Guitar with Nathaniel B.

Musician and composer Nathaniel tours internationally and performs an array of different musical styles in venues as disparate as underground arts spaces and Lincoln Center. Based for years in Chicago, Nathaniel relocated to Sydney, Australia, in 2014, but continues to perform and lecture in the States. Nathaniel leads the acclaimed Central African soukous group the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, a collaboration between American, Ghanaian, Zambian, and Congolese musicians including the great Samba Mapangala. Nathaniel has performed and recorded with a number of indie rock bands, including Jenny Gillespie, Tobin Summerfield’s gigantic band “Never Enough Hope”, The Zincs (Thrill Jockey), Ancientgreeks (Flameshovel), and others. He also played for years in the Butcher Shop Quartet, performing electric guitar arrangements of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and other 20th centurty classical works. Nathaniel leads an eight-piece electric guitar ensemble that plays his original compositions. He has twice been featured in Guitar Player Magazine. Nathaniel teaches privately, at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and was head of the Chicago Waldorf School’s guitar program from 2005-12. OTS classes include African Guitar Styles, Fingerpicking Around The World, Fingerboard Theory, and British Folk Revival. He periodically offers more specialized fingerstyle guitar classes such as The Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Davy Graham, John Fahey and Bert Jansch. His ensembles include Reggae, Afropop, Instrumental Rock, and “Kill Yr Idols”–a survey of influential punk and underground rock. Nathaniel also teaches fingerstyle, theory, songwriting, jazz, classical, and rock guitar privately. Nathaniel also offers workshops and masterclasses in Europe and N. America on African popular guitar styles and is a guest lecturer at Northwestern University. Nathanielhas co-presented workshops with Ghanaian Palm Wine guitarist Koo Nimo, and Tinariwen guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, and Malian sensation Sidi Toure.