In 1994, Nathanson composed a variety of songs for an original vocal album, Jazz Passengers in Love, produced by Hal Willner and Hugo Dwyer.

A number of guest vocalists were featured, including Jimmy Scoff, John Kelly, Freedy Johnston, Bernard Fowler, Jeff Buckley and Deborah Harry, who is now functioning as a full-time member of the band.

He has scored several works for PBS, and films by Jacob Burkhardt and Tamara Jenkins as well as numerous theater productions for playwright Ray Dobbins and others.

Nathanson received two grants from the Meet the Composer organization funded by the Carnegie Corporation in 1996 and 1997 to create new work with children.

It is a story of a fire in a mythical bar and features performances by many of the collaborators he has worked with in his career, adding Charles Earland to Elvis Costello and Debbie Harry.

His sideman credits include four years recording and touring with The Lounge Lizards, work with Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans, Charles Earland and The Shirelles.

He has also performed in special projects including a recent saxophone quartet concert in Brussels with Steve Lacy and Ned Rothenberg in which each of the four musicians contributed an original composition.