Graham Reid | | <1 min read
There is a growing genre of Pacific-influenced jazz: the Mamaku Project (see tag) has elements of it, and this album by the New Pacific Music Ensemble is another.
With saxophones and electric guitar alongside ukelele and log drums this has all the expansiveness of a jazz group but also the warm exoticism of island life.
Very hard to tear this one out of the stereo on a summery evening.
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
New Zealand-born saxophonist Roger Manins has made his reputation in two tough places: New York and Sydney. Called "outstandingly gifted" by Mike Nock, he has brought passion and... > Read more
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
Fergus Barrowman is the Publisher of Victoria University Press, New Zealand’s leading publisher of new fiction and poetry, as well as scholarly non-fiction, where he has been since 1985.... > Read more
In 2000, Auckland composer/saxophonist Chris Mason-Battley did something so rare In New Zealand jazz as to be almost unique: for the album Karakia he incorporated and interpreted elements of Maori... > Read more
I suppose it was always thus: Every generation of jazz players would complain about the music of their successors, whether it be big band swing, bebop, Third Stream, free jazz, fusion . . .... > Read more
It was a few years ago now, but UB40 were back for another New Zealand tour. Well pardon my lack of enthusiasm. It's not that, like most critics, I don't have much time for their MOR reggae. I... > Read more
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
Some albums are enjoyable, some are accomplished and some are important. It's the rare one – such as Infinite Youth by Auckland's Merk (Mark Perkins) – which is all three. A... > Read more
post a comment