Category: Jazz Projects

Posted on

New Chapter

For those that haven’t heard yet I will no longer be playing with 7 Million Jigawatts. It has been a good run. I have been with them for over 3 years and in that time I have made some great friends and grown as a musician. The band helped me to improve my vocals by singing harmonies. Improved my rock and pop guitar playing including learning a ton about tone and gear. (thanks Jake!) Had a lot of fun playing bass and keys together. Put my home studio and recording engineering skills to the test when recording our 5 song ep “Taking Flight”. I had the wonderful opportunity to record on Melissa’s jazz project. 7mj fans are in for real treat when Melissa releases the tracks for that disc! Melissa, founder of Dream Town Media, is also working with some great artist helping them to develop and promote their projects. Dream Town Media handles a wide spectrum of services from online marketing to publishing to branding. Jake Tobias, founder of Tobiasound Studios, is available for recording. He did a great job recording, mixing and mastering my show at Bakers last year that is available to listen to on the jazz trio page. Jake and Melissa are always working hard to support local music/artists and our community. 7MJ will continue to rock hard pushing into the new year with a new lineup so I hope the you will check them out. My last show with them will be Friday, December 17th at Rogers Roost in Sterling Hts. Hope to see you there.

However the time has come for a new chapter. Time for me to work on some other things. It is time I finally quit talking about writing a third Fingerstyle disc and really do it. In the mean time I will also be recording a live disc for release in mid 2011. The first date for recording will be on Friday, Jan 21 at Lazy Daze Lounge in Downtown Rochester.

Also, It’s time I get back to my true passion- jazz. As luck would have it I recently got a call to book the jazz trio- slightly modified to focus on Latin jazz to fit at Cantina Diablo. The timing couldn’t be better to get the guys together and work out some new material. We have recorded a little bit from our shows and you can listen to a couple of clips on jazz trio page. Check the shows page for complete show info but as of now we are playing at Cantina Diablo in Ferndale on 12/3 12/11, 12/18, 12/30 12/31 and then all Saturdays in January and February starting January 8th.

Jon and Nate having a blast performing live
Jon and Nate having a blast performing live
.
Of course Jon and I will still be playing together as 45th Parallel acoustic duo doing classic and alternative rock along with our original music- especially Jon’s. Did you know that Jon Vidal is an incredible song writer? If you haven’t done so you definitely need to check out his solo discs. We are about half way done recording his 3rd disc at Studio 1946. We hope to have it done early next year and also considering recording a live disk as well. Stay tuned for more info about that. You can visit 45duo.com or like us on FaceBook for complete show info but here is a list of our next couple: Sat, 12/4 @ Liberty Street Beer Co in Plymouth, Wed, 12/22 @ Dooley’s in Sterling Hts, Thursday, 1/27 @ OCG in Royal Oak & Friday, 1/28 @ Library Pub in Novi.
.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season. All of my different projects as well as 7MJ are available for private parties and functions. If you would like more information email or call. I would be happy to discuss the possibilities.

Cheers!
Nate

Posted on

Influential and innovative guitar and bass players

Anyone wanting to learn to play guitar surely has a long list of guitar players that they like and would like to learn. A while back I put together a list of suggested listening for my students at AAW. The list is mostly made of of my favorites but most would agree that these guitar and bass players are some of the most influential and innovative players to date. If you have not already done so I definitely suggest checking out their music. This list is in no particular order and I know there are many missing so please feel free to add more in the comments!

JAZZ

FINGERSTYLE

CLASSICAL

BLUES

ROCK

BASS

and this is just the short list…..

Posted on

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all! This year is suiting up to be a great one. There are some Major changes in the works. For starters I have return to my position at Gus Zoppies Music Center as a guitar and bass instructor for private lessons. I will be taking students Monday thru Thursday nights. If you are interested in taking lessons you can call (586) 978-1816 for available time slots. Lessons are $20 per 1/2 hour. I have a promotion going on for all students. If you refer a new student that takes at least one full month of lessons I will give you 2 free lessons.

Also, I am leaving Arts Academy in the Woods. This was a hard change to make but I am looking forward to spending more time working on the many projects I have had in the works for some time now including new solo guitar tunes, an acoustic duo and songwriting with Jon Vidal, and Jazz music with Chuck Bartel.

Posted on

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation from AAW has begun… I am trying to unwind while getting ready for some great summer gigs. For startes this coming Tuesday, June 30, 2009, my good friend Jon Vidal and I will be performing our first gig together as an acoustic guitar duo playing tons of our favorite pop tunes. This will be my first attempt at lead vocals! We will also be performing our original solo material thoughout the night. The show will start at 8 PM at The Vintage Tavern in Port Huron. MAP

Also, 7MJ is booked just about every weekend till the end of the year. Check out the shows page to find a place near you. If you have suggestions for venues you think might be looking for some good entertainment email me the name and location and I will be very greatful for the leads.

As for everything else… I am still working on it… The 3rd CD is still in the works, Studio 1946 is still working on some great projects that I can’t wait to share with you, Arts Academy in the Woods is still accepting new students and to the best of my knowledge I will still be the guitar instuctor at AAW next year (although enrollment may be limited this year so please enroll early), I am still available for private lessons throughout the summer, and I am still working with Chuck Bartel & Jullian VanSlyke to put together more jazz performances.

Posted on

Bakers Keyboard Lounge

This past Tuesday night I had the opportunity to play at Baker’s with a new jazz trio. My first time going to Baker’s was many moons ago when I was still in high school. It was a dream of mine all the way back then to perform on that stage with my own group… although I had performed many other nights in the past with other groups this was a milestone for me. Chuck Bartels and Julian VanSlyke made the music of that night one to remember! There are a few new vids up on the music page and maybe more to come from that night… Stay tuned as the venture unfolds….

Tonight was the first night that I took the time to record some first takes of some acoustic material that has been on the back burner for quite some time. The material is now getting revisited and polished up… Everything has been getting rusty due to time working and playing and recording with 7MJ. I enjoy all of the other music project that are going on it just makes a world of difference to do my own thing for a minute. Now that the ball is rolling and the fingers are pickin’ things are looking up!