Nathan Hiltz (B.Mus, M.Mus) is a jazz guitarist who was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Based in Toronto since 1999, he attended Humber College and The University of Toronto. He studied jazz guitar with Reg Schwager, Jim Hall, Adam Rogers and many others. Over the course of his professional career he has played on over 25 albums and toured extensively across Canada. Nathan is a mentor to many aspiring guitarists from his home teaching studio and as a part time faculty member at Humber College. ABOUT SONGS POETIC It’s been ten years since jazz guitarist Nathan Hiltz released his first and only solo album Your Love Is A Plane Crash. He’s spent that decade touring Canada several times in addition to lending his immense talent to a wide variety of recording projects and song-writing collaborations including The Griffith Hiltz Trio, Melissa Lauren, Beverly Taft, Whitney Ross Barris, Hawksley Workman and Jill Barber. At long last, Hiltz finally hit the studio to record his second solo project Songs Poetic. The setting is an intimate guitar trio, the songs are choice standards, and most importantly this live-off-the-floor session is swinging. Songs Poetic, recorded in August 2015 in Toronto, is a collection of songs that represent the real Nathan Hiltz: an open-eared guitarist steeped in the bop tradition. Hiltz makes each musical moment count. He offers every audience his very natural, organic melodic instincts. In tandem with bassist Pat Collins and drummer Morgan Childs, Songs Poetic, Hiltz and company create multi-dimensional improvisations are multi-dimensional lines support the immediacy of the moment. To a jazz musician, being ready for everything in the moment is everything. There is no big break. There’s the being at the right place at the right time, where preparation meets opportunity. On a Saturday afternoon in 2014, Nathan was about to go on stage in downtown Toronto when he got an urgent phone call asking him if he’d be able to play the guitar chair that night at Koerner Hall with the legendary Boss Brass: Ted Quinlan couldn’t make it at the last minute. Nathan managed to sub out his gig for later that night, finish his afternoon gig, and get a cab home to retrieve his concert blacks and then back to Koerner Hall 30 minutes before downbeat. Playing Ed Bickert’s parts on Rob McConnell’s masterful arrangements to a sold out audience was an inspiring and transformative experience for Hiltz. “It was a whirlwind of a gig that was over before it even felt like it started” said Hiltz “To play with the Boss Brass was a lifelong dream that I thought was never going to happen since the passing of Rob.” These great masters of Canadian jazz recorded and performed their art on standards. After putting out several critically albums of original music with The Griffith Hiltz Trio and Organic, Nathan had to finally record standards. “It was important for me to finally address the jazz canon in a classic trio setting. I’ve been a part of a number of grant funded recordings which must be original music, but this isn’t what I do night after night on gigs, it’s standards” Hiltz is looking forward to taking the reigns as both leader and producer on his solo project after extensive sideman work with Alex Dean, Jill Barber, The Canadian Jazz Quartet, Bernie Senensky, Brandi Disterheft, Ori Dagan, Morgan Childs, and Melissa Lauren to name a few. Nathan was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 1980 and was raised in Lunenburg and Halifax NS. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Humber College in 2005 and a Master of Music from University of Toronto in 2011 and currently resides in Toronto, ON where he lives with his partner Melissa and daughter Leah.