Nathan Nakadegawa-Lee & Kaz George Group

An evening of original and arranged compositions with stylistic influences from jazz, blues, and free improvisation.

Nathan Nakadegawa-Lee - saxophone. Kaz George - saxophone Isaac Coyle - bass. Miles Turk - drums

Born and raised in Oakland, California, saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Nathan Nakadegawa-Lee embodies a striking mix of sounds deriving from improvised, vocal, blues, and jazz traditions. He is a graduate of The New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program. As a performer, Nathan has appeared alongside generational artists such as Billy Martin, Faye Carol, Azure McCall, Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson, and Lesley Mok. He has performed internationally in Tokyo, and the Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland, throughout the Bay Area and in NYC at Dizzy’s Jazz Club, The Stone, and Le Poisson Rouge.

Kazemde George is an African American Jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Kazemde attended college in Boston where he completed the Harvard/New England Conservatory (NEC) Joint program, receiving his Bachelors in Neurobiology (Harvard) and his Masters in Jazz Composition (NEC). At NEC, Kazemde studied with Miguel Zenón, Jerry Bergonzi, Jason Moran, Cecil McBee, Donny McCaslin, Danilo Pérez, and John McNeil. In 2012, he received Harvard’s George Peabody Gardener Fellowship to study traditional music in La Habana, Cuba for ten months. Through his travels, Kaz has expanded his focus from Hip-Hop and Jazz to include the full spectrum of musical styles which blossomed from the African Diaspora, including Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, and African-American traditions. As he sees it, the study of these musical styles serves as a way to regain cultural histories that were lost through the processes of African-American Slavery.

Isaac Coyle is a bassist, composer, and educator residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since graduating from the Berklee College of music in 2023, Isaac has become one of the top call bassists in the Bay Area jazz scene. In addition he is also a frequent collaborator in Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standards band, performing throughout the country.

Raised in Oakland and immersed in the Bay Area’s vibrant music community, drummer Miles Turk seeks to follow the tradition in appreciating the cultural importance of blues, bebop, jazz, etc. along with shining a light on his own musical influences coming from R&B, Hip-Hop, Funk, & many more.