Jazz at Trades

Walthamstow's premier jazz night featuring London and the UK's finest musicians. 8pm every first Thursday of the month at Walthamstow Trades Hall. Jazz at Trades presents vibraphonist Nathaniel Steele on Thursday 3rd April. Nat will be joined by an exciting trio, featuring pianist Matyas Gayer, bassist Asaph Tal and drummer Mark Hale. About Nathaniel Steele; Nat grew up in Oxford and Reading, his introduction to life as a musician being a chorister in New College Choir. His interest in jazz came about through rifling through his father?s record collection as a child, and then later going to Ronnie Scott?s weekly from the age of 13 to see American jazz greats like Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron, James Moody, Monty Alexander, and Joe Locke. He is largely self-taught, learning directly from the masters on the records and other musicians on the scene, and he has attended masterclasses by Barry Harris, John Pattituci and Billy Cobham. In 2017 he launched his debut album, ?Portrait of the Modern Jazz Quartet? on Trio Records, with a sold-out album release concert held at Ronnie Scott?s, followed by 2 years of touring the UK with the quartet. The album was awarded ?Jazz Album of the Month? by BBC Music Magazine, with a plethora of positive reviews in the jazz press, including 4 stars in The Observer and Jazzwise Magazine. It even made it into the top 10 in the jazz charts in Japan. In 2019 he was invited by Grammy-award winning pianist, arranger and composer Alan Broadbent to give the world premier of a new work celebrating the 25th anniversary of Watermill Jazz. In 2020 - just before the pandemic - he completed an 18-date Arts Council funded tour of the UK with the MJQ band featuring guest tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart, who came from New York for 2 weeks to play.? At his arrival on the scene, he quickly gained a reputation as a talented musician to watch out for, described by Clark Tracey as "one of the best vibes players this country has ever produced." Principally self-taught and following in the style of Milt Jackson, Nat takes a two mallet approach to improvisation, focusing on melodic interpretation over chordal playing.?His ?Nat Steele Quartet? is regularly featured at the Late, Late show at Ronnie Scott's and as a result he has attracted compliments for his playing from the likes of Benny Green, Joe Locke, Jason Marsalis, Harold Mabern and Eric Alexander. He has studied with Mike LeDonne and had the good fortune to sit in with both Benny Green and Wynton Marsalis.? Matyas Gayer is one of the few leading figures in the new generation of jazz musicians and known to be one of a handful of young pianists who is successfully forging his own distinctive style and musical voice out of the greatness of a jazz piano tradition. Gayer founded his first band and won Hungary?s young talent competition, the Golden Ten Award at the age of 14. Then Gayer started his professional music studies under the tutelage of Karoly Binder, head of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. In both year of 2014 and 2015, Matyas Gayer was finalist at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition and a year later he won the one of the most prestigious Hungarian jazz prize, the Gramofon Award. The young pianist has played with many of the jazz?s greats such as Jesse Davis, Jim Rotondi and Grant Stewart to name a few. Please consider paying the full ticket price of ?10 if you can, to help support our musicians, and help to cover the deficit from the lower priced tickets and numerous payments involved in running the night.