For the past 14 years, Nate Edgar has held down the low end for the Nth Power, one of the most distinctive and enduring bands to emerge from the modern funk, soul, and jam scenes. Like many bassists, he has built a career by amassing an enviable list of credits, but the thousands of hours he has spent helping shape the sound of Nth Power is the brightest feather in his cap.

That evolution mirrors Edgar’s own path. Raised in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, he started on bass as a teenager, studied with local teachers, learned tuba to gain admission to college, immersed himself in upright, and built an education that extended well beyond any single school by continuing to learn and staying open to every opportunity, honing his chops in Boston’s underground music scene in the early 2000s.

Along the way, the Rhode Island-based Edgar absorbed lessons from reggae, jazz, R&B, and soul music, developing a highly personal approach that allows him to disappear inside a song. An experienced educator and former band director, Edgar is an accompanist/staff bassist at Berklee who has logged serious time with John Brown’s Body, Jennifer Hartswick, DJ Logic, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant, Sister Nancy, and Matisyahu. His mile-deep resumé includes Common, John Sebastian, the New Mastersounds, the Skatalites, Ivan and Cyrille Neville, Mike Love, Sister Nancy, Melissa Etheridge, John Medeski, Nicholas Payton, G Love, and many others. But the Nth Power has been his main gig since 2012.

On Never Alone, their fourth studio LP, the trio (Edgar, guitarist/vocalist Nick Cassarino, and drummer/vocalist Nikki Glaspie) specializes in instantly familiar, midtempo dancefloor gems that showcase their tight chemistry and good vibes. Edgar, blessed with perfect tone, hugs every groove like white on rice, never overplaying and always in the pocket.

Whether he’s discussing Glaspie’s drumming, Jim Stinnett’s demanding teaching style, or the realities of sustaining a working band for more than a decade, the same themes keep emerging: humility, adaptability, and constant growth.

How’d you get started?

I had private bass lessons for the first couple of years. My parents come from a really big family in a pretty small house. I was into rock & roll and stuff. My parents said, “We’ll let you spend your paper route and lawn mowing money on the bass if you take lessons and learn how to read music.” They were really official about it — I think my dad even drew up a contract.

Did that put a fire under you?

It was perfect. I learned how to read music, how to understand basic chord structures, and the history of the bass. My high school band director would let me come in while he was eating lunch. He’d be like, “Read this. Read this. You’re not nailing this stuff. Read this.”

You were fortunate to have a teacher like that. 

I really did get lucky. My local school system had people who were willing to help somebody who was determined to learn how to read music.

You didn’t go to Berklee, but you found another route.

I didn’t even audition, man. It was too expensive, so I went to the local college, University of New Hampshire. But UNH wouldn’t accept me as an electric bass player because they didn’t have a major for that, so I learned how to play and read music on tuba. I auditioned as a classical tuba player, they accepted me, and they gave me a little bit of bread. After I spent enough time with that, I studied upright.

The Nth Power has been a quartet and a quintet. What changed when the band became a trio?

We went out as a trio and we were like, “Oh man, there’s a lot of truth to be found in this sound.” There was a lot more room in the sound. We still use other musicians for spot dates, but we went trio really hard after that.

Did it change your role as a bass player?

It did, especially for the solo sections. I ended up having to play chords in a way that also kept the low end. It definitely made me re-approach things even harder, where I had a little bit more room to let the note lengths ring. Especially coming from the reggae world, man, it’s almost all about note length.

I can’t help wondering if your time on tuba and upright also changed the way you think about note length.

That’s a great correlation. I think that playing tuba really showed me that where you take your breath affects how the whole thing sounds. I remember the feeling of playing tuba and realizing that I could make a note touch another note. Bowing an upright bass and staying in tune is no joke, dude! Those guys take that super seriously—how you start a note, even where on the bow you started, how the slurs happen, how you phrase everything. 

Note length is crucial in reggae, too, right?

I hear note length in forming those grooves, making things pop the way they do and move people the way they do, so I approach note lengths very intentionally. There’s so much information in note length. I can play a really short note and feel good about it, but in that context, I had to learn to let them ring a little bit more. I’d go down to the point where I would write them out, at least in my mind, down to the 16th note, sometimes even the 64th note if there was a swing to it.

What’s it like being in a rhythm section with Nikki Glaspie?

When I first played with her, I was like, she’s doing so much, so I need to do a lot, too. A couple of months later, I asked her, “What are you doing?” She said, “I’m really just playing pocket.” I thought she was just joshing me. I remember going to bed that night and realizing that she’s just playing pocket so good that I’m hearing subdivisions that don’t even exist! [Laughter] I listened back to records, and I was like, “No, dude, she’s only playing pocket.” It just feels so good.

She’s been one of my biggest teachers, not in a “here’s this lick” kind of way—it’s just about how the pocket can sound, how to make music on a display of pocket, and how to do more with less. We all know she can blaze, but for her to make a beat sound like a real beat, like a record… It’s just such a beautiful pocket, man.

Who else have you learned a lot from?

I only took a few lessons with Danny Morris at Berklee, but they were life-changing. I remember coming in and we were playing some opera or something; I was playing a lot of jazz. He stopped me halfway through the first chorus: “Hey man, let’s just sing it. Let’s just sing a couple phrases.” I was like, “I don’t know what you mean, man. I can’t sing!” [Laughter]

What’s the secret to nailing sub gigs, especially high-pressure ones like Maceo and Taj Mahal?

I studied with Jim Stinnett, who completely changed my trajectory in the world of playing bass for a living. He was strict. Super strict. He would say, “I want to hear the recording. I want to hear Paul Chambers. I really don’t want to hear you. I need you to bury this recording. I need you to learn this solo, and I want you to sound like him. That’s how you’re going to grow.”

How did that make you feel?

I had already sounded like me; I was sick of me. I was dissatisfied. So, I found my way into this guy, and he really flipped it. I did that for about a year.

And then John Brown’s Body called.

When they gave me their book, I was like, I have the tools now. I had that jazz training to be like, “I want to hear Paul Chambers. I don’t want to hear Nate Edgar.” That’s kind of how I approach a lot of different gigs: I get militant about sounding like the person I’m subbing for or replacing.

After all these years, what advice would you give younger musicians?

When I was in New York, the great bass player Dimitri Gorodetsky told me something I never forgot: You have to be willing to grow in front of people. It’s hard and it’s uncomfortable, but you will grow. I’m lucky that I get to do that with Nick and Nikki, my super homies.

HEAR HIM ON (all with the Nth Power): Never Alone (2026), Reverence (2021), Rebel Music: A Tribute to the Music and Message of Bob Marley (2018), Abundance (2015), Basic Minimum Skills Test (2013). 

GEAR

Basses Lakland Darryl Jones Jazz Bass, 2012 ’74 Reissue Fender Jazz Bass, 1975 Precision Bass, Lakland 55-94, Lakland Hollowbody 

Other Avalon U5, Pensa Outboard Preamp by Mas Hino

Amps Bergantino Forté HP head, Crest CA9

Cabinets HT and NV Bergantino 1×15 cabs, usually two at a time

Effects 3Leaf Octabvre, 3Leaf Doom 2, 3Leaf Envelope Filter, dbx 160a compressor

Strings Dunlop Marcus Miller, Dunlop Stainless Precision Bass Flats, La Bella Low Tension Flats