Gabriel Birnbaum

In his teens, saxophonist Gabriel Birnbaum wanted to be a downtown New York free-jazz musician, and was mentored for a while by some members of that scene. He moved to the Boston area for college, meanwhile playing with Eli “Paperboy’’ Reed, Drug Rug and The One AM Radio and as a member of Violence Jazz and the Debo Band. He also led The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, whose “noisy, free-jazz rock’’ gave him a cult following that wasn’t satisfying to him, so he turned his attention to songwriting as Boy Without God. Since moving to Brooklyn, he has focused more on this latter project.