The key to a career: Jamie Truglia-Nutty on the variety of a freelance career

‘I like to say I am a musician who plays percussion – rather than a percussionist.’ As featured percussion soloist on former Royal harpist Claire Jones’s upcoming Christmas CD and download album, Jamie Truglia-Nutty will call on this broad approach – and his multifarious skills – playing a highly diverse array of instruments in new elaborate arrangements. As a successful in-demand freelance musician in the fiercely competitive environment of London, he has in his young years garnered an enviable reputation for the versatility and imagination of his performances across a broad musical spectrum. Orchestral, opera and ballet (he is especially a regular invited guest with English National Ballet Philharmonic), musical theatre and musicals including The Simon and Garfunkel Story, country and western (and more) are all within his professional sphere. He has been the soloist on recording sessions for songs that have been heard on international radio stations, especially Jazz FM.

Truglia-Nutty’s malleability is in many ways what is required from a session musician: a freelance artist of protean expertise playing principally in recording studios – frequently for film and television soundtracks – and called upon as a maverick in multiple genres. During the course of the 20^th Century, the variety and range of percussion instruments and playing styles required by orchestral, ballet, and opera composers expanded massively, creating unprecedented new demands on players’ resourcefulness. To those needs are added the exigencies of the additional musical worlds which Jamie also occupies – one reason he prefers the term ‘musician’ for his chosen vocation. Another reason is the musical awareness in the broadest sense that he has assimilated since childhood. His father, Kevin Nutty (pictured right), has been a distinguished orchestral percussionist for a remarkable 58 years, having been a member of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, while his mother, Lucia-Truglia Nutty, is a former principal dancer of English National Ballet, performing the role of Coppélia opposite Rudolf Nureyev at the legendary dancer’s request.

The nature of the guidance Jamie received at home generated a vital influence on his professional approach – which he believes is the most important of all facets in a percussionist’s makeup. ‘Of course, one always aspires to perform to the very highest possible level,’ he acknowledges. ‘But I discovered from my parents how crucial it is to understand the surroundings and contexts of one’s work. I learned from my father that, whatever and wherever one wishes to play, one should be the right musician for the task and situation in hand, and one must know what that means. So, having the fullest possible awareness of what is needed, in terms not only of musical technique and style but also of professional approach and personal understanding of one’s environment.

‘One can never stop developing the technical facility, but to play in any kind of ensemble, and most especially as a freelancer, the most important skill is the decision making – how to react and how to handle a situation, be it musical or personal. One would always ideally like to be the best musician, but the top priority is one’s suitability, and that really does require a strong grasp of the territory, psychologically as well as musically. As a freelance percussion player, that is constantly evolving’.

His father, Kevin Nutty, agrees: ‘Although there have been enormous changes in the nature of the music profession since my early orchestral days in the late 1960s, one element has remained the same and always will: when you are first invited to play with an orchestra, a chamber ensemble, or any group of musicians, you have no idea who they are as people and professionals in that environment – that’s to say how they feel, think, and react as individuals coming together as a whole.’ He adds, ‘From the get-go, you have to want and know how to absorb the alchemy that makes them a musical and artistic entity. Of course, this is an intuitive process if you are to succeed, but it also is a matter of conscious approach – being prepared to consider and think about where you are and who these people are, prepared to observe them and listen to them, as they are inevitably not the same in different ensembles.’

This is a challenge for which Jamie Truglia-Nutty is ideally equipped, as he thrives on observing and listening to musicians on an unusually wide-ranging scale. ‘On one of the European tours that I did with my school orchestra, we teamed up with another school in Prague,’ he recalls. ‘And I remember so well how switched on I was to perform with people I had never met before and how that was the first time I felt “I could do this for the rest of my life.” Ever since then I have loved the contrasts of really different musical experiences and people – last Christmas season I was returning to the English National Ballet Philharmonic to play in the Nutcracker Ballet, which is always such a magnetic experience, and not long afterwards I was back in Nashville, Tennessee, to play country and western music with brilliant artists who likewise inspire me: wholly different and equally rewarding worlds and people.

‘I can’t wait to explore the as yet unknown actuality of the upcoming sessions for Claire Jones’ new Christmas album. Chris Marshall, who selected me as the featured solo percussion player, has composed the music for Claire’s first CD and download since becoming a mother – so it’s almost like a comeback album. When Chris asked me if I would like to take part, something that particularly enticed me was his description of one track that is going to be a conversation between drums and harp. This is especially a case where the playing of the instruments is the medium, but the over-riding focus is musicianship – the music is paramount, as it always should be whatever the circumstance!’

Claire Jones’ Christmas album will be released this December by Bucks Records, a division of Bucks Music Group. Keep up with Jamie Truglia-Nutty on Instagram at @jamie.t.n