Nate Birkey

Born in Indiana and raised in Colorado, trumpeter and vocalist Nate Birkey nevertheless embodies a quintessentially West Coast jazz identity. His gentle tenor vocals and yearning trumpet tone invite ready parallels to cool school figures such as Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Art Farmer. Although those associations prove apt, closer listening uncovers Birkey’s command of post-bop, the great American songbook, and a gift for harmonically demanding original compositions. His father gave him his first trumpet at age 7; years later Birkey attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston, spent two years at Seattle Pacific University, and finished his training at the University of California, Santa Barbera. He has remained a steady figure on the Southern California jazz circuit ever since. In 1993 Birkey issued Blue under the name The Avant Gardeners; he later assembled a quintet that released Indelibly You in 1997.