The Instrumentalists

-Who Is Carl Nash?

Carl Nash was born on November 8th, 1995 in Oakland, CA. Ever since he was a newborn, his mother always brought him and his sister to church at Starlight Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland. There, he developed a love for gospel music. Growing up, Carl was always fascinated by the piano and curious about how to play. After service, he would hop on the piano when the musicians were done and would experiment with the notes that were in front of him. He would soon be given a small assignment by the organist of the church, Ron Eperson. Every week, Carl returned to the piano chair after church to show Ron what he had practiced.

Carl’s Uncle, the pastor at the time, became sick and the church needed to choose a new pastor. The choice was between two deacons and the church voted, resulting in a lot of members leaving, including musicians. In the years that followed, Carl supported the choir with drums. It was hard to learn piano when no one else in the church knew how to play. He asked his parents for lessons but unfortunately his family couldn’t afford piano lessons. At that point, he stopped focusing on the piano, until he learned that his uncle Johnny was looking to give away a keyboard that his nephew didn’t want anymore. Fortunately for Carl, that keyboard was the same keyboard that he prayed for when he and his mom had been shopping at Target months prior. At that point, he started to learn songs on YouTube. He continued to learn and play for others who sang or recited poetry from time to time, and he and his sister would even go on to win their high school talent show one year.

From 7th to 12th grade, he put the majority of his focus on sports such as wrestling, track and field, and football. As a sophomore, he played on the JV football team, but unfortunately suffered a torn ACL during a game. He could no longer play football, so he put the rest of his energy into track and field; however, due to his football injury he wasn’t able to elevate like the rest of his teammates. Carl had been relying on sports to get himself a scholarship into a 4-year university, but his chances at that were shot down due to his condition.

Fortunately, Carl had managed to keep up with playing piano as a hobby, so he decided to audition for Cal State East Bay’s music Program. The audition went well until the music theory portion. Carl had never learned music theory or even the notes that are on the piano. As a result, his audition ended pretty early. A week or two later, he received his rejection letter from the university, the only thing that had kept his from getting accepted was his lack of knowledge of music theory. His mother, who was his biggest supporter throughout his education, pushed him to get his college education at Chabot Community College. In his second semester there, he started taking a course that taught him music theory.

From there, he joined the jazz big band and jazz combo bands. He went through the process of performing in front of audiences, and held his own recitals while he was a student at Chabot. He auditioned for San Francisco State University and was accepted. He continued to learn more about what music and the theory behind it had to offer him. At the same time, he became a member of Revelation Christian Fellowship, where he continued his musical journey in gospel music. It was also during this time that he became affiliated with the music scene in the Bay Area, and started at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in downtown Oakland. Carl would continue to attend the Sunday jazz sessions and would soon have his very first gig playing solo jazz piano. From there, he soon joined “No Lovely Thing,” a band that played, jazz, soul, funk and fusion, and included original music. No Lovely Thing challenged him to explore different sounds. He got the opportunity to play on the final album, “She Be.”

Carl earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in 2019 and was set to take on more gigs in the coming year. In 2020, the entertainment business took a hard hit as COVID-19 cases were rising. With everything shutting down, there were no gigs for musicians in the Bay Area. Carl took on many different 9-5 jobs to remain financially stable. Even though the pandemic held Carl away from music gigs, he still came to church and played with the church band on their live stream. He did the same with two other churches who also lived streamed their church services every Sunday for 2 years. At his home church, he plays with George Epps II, who is the MD at Revelation Christian Fellowship, he plays piano and organ. George’s musicianship molded Carl’s capability not only in gospel music, but also jazz and RnB, and as an overall musician. Others who also contributed are Jon Palacio, Micheal Zisman, John Calloway, and Derek Hall. Carl got Married on January 1st, 2021 to Terilynn Diggs, who has been his biggest supporter in music since they met during his second semester at Chabot College. Carl has been a part of other bands that have taken opportunities that hired them to play for many venues such as musicals, concerts and festivals. This has allowed him to meet many musicians, artists and producers. He is now not just a musician, but also a composer, artist, band leader, and producer.