Natalie Cressman

Early life

Cressman was born in San Francisco to Sandy and Jeff Cressman who are jazz musicians as well. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she began to play her first gigs in her early teens with various Jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian Jazz groups. Her influences include Elis Regina, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock and Weather Report. When Natalie turned 18 she moved to New York to study at Manhattan School of Music on scholarship, where she studied with Luis Bonilla, Garry Dial, Laurie Frink, and Wycliffe Gordon. In her first semester, she was asked to join Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio's solo project, and has been touring with TAB ever since. Now based in Brooklyn, she is involved in various projects, including longtime mentor Peter Apfelbaum's new project S P A R K L E R. She has released 2 albums in her own right, both self-produced, Unfolding and Turn the Sea, which feature primarily her own compositions. Her original music is a blend of singer/songwriter, jazz, funk, and world music.

Performances

In her junior year of high school, she performed at the Monterey and North Sea Jazz Festivals with the Next Generation Orchestra. In 2008-9, she was selected to perform in several youth honor bands, including the Jazz Band of America, California All State Jazz Band, Jazz Band Classic, and the Grammy Jazz Ensemble. Since moving to New York she has performed with Nichoas Payton's Television Symphony Orchestra and Peter Apfelbaum's New York Hieroglyphics Ensemble. In May 2012 she played the Apollo Theater as a soloist in Wycliffe Gordon's Jazz A La Carte, which also featured renowned performers Savion Glover and Maurice Hines. She founded her own band called the Secret Garden, and released her first recording Unfolding, a modern jazz album with some world music and folk influences. She has also appeared with such groups as Van Ghost, Dumpstaphunk, and Lettuce, and has spent several years as an Artist at Large at Bear Creek Music Festival.

Recordings

She recorded her first album with Secret Garden, titled "Unfolding", in October 2011 at North 6th Media Labs, which was released on her family's label, Cressman Music in late 2012. She followed her debut up with a second album, Turn the Sea, released on March 11, 2014 under her own name. The sophomore release continues her exploration of cross-pollinating jazz with more modern musical styles, resulting in a sound unique to her. Cressman followed up in 2016 with the release of Etchings in Amber with guitarist Mike Bono. The two traveled the country in October and November of 2016 in support of the album. On March 3rd 2017, her latest release, Traces, melds a sleek and sensuous electronica-laced sound with a trace or two of dance floor sweat. The new 5-song EP, which also includes Bono on the guitar tracks, can be heard on soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/natcressman/sets/the-traces-ep