Dr. Nat will be doing a guest dj slot on Manao Radio 91.5 from Sat. morning, May 31st from 10 am to 2 pm.  You can listen live on the internet ... go to www.manaoradio.com

If you would like to be notified by email when Dr. Nat / Rio Ritmo is performing please send a message to nat@maui.net                                                                             Your email address will remain confidential.

Dr. Nat plays solo Sunday nights at the Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel in Wailea from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm.    No cover.

Dr. Nat plays solo Sunday nights at the Lobby Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel in Wailea from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm.    No cover.

BOOKING AND CONTACTING DR. NAT

Dr. Nat can be reached for booking at (808) 572-9536 or you can contact him through e-mail at nat@maui.net . He is available for conventions and hotel functions as well.  Clients with entertainment agents, please do booking through them.  

THOUGH RIO RITMO MOST TYPICALLY PERFORMS AS A 6 PIECE BAND, (guitar, piano, bass, congas, drums/timbales, trumpet) DR. NAT IS AVAILABLE AS A SOLO, DUET, TRIO OR VARYING ENSEMBLES UP TO 8 OR 9 PIECE BANDS DEPENDING UPON THE EVENT.

Artist Bio
After first beginning his musical education in elementary school, it was years until Nat began playing guitar and composing music. It was during college when he met until the present day, one of his greatest musical influences, Bernard "Happy" Shaw, who shared with him his soulful and inspired reggae music. Shaw, originally from Spanishtown Jamaica, played with Inventive Source in Jamaica and backed up such Jamaican acts as Culture. About the time Nat met him, Shaw started the band "Nagasa". Influenced as well by other Reggae singers such as Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff and European bands such as Steel Pulse, The Clash and The Jam. Nat's influences extend to r&b with artists such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Parliament, Kool and the Gang, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin and Prince. From the world of Afro Latin music his influences include Beny More, Monguito, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Ismael Rivera, Jose Feliciano, Los Van Van, Paulito F.G, Manolito y su Trabuco and Charanga Habanera.

In 1984, after moving to Portland, OR, Nat began studying Afro Cuban music with Trevor Salloum (Trevor Salloum, who is also a naturopathic physician has published several books on Bongo through Mel Bay publishing Co.) and in the same year began singing with the Salsa band "El Combo Caribe" led by timbalero Carmen Gangi. After a year and a half the band dissolved and Nat continued rumbas with Portland musicians, playing capoeira with teacher Almiro Aquilino dos Santos and after another year began singing for another reggae band called The Tribe. After a year of involvement with The Tribe, Nat formed his own band, Caribbeat, which integrated various World Music forms including Reggae, Hi Life, Soca, and Afro Latin. In 1988 Nat relocated to Maui.

Some of you may recall the 1992 Maui Community Theater's smash production of the Rocky Horror Show in which Dr. Nat starred as Rocky amidst the talents of Eric and Amy Gilliom and our beloved Ed Fields (Riff Raff). Since then he has reprised the role of Rocky in the 2001 Iao Theatre production of the Rocky Horror Show again with Amy and Eric Gilliom and again in 2003 in the Hapa's nite club presentation of Rocky Horror along side the talents of Willie K, Kelly Covington, Tim Wolf, Jerry and Debra Lyn Eitling, Dale Button and again Eric and Amy Gilliom. Nat has played with many musical groups on Maui including his previous band "Globeat". Currently he continues training in Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial art/dance/acrobatic form) under the instruction of Professor Guga occasionally performing in Brazilian shows featuring Capoeira, Maculele and Samba and has travelled to Brazil three times. He has continued his pursuit of Afro Cuban music, attending the Afrocubanismo conferences in Banff, Canada in 1994 and 1996 and studying with the Havana based Timba band, Doble Impacto and Cuban tresero Efrain Rios and the band Cubanismo (led by Jesus Alemañy). Efrain Rios is one of Cuba's foremost treseros who has recently published the leading book on tres playing entitled "Acerca del Tres... el Son y el Tumbao" through Egrem Cuba. Efrain Rios is cofounder, with his Brother Luis Rios, of the traditional Cuban band "Raison". Luis Rios is the composer of the current salsa hit "Que Manera de Quererte, Que Manera" popularized by Albita and Gloria Estefan.

Nat is also presently collaborating with Aisha Kahlil of Sweet Honey in the Rock on a duet recording project.

Bio for Aisha Kahlil........AISHA KAHLIL joined Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1981. With experience in jazz singing and knowledge of African dance and song performance traditions, she moved the ensemble into new ground in its exploration with vocal improvisation. She is Sweet Honey's strongest blues singer, a genre of song she had not previously explored before coming to the group. Some of the their most innovative and experimental work occurs in the performances of her compositions, including "Fulani Chant" and Wodaabe Nights." In 1994, Kahlil was named 'Best Soloist in Contemporary A Capella Music' for her vocal performance of "See See Rider" and "Fulani Chant" on the recording "In This Land" (EarthBeat! Records). In her work as a performing artist and master teacher in voice and dance, Kahlil specializes in the integration of traditional and contemporary forms of music, dance and theater. She is co-director of First World Productions with Nitanju Bolade Casel.

Dr. Nat's solo cd, Curandera 2000On Maui available at Border's Books in Kahului

cd cover photo and photo at top of page by Carrie Robertson

CD may be purchased via this site by check, money order or visa/mastercard.

price of cd..... $ 15.00
shipping and handling (U.S) $ 2.00
Total $ 17.00

If paying by check or money order, make payable to "Dr. Nat" and mail to....
Dr. Nat
PO Box 756
Makawao, HI 96768
Be sure to include your shipping address.

Those paying by credit card email your name as it appears on your credit card, your credit card number and expiration date along with your billing address and shipping address, if different to nat@maui.net

If you prefer, you may fax the above information instead to...... (808) 572-9536 along with your authorizing signature approving the credit card sale

Shipping via parcel post, 1st class.

CD overview

MP3 samples of album

The first song is the fast moving timba/salsa number, El Rio Ritmo which translates into the river rhythm. The river is a metaphor for the unbroken connection of rhythm and spirit from time immemorial. It reflects the strength of the people and their passion for the divinity that comes from the drum and dance. The song reflects upon my first encounters with rhythm through my grandmother and my own reverence for rhythm-something that could never be taken away. Like the African slaves in the Americas who would use boxes when they were prohibited from using drums and hoe blades when there were prohibited from using bells, el Rio Ritmo could not be stopped. The feeling of unity and the power of the divine is so magnified and apparent when enraptured by rhythm and movement, that to condemn it is, in reality, self condemnation. The theme of the song is the origin of the name of my band Rio Ritmo as well. This recording has Lenny Castellanos on bass and Heriberto Florez on piano (both in the Rio Ritmo band) and trumpet parts are done by Mark Hasselbach who performs with Rio Ritmo on occasion. The vocals, charango, tres and percussion are performed by Nat.
The second song entitled Pali Ku is the surreal voyage to the place on Haleakala (10,000 ft. volcano-the slopes upon which I live) called Pali Ku. A site for spiritual restitution and atonement, Pali Ku is a very dramatic and hauntingly beautiful place on Maui that people have to hike 12 miles to reach. The song is done in the Cuban son style with fused Hawaiian elements including stringed instrument voicings as well as traditional Hawaiian mele (chanting) laced over the polyrhythmic son groove. It features Mark Hasselbach on alto flute.
The third song entitled Cool Vibes Maui, is a homage to the Mother Maui. After emerging from the subways and streets of New York, the song expresses the joy of being on this beautiful island and the desire to make my home here. It proclaims many of the blessings which abound in Maui's nature. With Brazilian bluesy progressions and a thick Capoeira groove (Capoeira is a uniquely Brazilian martial art/ dance form which integrates acrobatics and song) including berimbaus, atabaques, agogos and pandeiros, the song ends with Portuguese call and response choruses praising her Imperial Majesty, Mother Maui. .
The fourth song is entitled Muita Saudade de Você Bahia and calls out to Bahian Culture with longing, reverence and humor. "Saudade" means missing or longing in Portuguese. The translation of the title is "Missing You So Badly Bahia". Bahia is the state in Brazil which is the home and birthplace of many of the AfroBrazilian music and dance forms such as Capoeira, Bossa Nova, Samba de Roda, Afoxé and Candomble. The rhythmic style of this song is in another Bahian form called Samba Reggae. It is not really samba, nor is it reggae, but a wonderful musical style in its own right. Made popular by groups such as Olodum (on Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints album), samba reggae is typically played by large drum corps with surdos, cuicas, repiniques, and tamborims and impels people to move in unison. The song features Bob Bangerter on lead guitar.
Relationship in the new millenium? the 5th song, More Than Friends, More Than Lovers, offers testimony that love will exist with or without the nomenclature and designations placed upon it by popular culture. With it's heavily syncopated and driving Reggae bass lines this song seeks true love-absent of fear. Trumpets by Dustin Wind.
Makena Lullaby , the 6th song, is a song of deep reflection on the turns, eternal as they may be, of life and death. The passing of one being and the birth of another was the theme of this composition. Written on Makena beach after seeing 2 day old McKenna so small and beautiful, the cycle of life was once again brought to my attention and, as the whales serenaded me on that Maui winter day, the strain of my father's inevitable passing was eased. The song feature's 3 month old McKenna's vocalizations over entrancing charango and kalimba parts on the reprise.
The 7th song, the acapella rumba poem entitled Remaining Possible, is a Matanzas style guaguanco rhythm under a poem which implores the need to remain open. Getting "old" isn't a condition of one's years, but of one's state of awareness...."Don't get so old to where you get brash and bold, giving orders but never be told and your soul has been bought and sold".
The 8th song and title track, Curandera, is a funky cha cha in which healing is sought through the infusions of the Curandera's virtue and compassion. Trumpet parts by Dr. Steve Dubey.
The 9th, and my favorite track on the cd, The Way Again, is a song co-written by Aisha Kahlil and me. The song features Aisha Kahlil's hypnotizing and soulful voice ( see bio above) on the verses with Nat doing the improvisational scatting. This song was born of magic and inspiration which is what Aisha Kahlil's gift is about to me. I have learned so much from Aisha- through her artistry, her abilities as a composer and vocalist and as a friend. The song is about unlearning...and rediscovering the essential chemistry of our being...inspiration.... devotion...dancing again, singing again, and playing again with joy. Aisha Kahlil on vocals.
The 10th song on the cd is entitled Would You?, a ballad asking a loved one if she would care to accompany me to eternity.
The 11th song on the cd is entitled Could I? It asks whether or not I am dreaming as I imagine us taking a ride up the river to our favorite waterfall.
The 12th song on the cd is entitled El Tumbao de Makawao and is a Cuban style mambo in spanish. It answers the question most frequently asked of me... Where Are You From?... good question;) interesting answer...(translation included in the lyric booklet). Trumpets by Dustin Wind, piano by Heriberto Florez and Bass solo by Lenny Castellanos.
The last song on the cd is a prayer for the listener entitled Hina Yo. This is a Native American healing prayer song featuring Rainmaker on Native American cedar flute and Nat on vocals integrating Tuvan style throatsinging with guitar and rattle.

Nat playing capoeira in Bahia with teacher Marcio Abreu Nat with first salsa band "El Combo Caribe" in Portland, OR 1985                                 
Nat at Taste of Wailea

Nat and Matt at the Taste of Wailea (performing as a duet)
(photo by Himani http://www.maui.net/~himani/

  Naomi Samba dancer

Nat with El Combo Caribe