Nate Pruitt fell in love when he was 9, and hasn’t fallen out
since.
From the moment he heard the beautiful voice crooning a soulful
jazz tune, the notes drifting across the street on a sultry summer
night from the open door of a nightclub in New Haven, Conn., Pruitt
knew he had found his calling.
Nate Pruitt fell in love when he was 9, and hasn’t fallen out since.
From the moment he heard the beautiful voice crooning a soulful jazz tune, the notes drifting across the street on a sultry summer night from the open door of a nightclub in New Haven, Conn., Pruitt knew he had found his calling.
“I fell in love with that music that night,” said Pruitt, now 69. “I didn’t know who she was but I knew I loved the music.”
As it turns out, the voice belonged to Lena Horne, a preeminent singer and actress of the 1940s, and that night would mark the first great influence of the local musician’s long musical career.
These days, the father of three grown children prefers the peaceful view of Uvas Reservoir west of Morgan Hill outside his front window to the glitz and glamour of some of the world-class cities he’s played. Three cats, all of which Pruitt refers to as “kitty,” scampered about his front yard Wednesday as the glittering expanse of the reservoir spread out into the distance.
Pruitt and his wife of 42 years, a classical musician he married only three weeks after meeting while they were both stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War, have lived happily on the outskirts of Morgan Hill since 1975, but the years spent traveling the globe, singing alongside the legends of the jazz world, hold a special place in his heart.
Born in Sheffield, a small town in northern Alabama, Pruitt moved to New Haven as a child and was raised by his older sister after his mother died. There, he tagged along to shows with his older brother who ran a nightclub called The Playback.
“I saw all the great legends – Aretha, Miles. I would sit in the back and take notes,” Pruitt said.
A couple years at Berklee College of Music in Boston prepared him for a lifetime of performing. Modest about his instrumental ability, Pruitt plays several instruments, and a grand piano and a set of drums occupied his studio.
“I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs. This is my perfect high,” Pruitt said. “When I sing, it’s like a spiritual uplifting that occurs.”
Though he’s experimented with many different genres, jazz is his favorite.
With jazz, “I can’t go into a club and sing the same song I sang the night before the same way because I forgot,” said the singer, whose speaking voice even sounds like the smoky jazz he sings at the nightclubs. “You let the spirit sing through you. You release your spirit through what you sing and dare to sing spontaneously all the time. And that’s jazz for you, I would say.”
With his brother in Los Angeles and a friend in San Francisco, Pruitt and his wife settled in San Bruno after they finished serving in the military. They moved south in search of sunnier weather and a more rural setting to raise their family and happened upon Morgan Hill, where they’ve been ever since.
Even though he primarily sticks to teaching, Pruitt still regularly books gigs at D’Vine Jazz and Wine in Morgan Hill and the DeAnza Hotel in San Jose. With performances at Bach to Blues, the annual show held at Gavlian College, where Pruitt has also taught voice for 17 years, the singer has established a loyal following. This Friday, he and one of his bands, Primary Colors, will perform at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. After seeing Pruitt perform at Bach to Blues, Greg Bozzo, the president of this year’s festival, said he had to book him.
“I don’t know anything about jazz but (Pruitt) had every single person in that audience out of their seat,” Bozzo said.
After watching Pruitt perform, Rich DellaMaggiore, the entertainment chairman at this year’s festival, agreed: The singer knows how to entertain a crowd.
“You can definitely see that he’s been around,” DellaMaggiore said. “He has a great stage presence about him. I don’t think people realize how good the quality of the local talent is out there. There are a lot of quality performers who are just not getting the recognition they deserve.”
Pruitt and his band’s set will include mostly jazz and blues numbers though he said he might slip in a ballad or two.
“It’s gonna be swinging pretty hard,” he said. “It’ll be more up-tempo so we’ll have a lot of energy going on.”
Though some of his own neighbors might not know they have a world-renowned musician in their backyard, Pruitt’s resume includes performances in numerous movies, including The Lost Man with Sidney Poitier and Mad City with John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman, appearances at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Monterey Blues Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, and the W. C. Handy Memorial Jazz Fest in Alabama.
A performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland when he was about 50 is among one of his favorites, as it reunited him with many lifelong friends and musical legends for a weekend.
He’s performed with countless artists to whose names he tends to add the prefix “the Great,” as in the Great Dizzy Gilespie, Quincy Jones or Dave Brubeck.
His talent has taken him around the world and may have even kept him alive. After being drafted during the Vietnam War, he was recruited to a 30-man chorus instead of being sent into the action.
“My music has done so much for me,” he said. “It’s taken me all over. It’s saved me.”
