Roy Nathanson has had a varied career as a saxophonist, composer, band leader, actor, poet and teacher. His career began in the mid 70\u2019s playing with R&B; luminaries like Shirley Alston of the Shirelles, to Charles Earland\u2019s band, to the Lounge Lizards, to the Jazz Passengers, which he co-founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. The Passengers have made eight CDs and have done extensive touring over the years. Their most recent project was an original soundtrack soundtrack (score and dialogue) for the 1954 classic 3D film \u201cCreature From the Black Lagoon\u201d and \u201cThe Rock Concert\u201d an examination of deep time for which Roy received a commission from The University of Wisconsin. Mr. Nathanson has been the principle composer of the band and has written songs for Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley, Deborah Harry, Jimmy Scott, and many others in that capacity. In recent years, Roy has collaborated with Bill Ware on several film scores including \u201cRaising Victor Vargas\u201d. He has released several CDs of duo works with keyboardist Anthony Coleman. Roy\u2019s work combining music and text has appeared on \u201cThe Next Big Thing\u201d on PRI. His first text\/music CD, \u201cSotto Voce\u201d was released in spring 2006 on AUM Fidelity Records. His second \u201cSotto Voce\u201d CD is Subway Moon on Enja\/YellowBird Records and was a product of a grant from Chamber Music America. His first book of poetry \u201cSubway Moon\u201d will be released at the same time from \u201cBuddy\u2019s Knife Editions\u2019 of Cologne. Roy has been a recipient of several Meet the Composer Grants, two NYFA composing fellowships and a Bessie and Joseph Jefferson Award.<\/p>\n
Subway Moon is the brand new concept from the extraordinarily gifted mind of saxophonist, composer, and songwriter Roy Nathanson. Members of his new ensemble Sotto Voce team up with guests from his longtime Jazz Passengers to inhabit internal monologues about the New York subway, bringing a remarkable multilayered underground world to life.<\/p>\n
The CD gleans material from Roy\u2019s new poetry book of the same name, published by Buddy\u2019s Knife Editions. Spoken word sections drift over Roy\u2019s signature meter-changing grooves as the instrumentation dances through the landscape of image and memory\u2014Curtis Fowlkes\u2019 boisterous horn, Bill Ware\u2019s shimmering vibes, Sam Bardfeld\u2019s swinging violin, and the bases of Brad Jones & Tim Kiah. Consistent with the language of Roy\u2019s first Sotto Voce release (AUM Fidelity, 2006) Napolean Maddox\u2019s brilliant beatbox vocals morph out of the spoken word sections and allow the instruments to be part of a continuous storytelling voice.<\/p>\n
After a series of personal journeys through tragedy and transformation, Roy moved back to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born, into an old house right above the subway tracks. Teaching music at a New York school, he wrote all of these stories amid the crush of working people going into Manhattan. And, thanks to producer Hugo Dwyer\u2019s wonderful samples, actual sounds of the subway serve as a background for Roy\u2019s reflections and observations about people, place, and the passage of time.<\/p>\n
Beginning with a heartbreaking, minimalist rendition of the Gamble & Hill classic \u201cLove Train,\u201d Subway Moon takes listeners on wild ride through Bush-era Orange Alerts, past the \u201cWhy are you killing me?\u201d chant of a man dressed in a blue plastic bag, and into a proto-disco lament about a failed subway romance. Part audio-film, part radio-play, part jazz-song-cycle originally commissioned by Chamber Music America, Subway Moon treads some very new ground.Roy Nathanson has had a varied career as a saxophonist, composer, band leader, actor, poet and teacher. His career began in the mid 70\u2019s playing with R&B; luminaries like Shirley Alston of the Shirelles, to Charles Earland\u2019s band, to the Lounge Lizards, to the Jazz Passengers, which he co-founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. The Passengers have made eight CDs and have done extensive touring over the years. Their most recent project was an original soundtrack soundtrack (score and dialogue) for the 1954 classic 3D film \u201cCreature From the Black Lagoon\u201d and \u201cThe Rock Concert\u201d an examination of deep time for which Roy received a commission from The University of Wisconsin. Mr. Nathanson has been the principle composer of the band and has written songs for Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley, Deborah Harry, Jimmy Scott, and many others in that capacity. In recent years, Roy has collaborated with Bill Ware on several film scores including \u201cRaising Victor Vargas\u201d. He has released several CDs of duo works with keyboardist Anthony Coleman. Roy\u2019s work combining music and text has appeared on \u201cThe Next Big Thing\u201d on PRI. His first text\/music CD, \u201cSotto Voce\u201d was released in spring 2006 on AUM Fidelity Records. His second \u201cSotto Voce\u201d CD is Subway Moon on Enja\/YellowBird Records and was a product of a grant from Chamber Music America. His first book of poetry \u201cSubway Moon\u201d will be released at the same time from \u201cBuddy\u2019s Knife Editions\u2019 of Cologne. Roy has been a recipient of several Meet the Composer Grants, two NYFA composing fellowships and a Bessie and Joseph Jefferson Award.<\/p>\n
Subway Moon is the brand new concept from the extraordinarily gifted mind of saxophonist, composer, and songwriter Roy Nathanson. Members of his new ensemble Sotto Voce team up with guests from his longtime Jazz Passengers to inhabit internal monologues about the New York subway, bringing a remarkable multilayered underground world to life.<\/p>\n
The CD gleans material from Roy\u2019s new poetry book of the same name, published by Buddy\u2019s Knife Editions. Spoken word sections drift over Roy\u2019s signature meter-changing grooves as the instrumentation dances through the landscape of image and memory\u2014Curtis Fowlkes\u2019 boisterous horn, Bill Ware\u2019s shimmering vibes, Sam Bardfeld\u2019s swinging violin, and the bases of Brad Jones & Tim Kiah. Consistent with the language of Roy\u2019s first Sotto Voce release (AUM Fidelity, 2006) Napolean Maddox\u2019s brilliant beatbox vocals morph out of the spoken word sections and allow the instruments to be part of a continuous storytelling voice.<\/p>\n
After a series of personal journeys through tragedy and transformation, Roy moved back to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born, into an old house right above the subway tracks. Teaching music at a New York school, he wrote all of these stories amid the crush of working people going into Manhattan. And, thanks to producer Hugo Dwyer\u2019s wonderful samples, actual sounds of the subway serve as a background for Roy\u2019s reflections and observations about people, place, and the passage of time.<\/p>\n
Beginning with a heartbreaking, minimalist rendition of the Gamble & Hill classic \u201cLove Train,\u201d Subway Moon takes listeners on wild ride through Bush-era Orange Alerts, past the \u201cWhy are you killing me?\u201d chant of a man dressed in a blue plastic bag, and into a proto-disco lament about a failed subway romance. Part audio-film, part radio-play, part jazz-song-cycle originally commissioned by Chamber Music America, Subway Moon treads some very new ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Curtis Fowlkes – trombone, vocals
\nBrad Jones – bass
\nTim Kiah – vocals, bass on Love Train
\nRoy Nathanson – alto and aoprano sax, vocals
\nSam Bardfeld – violin
\nNapoleon Maddox – human beatbox, vocals
\nBill Ware – vibes, vocals
\nHugo Dwyer – keyboard sampler
\nSean Sondregger – tenor sax and flute
\nMarcus Rojas – tuba
\nGabriel Nathanson – trumpet on Love Train Curtis Fowlkes – trombone, vocals
\nBrad Jones – bass
\nTim Kiah – vocals, bass on Love Train
\nRoy Nathanson – alto and aoprano sax, vocals
\nSam Bardfeld – violin
\nNapoleon Maddox – human beatbox, vocals
\nBill Ware – vibes, vocals
\nHugo Dwyer – keyboard sampler
\nSean Sondregger – tenor sax and flute
\nMarcus Rojas – tuba
\nGabriel Nathanson – trumpet on Love Train <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":235,"template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-197","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-world","product_tag-roy-nathanson","first","instock","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enjarecords.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}