Everett jazz man Nathan Eklund hitting the big time

Very listenable. That's how Barbara Eklund describes a new jazz album, "Trip to the Casbah."

Sure, she'd say that. The artist, 30-year-old jazz trumpeter Nathan Eklund, is her son. The Everett woman has all the memories of a loving and patient mom.

She and her husband, Bruce Eklund, were listening way back when young Nathan was playing "Louie Louie" in the North Middle School band. At Everett High School, Barbara Eklund said her son sometimes played the national anthem on his trumpet before basketball games -- and he was on the basketball team.

That tall, slim kid grew up, moved away, but never put down his trumpet.

Now a New York area musician, Nathan Eklund is just out with "Trip to the Casbah" on Jazz Excursion Records. He'll celebrate the release of his third major album with a CD release party and show starting at 8 tonight at Tula's Restaurant & Nightclub, a Seattle jazz club.

It's a whirlwind homecoming trip for a talented and sought-after musician. Nathan Eklund lives in Bloomfield, N.J., near New York City, with his wife, Keriann. He's an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, where he earned a master's degree in jazz performance.

Eklund was in his second year of music studies at Central Washington University when he decided to take his passion for jazz back east. His bachelor's degree in jazz performance is from William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.

Although he started piano lessons at 6, it was at Everett High, under band director Gary Evans' watch, that Eklund was bitten by the music bug. "It was hard not to be affected by his love of music, how he gave that to his students," Eklund said Thursday.

Growing up in the 1980s, his musical influences were his parents.

"They played and listened to a lot of folk music: Peter, Paul and Mary. That was the most memorable music of my childhood," he said.

Barbara Eklund plays piano, sings and has taken cello lessons. Bruce Eklund plays a dulcimer, which he built, and guitar. Annemarie Russell, the older of Nathan's two sisters, also plays guitar.

"We all love music," said Barbara Eklund. Her father, Oscar Maier, had played first trumpet in the U.S. Army band, she added.

I started my day Thursday in an uncharacteristic way, listening not to the radio or TV news but to Eklund's new jazz CD. My knowledge of the genre is so spare that when I think jazz, all that pops into my head are a few names, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Weather Report, plus some jazzy songs by Joni Mitchell.

My untrained ear certainly concurs with Nathan's mom. "Trip to the Casbah" is very listenable.

Eklund plays with several jazz groups, including Cecil's Big Band at Cecil's Jazz Club in West Orange, N.J., and with his own two groups, the Nathan Eklund Quintet and the Nathan Eklund Group. He's a composer -- he wrote everything on his new CD -- an arranger and a private music instructor.

Putting it all together to make a living, he's not too proud to play top-40 hits, classic rock or big-band favorites for private parties. "That the life of a musician," he said.

The International Trumpet Guild Journal, in its January 2009 edition, featured Eklund in a several-page article. It covers highlights of his career, including acclaim as a trumpet soloist with superstar jazz fusion group Spyro Gyra on its smooth jazz CD "Wrapped in a Dream."

Smooth jazz isn't how Eklund describes his music. He calls his style "straight-ahead." It sounds, well, like great jazz. It's edgier than smooth jazz, but isn't heavy on the way-out-there discordance that only true jazz devotees can love. That sound, Eklund said, is "free jazz."

"I'm trying to have elements of all those in my playing," he said. "I'm also realizing I want to have an audience, to make it accessible."

Has he made it big-time?

"I still believe I can," Eklund said. "Being a musician, I'm getting closer to that level, but I'm not there yet."

I listened hard. He could have fooled me.

--Julie Muhlstein, Everett(WA) Herald; March 6, 2009