Masterfully “Cool”: An album unlike any other…
by

Bob James and Nathan East

“The New Cool,” an expansive acoustic offering centered on scholarly jazz piano and bass duets, will be released September 18, a first from the GRAMMY®-honored artists and long-time collaborators. 

 Nashville, Tennessee (7 July 2015): Albums just aren’t made like the way “The New Cool” was made. Yamaha Entertainment Group label president Chris Gero put legendary keyboardist Bob James and master bassist Nathan East in the recording studio, equipped them with state-of-the-art Yamaha gear and gave them free reign to create. Recorded entirely in Nashville, the long-time collaborators emerged with an unexpected and audacious collection of original compositions plus a few handpicked classics, an acoustic jazz outing that will make you forget everything you thought you knew about these GRAMMY®-recognized artists best known as contemporary jazz luminaries. The disc produced by Gero, James and East will be released September 18.
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Check out some exclusive behind the scenes moments from the recent recording of the
Bob James & Nathan East duet album!

NAMM Yamaha Show: Jamie Cullum, Bob James, Nathan East, and Chris Gero perform at NAMM 2015, held in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of January.

On Sunday, Nathan East performed at the Grammys for the second straight year, this time celebrating his own hugely successful debut solo album.

Nathan performed with an all-star jazz quartet with Robert Glasper, Billy Hart and Joe Lovano at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

Continue to see the performance! (continue reading…)

After more than 1,500 recording credits, bass player Nathan East earned a Grammy nomination for his debut solo album on Franklin-based label Yamaha Entertainment Group.

Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Phil Collins, Wynonna Judd, Eric Clapton and Daft Punk are each linked by another, lesser-known, legend — Grammy-nominated artist Nathan East.

With a genre-spanning career and a track record of supporting music industry legends, the 58-year-old East already had an unrivaled career as a bass player before he partnered with Franklin-based Yamaha Entertainment Group for his first solo album. The album, titled “Nathan East,” is nominated for best contemporary instrumental jazz album.

While it marked East’s first album as a solo artist, he has more than 2,000 record credits to his name, making him one of, if not the most, recorded musicians ever. The Grammy recognition also represents validation for East’s record label home, Yamaha Entertainment Group, which is a division of the leading instrument company Yamaha Corporation of America.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. – You surely know the music of Nathan East, one of the most recorded bass players in history, who has played with everyone from Michael Jackson and Daft Punk to Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

East, who was inducted into the National Association of Music Merchants TEC Awards hall of Fame this weekend, for technical excellence, sat down with us over the weekend to discuss how technology has changed the way he cuts bass lines for records and teaches bass.

“I record anywhere now, from backstage, my hotel room, even a few minutes before the gig starts,” East told us.

WATCH THE ENTIRE REPORT & INTERVIEW HERE!

About one hour into the fascinating, just-released documentary Nathan East: For The Record, there is a quick scene of the bassist sitting on a sofa, quietly perusing his old calendar books from the mid-nineties. “I love keeping these around,” he says as he scans his life-at-a-glance in the little black journals. “It’s like a time capsule and I can go back and see what I was doing.” The entire scene lasts no more than forty seconds, but it is a moment in the film that seems to perfectly capture Nathan’s life and career. As the camera gently pans across and zooms in on the open pages, we see his clean meticulous handwriting, his attention to detail. The names of music stars and legends scatter across the calendar days that are filled with sessions to make and gigs to play, reading almost like a pop music history book. The man is in demand by the very best in the business. But an even closer look also reveals his self-reminders about those who aren’t the stars, written with as much care. Mom’s operation @ Sharp Memorial, right knee is inked in on the 4^th, just above Herbie Hancock at Pyramid Studio on the 11^th and Natalie Cole and George Duke at Ocean Way on the 18^th. He has Mom and Dad’s anniversary on the 28th, the same day as a 9-hour Phil Collins big-band rehearsal in France, one box down from a session for the Escape From LA soundtrack. A flip of the page, more of the same. Sting, Elton, James Taylor, Don Henley. Aunt Doris and Uncle James. Birthday reminders about friends and relatives.

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Chances are, you spent your whole life listening to Nathan East.  

You just never knew it…until now!

For more information, visit Yamaha Entertainment Group: Nathan East.