected,” she says. “They don’t know me, I don’t know them but we can connect in a very authentic, genuine way very quickly.”
Later this month, on June 21 at Plaza Mariachi, Brazil will bring her full band to perform as part of the Music for Seniors FREE Daytime Concert Series. With a promise of horns, percussion and drums, as well as a slew of her own original music and a selection of fan-favorite cover songs, the June concert is shaping up to be a special one for both Brazil and the audience participants.
On her artistic horizon, in addition to her work with Music for Seniors and the upcoming concert at Plaza Mariachi, Brazil is also putting the finishing touches on her debut, independent project. The full-length record is expected for release later this year.
“I’m really thankful to be a Music for Seniors Musician Partner and give of my time when I can. I’m thankful that they support me as a musician, and I’m thankful to be part of the Music for Seniors community and to be trusted in that bridge building process [with older adults],” Brazil sums. “I love when music crosses over barriers, whether that’s geographical, generational, language or socio-economic barriers. To be able to be involved with a generational barrier connection and to be able to cross that bridge is just so special to me.”