Nat2 - JAZZ AT NAC – CAFÉ SPOTLIGHT

Dazzling saxophonist Nathaniel Evans, heard here in November on scintillating form with the superb Thomas Marsh Quartet, brings his own fresh and exciting collaborative project to the Spring 2025 Café Spotlight series.

Nat2 , featuring Evans (saxophones), Nat Littlechild (bass) and Michael MacCourt (drums), was born through the meeting of complimentary musical minds. Pushing the boundaries of jazz, they use their own writing to break conventions and develop a raw and contagious energy to their music.

With the three of them all rising within the UK jazz scene independently, their coming together makes a product worth more than the sum of its parts. The group are currently developing their first EP, titled Fundamentals For A New Age, planned for release in Spring 2025. Evans, a fluent and inventive soloist, is fast becoming a star, and has acted as global ambassador for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He played in the Azores as part of the Lava Jazz Festival in 2023, mentoring Portuguese students while he was there, and earlier that year well and truly held his own as a mentee, performing in duo with the great pianist Jason Rebello.

He said: “Some big influences for the trio and our writing are Mark Turner, Joshua Redman and Braxton Cook.”