Nathan Parker Smith

Brooklyn based composer and bandleader Nathan Parker Smith released his debut large ensemble album October 14th, 2014 on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. The group’s live shows have been noted for their unapologetically aggressive and engaging style, heavily informed by European heavy metal, 20th century classical composition and progressive rock. Not Dark Yet was recorded in Brooklyn, NY by Luke Moellman (Great Good Fine OK), and Grammy-Award winning engineer Brian Losch (Maria Schneider, Winter Morning Walks). Nathan Parker Smith’s compositions are devised, both formally and conceptually, to rely heavily on collective group improvisation and to avoid many of the techniques that have become the status-quo approach for modern big-band writing. The Ensemble conjures images of both disturbance and intensity, while simultaneously providing an undercurrent of ephemeral optimism, evoking the subtle comfort that the world has not yet gone dark, hence the album’s title. Often pushed to their limits, the musicians collectively thrash and roar through Smith’s compositions, the soloists soar over powerfully churning distortion ladened ostinatos, ever-changing mixed meters, feedback squeals and anthemic melodies. A native of Northern California, Smith is an active performer and composer currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. In 2009, he formed the “Nathan Parker Smith Large Ensemble,” an eighteen member ensemble regularly performing original music throughout New York, including recent performances shows at Fat Cat, Spike Hill, Cameo, the Tea Lounge, Shapeshifter Lab, and the Greene Space at WNYC. Smith has received the Billy Joel Scholarship for Composition, the Raymond and Maxine Schirmer Prize in Jazz Composition, the 2010 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award, the 2010 BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize, the 2011 Manny Albam Commission, and special recognition by the Jazz Advisory Committee of the New York Youth Symphony for exceptional accomplishment in music composition. Smith’s compositions have been performed by ensembles throughout the United States, including the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, the Eastman Studio Orchestra, the Shrine Jazz Club Big Band, the University of Reno Jazz Lab Band, the Reno Jazz Ensemble, Saxology, the BMI New York Jazz Ensemble, the Humboldt State University Jazz Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin Eau­Claire Jazz Ensemble, and the University of Connecticut Jazz Ensemble. His music has also been featured at the Vancouver Jazz Festival and the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

Awards

Manny Albam Commission, 2011. ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award, 2010. BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize, 2010. Special recognition by the Jazz Advisory Committee of the New York Youth Symphony for exceptional accomplishment in music composition, 2009. Raymond and Maxine Schirmer Prize in Jazz Composition, 2008. Billy Joel Commission, 2007.

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