News Story by: Nathan Childers
The Real Deal: In step with jazz composer Nathan Childers in New York
July 18, 2002
For Vermonter Nathan Childers, New York City is turning out to be a good fit.
“I feel like there’s space to make a statement,” says Childers, a 27-year-old jazz composer who grew up in Brandon and now lives in Manhattan.
His father is Gene Childers, a 30-year music teacher in Middlebury with a strong cultural appreciation. African masks and Persian carpets share space with music stands and a roomful of instruments in his Brandon basement study and practice room. Growing up in a space of creativity and musical exploration, Nathan was a less than stellar music student, but had a natural ear for composition and musical vocabulary. He is now a serious saxophonist and jazz composer, recently performing original compositions with an 18-member big band at New York’s Knitting Factory music club.
In notes accompanying the show, Childers describes a composition called “Brand New Day”: “This piece took me about one year to complete. When I came to New York City I had nothing but a dream and a few phone numbers written on a piece of paper. ‘Brand New Day’ reflects my hope for a better, brighter future in the face of overwhelming adversity. It was written entirely on the piano, as were all of the pieces you will hear tonight. My approach is to find long, sweeping gestures that create a very flowing, warm sound to the listener. Nothing should feel too angular or jarring. To create this effect, I have tried to create soft harmonic textures and pads.”
Judging from the fluidity and cohesiveness of Childers’ leadership and performance with his big band, he has achieved an impressive feat of logistics and musicianship.
“It’s really modern composition,” says guitarist Gene Siegel, “I can hear his influences like Maria Schneider. It’s very open harmonically; he’s a very talented writer.”
Childers readily acknowledges his earliest influence. “I have my father who is my anchor. I grew up as the little sideman with my dad. Without him, none of this would have happened,” he says during a conversation at his apartment at 181st Street in Washington Heights, a predominantly Latino neighborhood at the northern tip of Manhattan.
His searing notes on the alto and soprano saxophone convey an appreciation of life’s bittersweet carousel ride. “How do I get the art part of it while surviving (in the frenzied stream of New York life)?” he asks rhetorically.
“The first year (in New York) was so jarring,” Childers says, “I had no job. I made hundreds of calls.” Childers studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and then at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he earned a master’s degree in jazz performance. In 2000 he made the move to New York, where he was selected to be part of the BMI Composers Workshop, a twice-monthly class to nurture young composers. “I had only thought of myself as a performer (until then),” he says.
Piecing together various shows, recordings and music clinics, Childers quickly became versed in the ways of the big city, always making calls and networking with other musicians.
In addition to playing at the Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington in June, Childers plays and teaches around New England. For a regular New York gig, Childers plays with a trio every Sunday at Jesse’s Place at 181st and Pinehurst off Broadway in Manhattan.
New York’s diverse, vibrant and often chaotic culture provided a counterpoint to Childers’ experiences in Vermont. Childers had an eye-opening experience when he taught music to elementary school students in Washington Heights.
“The best I could do was keep the kids in the room,” he says, while talking about the experience with his parents Gene and Jean, during a visit to Brandon. “It was utter insanity. Kids were punching each other. Twelve-year old girls were hitting on me. It was terrible. It was one of the worst experiences.”
But Childers used that time in the city’s school system to gain a valuable lesson. “I dealt with such grit (in the school) and I came out with such grit. I added a layer. Don’t wait for someone to be looking out for you.”
Clearly Childers hasn’t been waiting. He’s finishing up his first CD called “Contemporary Days,” which will be out in the fall.
“Nate’s the real deal,” says a clearly happy and proud Gene Childers after the first set at the Knitting Factory, “it’s just what you’d expect when you come to New York City to hear.”
“He’s energized these people to come down and play for him,” says audience member Alexander Hoffman, a professor of biology visiting New York from Los Angeles. “He’s making his life in New York. There’s a lot of story in that.”
Childers writes in the show notes that his songs “reflect and hopefully capture the vulnerable process of making my voice heard in such a hard environment as New York City. It is a choice not to be bitter by the process but to try to counter-act it with a sense of beauty. In my case it is through music, words and art.”
For more information: http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/People_and_Places/Story/50134.html