nate birkey press

Nate Birkey is a fine New York-based trumpeter who traveled a biographical route from childhood in Colorado to Boston's Berklee School of Music, then to various parts of the West Coast, living and working in the Los Angeles area for a while, and finally settling into the big-time jazz scene in NYC a few years ago. His travels are important, for they formed the foundation for an understanding of the American spirit that infuses his playing. He has made nine albums thus far as a leader, and they each seem to reflect a theme of American life in different times and places, such as "Christmas," "The Mennonite," "Shortest Day" and "Almost Home." His playing is deeply informed with the whole history of jazz right up to the present. His style is quietly lyrical with a certain darkness that reflects the blues and can also be heard in Miles Davis and to some extent Chet Baker.
This album, Just a Closer Walk is very interesting from a thematic standpoint. Birkey takes spiritual music, much of which smacks of the blues, and uses it to probe the roots of jazz as it emerged in New Orleans and the African American gospel churches. The album cover has Birkey sitting on the stoop of what looks like a Harlem brownstone such as the one that provided the backdrop of Art Kane's famous (1958) photo, "A Great Day in Harlem," with over fifty top players from Gerry Mulligan to Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, and Count Basie, standing together with a bunch of black kids around them. This time it's just Birkey, holding his trumpet and looking down reflectively. Maybe he's asking himself, "What is jazz?" and looking for something fundamental to hold onto. So he goes back to the roots. That is what this album is all about.

To form his quintet for the album, Birkey returned to his old haunts in the L.A. area and hooked up with some of his musical partners there: Tom Buckner on tenor saxophone, Jamieson Trotter on piano; Jim Connolly on bass, and Peter Buck on drums. They recorded the session appropriately at a church in Isla Vista, California. The backing for Birkey is excellent and complements his blues/gospel emphasis. Buckner and Trotter provide comping, riffs, and solos that highlight the gospel flavor. Connolly and Buck provide steady, persuasive rhythm, sometimes resembling the New Orleans funeral marching bands where jazz began its slow climb through various incarnations to the avant-garde.

With the exception of "Cristo Redentor," a song composed by pianist Duke Pearson after he saw the famous statue by that name in Rio di Janeiro, the songs are all traditional from the hymn books and gospel choral repertoire. Some you'll hear at almost any church in America, and others will crop up in some backwoods church in the deep South. The title tune, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," is a gospel song that the group does in rousing marching band fashion, and there you can hear the origins of what later came to be called "swing." Not all the music is that happy. We are taken to the depths of grief with Birkey's mournful muted horn in "And Can It Be." The album covers a range of emotions, but always with an underlying sense of loss.

If you want to hear the roots of jazz within a modern quintet context, this album will give you a very special, introspective perspective. And you'll rarely hear a trumpet player with such a deep self-expression as Nate Birkey.

Track Listing: Cristo Redentor; What a Friend We Have In Jesus; And Can It Be; His Eye Is On The Sparrow; If Thou But Suffer God To Guide Thee; O Sacred Head Now Wounded; Just A Closer Walk With Thee; Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus The Deacon; Soon Ah Will Be Done.

Personnel: Nate Birkey: trumpet; Tom Buckner: tenor sax; Jamieson Trotter: piano; Jim Connolly: bass; Peter Buck: drums.

This laid-back, mostly cool jazz album with echoes of the West Coast 1950s sound also bespeaks a certain dramatic intensity. Further, it invokes a shade of country blues as it goes along. Nate Birkey's trumpet and vocal renditions of both his own songs and some standards are enjoyable to hear, partly because they are strongly reminiscent of Chet Baker (with muted resonances to Miles Davis) while representing Birkey's own persona and interpretations, which possess a sincerity that contrasts with Baker's existential sense of being “lost” in space.

Birkey probes the depths of the blues idiom without ever losing faith in something meaningful beyond the horizon. With the lines, “I'm falling in love again, And if I lose or win, How will I know?,” from Willie Nelson's “I'm Falling in Love Again,” he reaches poignant depths of woundedness that recur in “Little Boy Lost,” but Birkey nevertheless conveys a feeling of acceptance and hope. He thus probes our human vulnerability without falling victim to it. He exemplifies in music what the American poet, James Wright, called “the pure clear word”—honest, heartfelt expression that never lapses into sentimentality or self-pity.

There are also times when the pace picks up, and the group swings with lusty enthusiasm. On the two Birkey originals—”The Promise,” featuring fine percussion work with a Latin flair, and “Tuesdays on the Ridge”—saxophonist Sal Giorgianni does some lively solo work, backed by pianist Jim Ridl's usual sharp comping.

Birkey, who not too long ago migrated from Los Angeles to New York City, has found his element on the East Coast with a group of sidemen who complement him brilliantly, bringing a touch of warmth and complexity into the equation while highlighting Birkey's cool simplicity. Ridl, bassist Tony Marino, and drummer Marko Marcinko have all done time with the masterful saxophonist David Liebman, which means they know jazz inside out and are instinctively in synch with one another. Giorgianni possesses a gruff yet lyrical timbre reminiscent of Zoot Sims, while guitarist Vic Juris, another Liebman alum, evokes a country flavor in a cameo appearance on Nelson's tune and lets it all hang out on Birkey's “Sing to Me.” This is an album that can be enjoyed from the standpoint of the instrumental accompaniment alone.

Too many jazz recordings today reflect attempts to squeeze the last drop of virtuosity and clever turns of phrase from the proud legacy of the idiom, mixing it with various flavors of classical and world music. This album is instead straightforwardly a man's expression of who he is, and that is the true essence of jazz. Eminently listenable, Almost Home is also a valid musical expression of the human heart.

Track listing: Bianca; All Of You; Falling; Almost Home; I'm Falling In Love Again; The Promise; Little Boy Lost; Tuesdays On The Ridge; Sing To Me; Theme from Cinema Paradiso.

Personnel: Nate Birkey: trumpet, vocals; Sal Giorgianni: sax, flute; Jim Ridl: piano; Tony Marino: bass; Marko Marcinko: drums; Steve Rudolph: piano; Vic Juris: guitar; Cafe: congas.

Nate Birkey Reaches Home

Trumpeter Plays SOhO to Support New Release

It’s been four years since Nate Birkey left Santa Barbara for New York City, and on Wednesday, August 27, he will be back in town to celebrate Almost Home, his fifth album on the Household Ink label. Birkey has a bold, inventive sound on trumpet and a fascinating, understated way with a lyric as a singer. His trademark West Coast cool approach to the art of jazz has won him many well-deserved comparisons to the great Chet Baker, but Birkey has now reached the point where he ought to be appreciated for who he is all on his own. As S.B. musician and jazz expert Joe Woodard puts it, Birkey has “honed his craft more and more, never just settling for whatever level he was at in a given moment.”

Almost Home sounds great. Tell me about what it was like to put it together. I’m lucky to have the musicians that I do, and I have been traveling a lot this summer. The official release for the CD was in July, and since then I have been in Italy with Gerald Clayton, and I have played some gigs in New York as well. It was great to get the full European reception right after putting out the record—as in, playing for 500 people, rather than 50.

How did you find this band [Sal Giorgianni, tenor sax and flute; Jim Ridl, piano; Tony Marino, bass; Marko Marcinko, drums; Vic Juris, guitar]? When I got to New York four years ago, I knew no one, so when I got my first gig I called my friend Mike Clark, who had been the drummer in The Headhunters. I told him I needed a whole group, and 15 minutes later he called me back and said, “Here’s who I’ve got for you.” Then he named Tony Marino and Marko Marcinko, who were with Dave Liebman at the time, and a pianist who had been with Sonny Rollins. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was with a world-class band and my friend put it together for me with a couple of calls. Vic Juris had also played guitar with Liebman, so that’s how he got involved. And Jim Ridl was with Pat Martino for years, so he was a really deep player and I immediately responded to what he was doing.

The third song on Almost Home is an original called “Falling,” and it reminds me a lot of Miles Davis, especially his soundtracks. Was that intentional? Yes, thanks for noticing that. I love that cinematic period of Miles Davis, like the work he did on Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows. Without imitating, I was trying for that feeling, with the simple melody that somehow comes out all moody through the horn.

You got it. Very impressive. On the title track, the tempo is faster and the feeling is different. The composition “Almost Home” came out of my upbringing in the church. The title refers not just to my roots, but also to the idea of the prodigal son coming home. The rhythm on that track comes from my interpretation of the music of New Orleans, and that’s another meaning that the piece has for me—it’s an homage to the homecomings of the people affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Do you have fun with your singing? I love to sing, but I don’t necessarily think of myself as a singer. The other day someone close to the band—Marko Marcinko’s girlfriend, actually—said something funny to me about it. She named a couple of mutual friends who are very seriously focused on their voices as their main instrument, and then she said, “They’re singers; you just happen to sing.” I hope that what comes through when I “happen to sing” is some sincerity and real feeling. I have to love the song in order to sing it, and when I do, I try not to mess with it.

What’s next for Nate Birkey? I am always trying to figure out who I am, and what I am trying to become. To me that’s the core of being human—to always think about what you are becoming. Project-wise, I’d love to get a shot at scoring a feature film. I feel like I am ready for that.

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Nate Birkey will appear on Wednesday, August 27, at 8 p.m. at SOhO with his West Coast band, which includes Jamieson Trotter, piano; Justin Claveria, sax; Jim Connolly, bass; and Todd Wolf, drums. Almost Home (Household Ink) is available in stores and on iTunes now. For more information on the show, call 962-2776 or visit sohosb.com.

“Nate Birkey, he of mysterious charisma, subtle gossamer trumpet lines and understated voice, hunches over the microphone and leans into his phrases, shutting out the world.”

Nate Birkey: Just a Closer Walk

Nate Birkey Reaches Home

Trumpeter Plays SOhO to Support New Release

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