Born on 29 May 1967 in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, Nightingale began playing trombone during childhood. At fifteen he captured the Don Lusher award, after which he immediately assumed the lead trombone chair in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Membership in the NYJO also prompted him to explore composition and arrangement. In the late 1980s he assembled Bone Structure, a compact ensemble whose front line consisted entirely of trombones; the group issued its sole recording, Bone Structure, on the Calligraph label in 1988. While enrolled at London’s Trinity College of Music, Nightingale built an international profile through appearances with ensembles directed by Alan Barnes, Louie Bellson, Lee Konitz, James Morrison, George Shearing and Clark Terry. His NYJO tenure likewise positioned him as a preferred soloist for big bands fronted by Michael Garrick, Stan Tracey, Kenny Wheeler and Colin Towns. Additional orchestras, among them the BBC Radio Big Band and the Dankworth Generation Big Band, commissioned his arrangements; both the charts and Nightingale himself feature on the latter ensemble’s Nebuchadnezzar. James Morrison has likewise commissioned original works from him. Renowned for technical command, Nightingale remains an imaginative improviser and has issued a series of instructional volumes that pair explanatory text with play-along CDs.
