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For many years,
trumpeter-vocalist Nate Birkey has been steadily honing his
distinctive art form, that of making a “mainstream jazz”
statement at once warm and creatively vibrant, true to tradition
but also willing to break molds for a musical purpose. For
several years, the Colorado native was based in Santa Barbara,
California, where he had studied at UC Santa Barbara after
attending Berklee School of Music in Boston. But an eastward
move to New York in 2005 has broadened Birkey’s horizons and
deepened both his artistic resolve and his musical evolution.
With the release of "Almost Home", his fifth album for the Santa
Barbara-based Household Ink label, Birkey takes another step
upward and outward, on his first recording made with his
NYC-based group. Saxist Sal Giorgianni, pianist Jim Ridl,
bassist Tony Marino and drummer Marko Marcinko (also the album’s
co-producer, with Birkey) make up the core members of Birkey’s
long-favored quintet format. Guests include guitarist Vic Juris,
pianist Steve Rudolph, and Café on congas.
Deftly mixing standards tastefully delivered (Cole Porter’s “All
of You” Michel Legrand’s “Little Boy Lost”), warm and
imaginative originals in various genre leanings, and material
from less-trodden sources—i.e. Willie Nelson’s “I’m Falling in
Love,” and Ennio Morricone’s theme from Cinema Paradiso—the
album continues Birkey’s engaging way with a song, as a fluid
improviser and vocalist of understated grace. If there is a
romantic tendency in Birkey’s music, with its unabashed nods to
Chet Baker’s influence and an appreciation of Italianate beauty,
as heard in Sandro Deidda’s opening tune, “Bianca,” Birkey keeps
musicality and intelligence high, never settling for easy
sentiment.
This summer, Birkey will be presenting his bold new project in a
series of CD release
shows, in the U.S. and Europe. Almost Home is both an
affirmation of where Birkey has been and a solid indictator of
where he’s headed, as one of the more intriguing “new”—yet
mature and self-aware--voices on the current jazz scene. His
sound is timeless and timely, emotionally true and going places.
“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.”
Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times
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