Maybe you’ve seen him at Willie’s Steak House, or even at the Grammys in Los Angeles. Pete Nater earned his Grammy in 2005, along with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. But has he forgotten that he’s from the Bronx? Not a chance. Even though he’s made it, he seems to have a soft spot for us.

This April, Mr. Nater will play trumpet for the 11 a.m. Easter service at Epiphany Lutheran Church, 302 E. 206th Street, in Norwood.
Asked whether, now that he has the big prize, it means that he can concentrate exclusively on music now, he replied, “Well, I still have my day job down at the Law Department.”

Nater plays weekend gigs, locally, or takes time off to tour Japan, Turkey, France and half a dozen other countries. And yet, on weekdays he can still be found at his desk in the City Law Department, as a torts investigator, finding witnesses and checking evidence for claims against the city. “With his tightly coiled posture, poker face and shaved scalp, he could be mistaken for one of the cops his unit is charged with defending,” wrote Anemona Hartocollis about Nater in a 2005 New York Times article.

Nater was 12 when he started playing trumpet. He got to play in the Junior High School 123 jazz band in Soundview, and the rest is history. Admitted into the High School of Music and Art, he was soon discovered by Larry Harlow, the famed Latin music producer who recruited him to fill in for a sick trumpet player. Nater never looked back, except to pick up his high school diploma.

Living and working out of a two-family house in the south Bronx, Nater continues to play birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and, yes, church gigs for deserving congregations like Epiphany’s. By the way, in 2004, he entertained at the surprise birthday party that Jennifer Lopez gave for Marc Anthony at their house on Long Island. He has played with just about all of the Latin-Jazz greats, including Ray Barretto, Machito, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Palmieri, Hector LaVoe, Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz, and Mongo Santamaria, just to name a few.

When asked why he agreed to play at Epiphany, a small congregation of maybe 50 people, he said, “Well, you know, I enjoy playing all kinds of music, and I enjoy performing anywhere, anytime. I believe in God, so why not play in church?”
–Janet Norquist-González, Norwood resident