Roy Nathanson has a varied career as a saxophonist, composer, band-leader, actor, teacher and writer.
He is the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that Mr. Nathanson founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. It has toured Europe extensively and played at major festivals throughout the world. The band has also recorded eight cds. In 1990 he received a Rockefeller Grant to create the music theatre work “Jazz Passengers in Egypt” which premiered at La Mama Annex. In 1994, the band released an original vocal album, 'Jazz Passengers In Love' which was produced by Hal Willner and Hugo Dwyer for which Mr. Nathanson composed a variety of songs. 'Jazz Passengers In Love' featured a number of guest vocalists including Jimmy Scott, John Kelly, Freedy Johnston, Bernard Fowler, Jeff Buckley and Deborah Harry. Since 1995, The Jazz Passengers have toured Europe and America with Ms. Harry and have been occasionally joined by guest vocalist Elvis Costello. With this configuration, the "Passengers" released two cds. "Individually Twisted" features both Ms Harry and Mr. Costello, and "Live in Spain" (1998) features the band with Ms. Harry. The band performed their orchestral arrangements of this repertoire with the Buffalo Philharmonic orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
In recent years, Roy has worked with a combination of text and music. In March 2000 Mr. Nathanson released a solo project album called “The Fire at Keaton’s Bar and Grill”. It is a song cycle of a fire in a mythical bar and features performances by many of the collaborators he has worked with in his career, including Charles Earland, Ms. Harry and Mr. Costello. It has been performed in New York at Royal Festival Hall in London and has been done as a video by the Arts Channel in England. His film script, “You’re the Fool” became a radio play which premiered on WNYC’s “The Next Big Thing” in April 2001. He created a variety of other text/music pieces for “The Next Big Thing” from 2001-2005. In 2006 he released the acclaimed CD “Sotto Voce” based on a combination of poems, stories and music. Later that year, Roy received a Chamber Music America grant to compose a work based on his manuscript of “subway poems” premiered at Mass Moca in 2007. The CD of this work “Subway Moon” will be released in spring 2009 on Enja Records. His first book of poems of the same title will also be released at that time by “Buddy’s Knife Edition” of Cologne, Germany. His “Sotto Voce” band continues to tour extensively, particularly in Europe.
Mr. Nathanson has scored a variety of films including “Raising Victor Vargas” (with Bill Ware), Suzanne Pitt’s animation “Joy Street”, John Leguizamo’s “Undefeated” and Tamara Jenkins “Family Remains”. He scored three pieces by monologist David Cale and received a “Bessie” and a “Joseph Jefferson” (Chicago) Award for the work. Mr. Nathanson received NYFA music composition Fellowships in 1994 and 2000. Roy has also released a solo record in 1990 called “Little Fred” by the Roy Nathanson Quartet and released several duo CDs with keyboardist/composer Anthony Coleman. He has composed a variety of works with children over the years including “Dreams of Someday” performed at the Texaco Jazz Festival in 1997.
Roy has received grants from Chamber Music America, New York Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, The Rockefeller Fund He has also receieved a number of composing commissions from Europe. Roy performed and recorded for a number of bands over the years, particularly as a member of the Lounge Lizards in the 1980’s and with organist Charles Earland.