San Diego Reader

Percussionist Nathan Hubbard's first major gig was leading the quartet Return to One from 1998 to 2004. In the few years the group was together, RTO's music morphed from jazz to a strange music where Hubbard's melodic compositions were pitted against the group's free improvisation and electronic interests. In 1999, he joined the free jazz quartet Cosmologic and soon after became a member of the Trummerflora Collective. The same year, he began performing solo, using percussion and his own homemade amplified instruments.

Over the past several years, he has branched out as a bandleader, forming the 30-member ensemble Nathan Hubbard Skeleton Key Orchestra, leading several other colorful ensembles, and composing music for a variety of performers. He also freelances around town, playing with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and doing musical theater work and anything else that will feed his family.

Currently, he works with Detroit-based percussionist Curtis Glatter, doing new music for silent film. He also performs solo and with ARC Trio, Cosmologic, and others. As a sideman, he plays regularly with Castanets, members of the Trummerflora Collective, and anyone else who will hire him. Hubbard also curates the concert series New Sounds Downtown and runs the Castor & Pollux Music label.

Since 1999, Hubbard has released two solo recordings and two solo EPs, a double CD from Skeleton Key Orchestra, a double CD of his compositions entitled Compositions 1998 - 2005, three recordings with Return to One, four recordings with Cosmologic, one recording each from ARC Trio and Glatter/Hubbard; he has also been a sideman on over 30 recordings.