In just a little over a dozen years, 17-year-old Nathan Tokunaga has had opportunities and experiences that many adult musicians don’t have in a lifetime. As one fan described Nathan after a recent performance: “Unbelievable, sweetly mellow, much too young to be so good!”
So much is remarkable about Nathan:
He plays the clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax and alto sax and has performed as a sideman or leader at some 400 concerts and musical events over the past decade;
Achieved a Superior rating in the California Music Educators Assn. Solos and Ensembles contest in just two years by the age of 11;
Performed in his first jazz festival with an established band at age 14;
Plays a soprano sax that once belonged to the legendary Sidney Bechet;
Played lead alto sax for the Stanford University Jazz Workshop “Miles Ahead Big Band” and won the “Shape of Jazz to Come” and Outstanding Soloist Awards;
Founder and leader of Nathan’s Fearless Five, a high school classic jazz band (2021-date) that regularly performs throughout the Bay Area and since 2022 has been Musicians-in-Residence at the Palo Alto Public Library where they are attracting a diverse audience in a wide range of ages.
His band helped raised funds for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting musicians and culture-bearers without medical insurance;
Attended two Summer Jazz Academies at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and while in New York City this past summer, was invited to sit in with some of the top professional groups in the Big Apple;
Nathan was invited to play at the 2024 Lindy Focus swing dance event in Ashville, North Carolina, that featured some of the country’s top dance instructors and live music;
Has recorded with Gunhild Carling’s Big Band and several others and will soon be releasing Nathan’s Fearless Five’s first album;
Toured Europe with his youth classical orchestra where he was the principal clarinetist with the Peninsula Youth Orchestra.
Choosing the Clarinet by Default
When it came to selecting an instrument to play in his 4th grade school band, Nathan’s choice would have been the saxophone, but he found that his fingers were too short to reach all the keys. So he selected the clarinet, a decision which he considers a blessing because he found it a distinctive instrument and a real joy to play.
During the morning drive to Middle School while listening to the car radio, he became fascinated with the music of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and other great jazz clarinetists such as Sidney Bechet and Johnny Dodds. During the COVID-19 pandemic when everything was shut down, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, and jazz historian Clint Baker took Nathan under his wing and became his mentor in the realm of early jazz.
In June of 2022 at the Healdsburg (CA) Jazz Festival, Clint brought Nathan on stage to perform with Katie Cavera’s band. The then-14-year-old came through with flying colors in what marked the beginning of a learning journey of working with and being mentored by seasoned musicians. Evan Chistopher (gives him on-line lessons on technique and improvisation) and Marc Caparone (sends recordings of various styles, musicians and songs) have become involved as contributors to Nathan’s musical growth and development as a thoughtful sideman and proficient bandleader.
As a freshmen at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, Nathan recruited four upperclassmen from the school’s jazz band to form Nathan’s Fearless Five. After debuting at a benefit concert for a non-profit organization that raised $1,800, the group began performing regularly at another non-profit: the Old Skool Café, a 1920s speakeasy-themed restaurant that provides job training, employment and a second chance-in-life for formerly incarcerated and foster youths age 16 to 22.
When the band was invited to perform at the 2024 Jazzaffair Festival in Three Rivers, California, it was the first time in the Festival’s 49-year history that a youth band had been included in the lineup. (They’ll be back in 2025!) The band has received an invitation from the Belmont City Council to participate in the City’s 100th anniversary celebration in 2026, a testament to their growing reputation and community impact.
Hitting the High Spots in NYC
After Nathan attended the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s summer jazz academy this past summer, he and his mother decided to do some sightseeing and check out the New York scene. In what Nathan’s refers to as “a life-changing experience,” it afforded him the opportunity to sit in with David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band at Birdland, Jon-Erik Kellso’s EarRegulars at the Ear Inn, Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, and be a guest on Rossano Sportello’s weekly Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village program, which is streamed worldwide.
As a high school senior, Nathan has currently cut back on his performing schedule while he goes through the college selection process, whether it be a music school or a California state university. For music schools, three prestigious New York schools top his application list: Juilliard, The New School and the Manhattan School of Music.
As Nathan Tokunaga moves on to the next phase of his career, jazz blogger Michael Steinman points out that “Nathan has quickly showed himself an adult in every conceivable way except the number on his birth certificate.” New Orleans pianist Steve Pistorius exclaims, “I’ve been doing this for almost 50 years professionally, and I’ve seldom heard the depth of understanding of New Orleans jazz as I’ve heard coming out of the horn played by this young man.”
High praise for this California teenager who aspires to become a professional jazz musician and whose goal is to make jazz more accessible and especially to reach more young people. Nathan may be short of stature at 5’2″, but he is definitely tall in talent.
Visit Nathan Tokunaga online at www.nathantokunagajazz.com.
