Kevin Clark: Zahara (KCM)

 |   |  <1 min read

Kevin Clark: River Weep For Me
Kevin Clark: Zahara (KCM)

Wellington pianist/composer/arranger Clark won best jazz album of the year in 2003 with Once Upon Song I Flew, and again two years later with The Sandbar Sessions.

Clark is something of a rarity in New Zealand jazz, he has an internationalism about his music and thinnks nothing of incoprorating what we might call "global elements" into his originals which move from blues to ballads and Latin bounce to slight Afrobeat tunes.

This Latin and Middle Eastern-flavoured album, released late last year, bristles with musical ideas and energy which cover considerable geography (from Cuban clubs to flamenco Spain and Brazilian carnival). Clark, who also plays trumpet and flugelhorn, doesn't shy away from delicate ballads either: the spare River Weep For Me sounds like a contemporary classic, and Pienselo is a soulful standout among the many intelligently crafted but emotionally muscular tunes.

With singer Fran Barton this is an album which dances, ponders and is witty (Here Comes Another Crazy Song), and deserves wide exposure and acceptance.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Jazz at Elsewhere articles index

Herbie Hancock: River, The Joni Letters (Verve)

Herbie Hancock: River, The Joni Letters (Verve)

Jazzman Hancock has long been a supporter of Mitchell so this tribute to her music -- with another longtime Joni sideman Wayne Shorter on saxes -- comes as no surprise. And Mitchell's music has... > Read more

Daniel Herskedal: Voyage (Edition/digital outlets)

Daniel Herskedal: Voyage (Edition/digital outlets)

Jazz tuba is not rare but certainly uncommon: among the great players are Bob Stewart who played on a dozen or so albums with Arthur Blythe; Howard Johnson for whom tuba is among his artillery and... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

BOB GRUEN PHOTOGRAPHER, INTERVIEWED (1998): The man who shot John Lennon, many times

BOB GRUEN PHOTOGRAPHER, INTERVIEWED (1998): The man who shot John Lennon, many times

Photographer Bob Gruen is affable and chatty but clearly on autopilot. His stories, good though they are, are worn smooth by repetition. But to his credit he repeats them with enthusiasm... > Read more

WOMAD ARTIST 2015: Barbarito Torres of the Buena Vista Social Club

WOMAD ARTIST 2015: Barbarito Torres of the Buena Vista Social Club

Anyone who has tried to translate between different languages knows the difficulties: it's not just vocabulary but nuance, idioms, inflection and humour which can get lost somewhere along the... > Read more