This is the second of four articles, which will run throughout the next two weeks, profiling the headliners in CapitalBop’s D.C. Jazz Loft Series. The Jolley Brothers will play the series’ second show on Saturday at Red Door in Chinatown.

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by Giovanni Russonello and John Cook

Twin brothers Nate and Noble Jolley, Jr. are known on the D.C. jazz scene as an almost inseparable pair. The two grew up together in the District, then went to college at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute, and now they are one of the most in-demand acts on the local scene. Earlier this year, they released their debut album under the Jolley Brothers moniker, Memoirs Between Brothers.

At the end of the twins’ longest period apart – when Noble, a pianist, studied abroad at the Paris Conservatory in 2007 – Nate came to visit for his brother’s final two weeks there. He arrived at De Gaulle Airport late, having had to unexpectedly switch his connecting flights, and without a working European cell phone. His brother wasn’t at the gate, and he was stranded. So Nate, a drummer, asked himself: “Where would Noble go?” Noble had already posed the same question to himself. Somehow, both of them knew that the other would be not at baggage claim, not at the taxi stand, but by the ticket counters.

“Most people would go to baggage claim, but for some reason I figured Noble wouldn’t,” Nate recalled. The two found each other walking in opposite directions at the ticket area, and cracked up. Noble attributes it to “that ESP thing” that the twins have. Of Nate, he said: “I know how he thinks.”

The same thing happens when they play, the brothers say. “I’ll say to myself, ‘Where do I think Noble’s about to go?’ And we’ll both end up saying, ‘Wow, how did we arrive there?’” Nate said.

Anyone who’s seen the brothers in action has experienced Nate’s tumbling rolls, which often seem to crash down just as Noble is striking a climactic chord. Sometimes you’ll catch them exchanging a knowing grin. This Saturday at Red Door, they will headline the second concert in CapitalBop’s D.C. Jazz Loft Series at the DC Jazz Fest.

Jolley Brothers, “While I Breathe I Hope”
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The brothers have forged a distinctive sound that integrates neo-soul and hip-hop influences into their straight-ahead jazz vocabulary. Memoirs Between Brothers is both a testament to the pair’s contemporary bent and their way of looking back on the influence of their late father, Noble Jolley, Sr.

Noble Sr. was a well-known jazz guitarist in D.C. and a devoted music educator who taught jazz at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Musically, Noble Jr. said, “he pretty much taught up everything we know.

“He would sit down with us and we would analyze records,” Noble added. “Composition-wise, he would take Thad Jones scores and have us look over them. He would tell us what was happening, why he wrote certain sections the way he did.”

Track seven of Memoirs Between Brothers is a song called “Thank You for the Music,” with lyrics (sung by Christie Dashiell) that pay tribute to Noble Sr., the man who both brothers say is the reason they make music today.

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There was music playing around the house all the time when the Jolley twins were growing up – especially, Nate remembers, Wes Montgomery and Wynton Kelly’s Smokin’ at the Half Note. So it was no surprise when they started gravitating toward instruments as toddlers. Nate began playing drums at the age of two, while Noble taught himself harmonica at three, then tried out the accordion, viola and trumpet before finally landing at the piano. And the brothers aren’t the only ones who picked up on their father’s musical bent: Their sister, Rashida, is a harpist and vocalist who’s just back in D.C. after an international tour with Lady Gaga.

Their mother, Denise, home-schooled the brothers academically, while they also took formal lessons and participated in the D.C. Youth Orchestra.

The family never had too much money, but the parents were devoted to their children’s education. And in 2003, when the twins were sixteen, they were able to put their education to use in service of the family. Their parents were struggling to pay the bills, so the brothers put together an EP under the name the Jolley Twins, and they titled it Face 2 Face. They burned the CD’s and printed off the cover themselves, then sold copies constantly at shows. They were able to make enough to help their parents make rent.

“That record is definitely something I’m proud of,” Nate said, calling it “a turning point.” He explained: “That record sort of set the tone in terms of doing the business, doing everything ourselves.”

Thanks to a generous donor who was impressed with the Jolley Brothers’ maturity and skill level, they were able to attend the Peabody Institute. The brothers ended up graduating on the Dean’s List, and Peabody was so pleased with their achievements that the school asked their benefactor, Sam Rose, to establish a scholarship specifically for inner-city African-American students. He obliged, on the condition that it be named after Noble Jolley, Sr.

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Today, the Jolley Brothers are working steadily on the D.C. jazz scene and beginning their career as pop and R&B producers, as well. Employing that same do-it-yourself sensibility that they acquired out of sheer necessity as teenagers, they now run their own recording studio, where they collaborate with local artists such as V. Rich and the Grammy-nominated Carolyn Malachi.

The twins don’t always listen to the exact same music. While Noble is more of a straight-ahead jazz freak dedicated to his Herbie Hancock, Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson records, Nate puts names like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and even John Mayer right up next to his favorite jazz artists. But what they call their “special bond” always brings them together.

On Memoirs Between Brothers, the music treads fluidly back and forth between pop and jazz influences, often landing square in the middle. No matter where it is on the spectrum, the talented duo’s on-the-fly synchronicity always shines through.

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The Jolley Brothers play in a trio format at Red Door on Saturday night, with the Amy K. Bormet Trio opening. The show starts at 9 p.m. and is the second of four in CapitalBop’s D.C. Jazz Loft Series at the DC Jazz Fest.

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