NATE BIRKEY
Genres: Vocal Jazz, Post-Fusion Contemporary, Pop, Art Song, Folk, Hard Bop • United States

Nate Birkey's quiet but intense demeanor typifies an artist restlessly pursuing the evolution of his own musical personality. As composer, trumpeter and vocalist, he imbues warmth and broiling energy into his music. The NYC-based musician has built a solid reputation for creating a modernizing “mainstream” musical voice, steeped in subtle swing and expressive lyricism which has earned comparisons to Miles Davis and Chet Baker. He steps into some terrain both new and old by offering fresh yet traditional approaches to the realm of gospel music and spirituals on his latest album Just a Closer Walk. This isn’t the first time Birkey has followed a particular conceptual path on an album: he focused his musical attentions on earlier albums with the deceptively simple, self-descriptive titles, 2001’s “Ballads” and 2008’s “Christmas". Alongside the pulse of “straight ahead” jazz in the foundation of Birkey’s approach, his taste for New Orleans, Latin, Country and other genres read more...