Nico Segal

‼️🚨‼️NEW MUSIC‼️🚨‼️

In celebration of my homie Lal Δ BIRTHDAY

Lal is one of my favorite Chicago artists/people. He does every kind of art form possible from painting to music to theater to poetry, and does them JUSTICE. You’re looking at a piece he made right now!!! (Cover art)

We bonded a couple years ago when he helped me put together a show for my album Tell The Ghost Welcome Home at Steppenwolf theater. It was an amazing but also terrifying experience for me since I had never done anything quite like it before. But Lal is fearless!! (The true mark of an artist) And his energy is infectious and so pure. It’s so easy to make art with Lal because I’ve always felt I can trust him. I can trust him to tell me when something is great and when it isn’t 😆. That’s what made making this song so much fun even if I’ve never made anything quite like it before.

We produced this song together and Jonah Marc Levine killed this mix/master.

When I introduced Lal at my show a couple weeks ago… I said this was the only person I knew that was more Chicago than me 🤣🤣🤣 so of course…we made a HOUSE song together.

It’s SUMMERTIME!! Blast this at the barbecues and boogie at the beach!!

🪩🪩🪩🕺💃🕺💃🕺💃🕺🪩🪩🪩

¿Que pasa tío?

Shapesfest THIS FRIDAY
🎉🎉🎉🔵◼️🔶◾️⬜️⚪️◻️🟣🟦🎉🎉🎉

I’m 2 weeks late but thank you so much for having me
Thank you to and for gracing the stage and bringing so much energy!!
Thank you to for rocking out with me and playing with so much focus, intensity, and JOY! I swear this was one of the funnest shows I ever played!
Thank you to my incredible manager .b_ for these beautiful pictures!!
Chicago I love you forever

On Time In Time Every Time Whatta Time!

Last week I had the immense pleasure of working on the intro and some transitions for the show on the tour with an incredible crew: @1.nikothegreat

I really had a blast meeting and collaborating with these outstanding musicians!!

It’s unfathomable how much work goes into making a show of that magnitude! From the crew to the assistants to the maintenance, security, catering, management, etc. it really takes a village.

My good friend made me this incredible piece of art (slide 1) and told me each of these circles represent all the different projects in a life’s work…I also want to present a new interpretation: all the circles represent everyone who will contribute and everything it takes to create any 1 piece of art.

I’m truly humbled and grateful to contribute to every project I’ve ever touched, inspired by every artist I crossed paths with, and thankful to every person who’s made my art Whole and made my life feel Full.

Endless GRATITUDE to for having me in the orbit of The Elsewhere, of your dreams, and exquisite imagination.

One of my earliest music memories is a conversation my mom and I had about whether or not poetry was music and music was poetry…Aja you truly embody the creative spirit….The spirit of expression, rhythm, melody, lineage, hard work/study, LOVE, pulling from the depths of ourselves and imagining better for everyone. I know the world is a better place because of this record. Aja, your energy, your ability to articulate the ineffable, your willingness to see the best in everyone around you brought this album to life.

Even after 15 years of making songs and putting them into the world I swear I learn something new every time. Im humbled, and grateful for the opportunity to grow and I learned SO MUCH in the process of working on this album.

Thank you to every musician who touched this music with so much care and attentiveness and pulled from bedrock to help deliver the MESSAGE, using your powerful instruments for GOOD, for a RIGHTEOUS cause. AI could NEVER 😆.

Thank you to the masters for just letting me bear witness to your geniuses and letting me add my lil thoughts here and there.

The last slide is when I first sat down and started messing with the song you’re hearing right now!! “Say it with your chest”. I also worked a bit on production/arrangement for “love is a choosing”.

A lesson Frank really imparted to me in the time I was touring with him was how important catalog is…I couldn’t be prouder for these songs to carry all our spirits forever.

🎉🎉🎉 It’s Festyyy Seasonnnn 🎉🎉🎉
May 31, West Stage, 730pm

Slide 2: oooo are you excited??! I am! 🥳
Slide 3: how I’m gonna be jumping on stage 🦵
Slide 4: how I’m gonna be sweating on stage 🥵

Talkin about music and life and life in music TOMORROW 4/18 with

Pls support your local trumpeter

🙏🙏🙏
🎺 🎺🎺
🥰🥰🥰

These are crAIzy tAImes we’re living in…

Art is STILL Essential….
For how we process, how we Dream, how we Hope, how we Love, how we truly Live beyond just maintaining/surviving.
I don’t wanna speak for every artist but I think it’s safe to say that for the most part….we, the humans making the art, are struggling to keep up with the robots, with the insanely high demand, with the playlists, with the capitalistic machine that forces us to churn out tunes like factories.
For the longest time all I’ve ever considered was how can I make the “best” song possible, the most emotive, the most connected to God. How can I reach for the stars and challenge myself and play something my ancestors would be proud of….today I’m forced to reckon with absurd questions like…how can this song/project make me money, how fast can I make something I believe in enough to put money into the Mixing, Mastering, Artwork, Marketing, and rinse and repeat…
It’s really not my style to shout “LOVE ME” from the mountaintops haha but now, more than ever, if you don’t yell a little…you’ll be drowned out by the rest of the noise.

I think Jazz music especially has always preached a sense of humility and respect for the pioneers who birthed us that I have really taken to heart, but sometimes I take that sentiment too hard, pushing my Self too low and beating down my own self-worth, my sense of belonging. When someone compliments my playing I always think, sarcastically, “yeah but you don’t know Clifford Brown or Woody Shaw…I SUCK” haha. It’s a part of the business-mindset that I’ve always hated about Music because Music has never felt like my Job…but at the end of the day…it is….so here we are…a little nudge…a little humble yell asking for your support so I can continue to pour my heart and soul and Time into making Art.

NicoSegal.com