Jazz in Elsewhere

Carolina Moon: East of the Sun (Global Routes)

8 Apr 2007 | <1 min read

Even more New Zealand jazz. And different again. Moon began her career in London more than a decade ago, moved to Australia (where as Caroline Lynn she won considerable media praise) and then came to New Zealand. She is now married to saxophonist Roger Manins who appears here, along with pianist Kevin Field, guitarist-for-all-seasons Nigel Gavin, drummer Chris O'Connor, Oliver Holland on... > Read more

Carolina Moon: East of the Sun

Buzz Bahdur: Horizontal Life (Rhythmethod)

25 Mar 2007 | <1 min read | 1

Don't let the cheap cover put you off: this is a genuine slice of 70's-based jazz-fusion (with an overlay of contemporary world music and effects) by guitarist/composer Roy Venkataraman -- here as Buzz Bahdur -- whose CV boasts playing in Bob Marley's Wailers, on numerous television ads, appearing on Brooke Fraser's album What To Do With Daylight and so much more. He seems to be based in... > Read more

Buzz Bahdur: New World Bliss

Aronas: Culture Tunnels (Southbound)

14 Mar 2007 | <1 min read

This is an interesting one: originally released under the same title but in a different cover two years ago from the band lead by gifted young New Zealand pianist Aron Ottignon, it has now undergone a considerable reworking. If you were one of the few who picked up on the early -- and lesser -- version you could actually get into this one as if it were a new album: there are two muscular... > Read more

Aronas: The Splits

Kevin Clark: Zahara (KCM)

15 Feb 2007 | <1 min read

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... > Read more

Kevin Clark: River Weep For Me

NPME: Mareureu (Pacific Echoes)

15 Feb 2007 | <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... > Read more

NPME: Arivera

Brian Smith: Taupo (Manu/Ode)

14 Feb 2007 | <1 min read

Most New Zealand jazz is like the Kiwi: endangered, pokes around in the dark away from public gaze and doesn't take flight. This year however is shaping up to be a good one: albums by Wellingtonians Kevin Clark and Charmaine Ford are both worth serious attention, and now a long overdue new album from Auckland saxophonist Brian Smith. Smith recorded one of my favourite local jazz... > Read more

Brian Smith: Kids At Play

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Brotherman in the Fatherland (Hyena/Southbound

21 Jan 2007 | <1 min read

Kirk, who died almost 30 years ago, was one of those musicians who divided jazz critics: some thought he was a showman-cum-charlatan (he could play three saxophones simultaneously) and others thought he was something close to a genius. I head cautiously more toward the latter, although he did often seem to be pulling tricks of a bag to impress rather than to enlighten. Certainly... > Read more

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: I Want To Make It With You

Gianmarco Liguori: Stolen Paintings (Sarang Bang)

15 Oct 2006 | <1 min read

Some weeks ago I mentioned having seen the group Dukes of Leisure play at the Auckland Observatory Skydome. On the same bill was Salon Kingsadore, also enjoying an appropriately spacey venue for music that took off on instrumental astral flights. Liguori is the guitarist with Salon Kingsadore but here leans more towards jazz than setting his controls for the heart of the sun. He called on... > Read more

The Neil Cowley Trio: Displaced (HideInside/Southbound)

27 Aug 2006 | <1 min read

Frankly, British jazz usually doesn't ring my bell. There have been a few artists (Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard, Jazz Warriors etc) in the past couple of decades who have made an impact, but most have seemed lacking in depth and gravitas, especially when lined alongside some of the hot talent the States is inevitably throwing up. However pianist Cowley -- here with bassist Richard Sadler... > Read more

Neil Cowley Trio: How Do We Catch Up

Thomas Demenga: Chonguri (ECM/Ode)

19 Aug 2006 | <1 min read

This might seem an unusual choice for Music From Elsewhere -- classical music on violoncello with piano and accordion accompaniment. But Demenga's catalogue is impressive and his '94 duet album with his brother Patrick, 12 Hommages a Paul Sacher, has never been far from my stereo on quiet nights. His on-going series where he alternates historic (notably Bach) and contemporary composers... > Read more

Azymuth: Pure, The Best of Far Out Years 1995-2006 (Far Out/Southbound)

16 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

The Brazilian trio at the core of Azymuth have been together since Adam was a young man: they started playing together in the 60s, named themselves Azymuth in the early 70s, and are still going today. Their blend of funky electric jazz and Brazilian sounds has been intermittently popular (they were very cool in the mid 70s for example, and had a minor hit with Jazz Carnival in 1980), and for... > Read more

Azymuth: Amazon Adventure (Jazzanova Remix)

Charles Lloyd: Sangam (ECM/Ode)

9 Jul 2006 | <1 min read

The return of saxophonist Charles Lloyd to the frontline in the early 90s after almost two decades away has been one of the most enjoyable in jazz. If you want to hear downright beautiful and emotionally engaging jazz albums which are seductive rather than confrontational then you can't go past the Lloyd albums of the past decade, especially Lift Every Voice. But I won't lie to you,... > Read more

Charles Lloyd: Tender Warriors

Anouar Brahem: Le Voyage de Sahar (ECM/Ode)

15 Jun 2006 | <1 min read

Tunisian Brahem who plays oud --- like a slack-string lute -- steers another fine album under his own name on ECM, a label with a reputation for meticulously produced if sometime emotionally distant music. Here with pianist Francois Couturier and accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier these exotic and evocative pieces conjure up cool nights -- rather than hot days -- in the Sahara and there is an... > Read more

Anouar Brahem: Sur Le Fleve

Jan Garbarek: Rites (ECM)

1 Nov 2004 | 1 min read

Norwegian saxophonist Garbarek scored a huge crossover album in 1995 with Officium which lined him up with the Hilliard Ensemble for an inspired marriage of the spiritual and the secular which ended up on many classical, jazz and even pop "best of" lists. Garbarek's biting, sometimes clinically incisive, tone has often been described as passionless: not true. Jazz people often... > Read more

Jan Garbarek: Her Wild Ways

FRANK GIBSON JNR INTERVIEWED (2004): Still banging the drum

23 Sep 2004 | 6 min read

Fifty years ago this weekend, jazz drummer Frank Gibson played his first public concert as an 8 1/2-year-old. And he's never stopped. The son of the late drummer Frank Snr, he has played rock and pop, appeared on over 150 albums and helmed three great Kiwi jazz bands: Dr Tree, Space Case and Jazzmobile. The fusion group Dr Tree won most promising group in the 76 Rata awards and his Rainbow... > Read more

Various Artists: Weird Nightmare; Meditations on Mingus (Sony)

31 Aug 2004 | 1 min read

Arranger Hal Willner has put together some exciting, fascinating, irritating collaborations in the past on his tributes to Walt Disney music, Thelonious Monk, Kurt Weill and Fellini soundtrack man Nino Rota. But this one for jazz composer/bassist Charles Mingus is a bit different. Previously Willner would put together people such as rock guitarists Chris Spedding and Peter Frampton... > Read more

Bill Frisell, Gary Lucas, Greg Cohen and others: Jump Monk

LEROY JONES INTERVIEWED (2004): Trumpeter from Nawlins and the frozen North

10 Mar 2004 | 4 min read

Leroy Jones speaks exactly as you might expect from a New Orleans-born trumpet player. That slow drawl with vowels dragging easily, that slightly raspy whisper so familiar from that other great trumpeter born in his hometown. And when he laughs he also sounds like Satchmo, the great Louis Armstrong.Yet Jones is different from so many of his trumpet-playing peers. He tours with players from... > Read more

Frank Gibson Jnr: Rainbow Bridge (Ode)

7 Feb 2003 | 3 min read

Mid-last year I was asked to write the liner notes for an album by a local musician. These offers are usually politely declined for obvious reasons. But this one was different, so I agreed to pen some words if I liked what I heard. After the first listen I knew I would - no money changed hands and, should you wish, you can read my notes inside this long overdue album by Auckland drummer... > Read more

MATT PENMAN INTERVIEWED (2002): Finding a new home bass

17 Apr 2002 | 4 min read

Maybe it's that trait of self-effacement many New Zealanders have, or maybe Matt Penman is just naturally modest, but his achievements these past five years would have others bannering them large. Penman, an exceptional jazz bassist at age 27, seems almost unfazed as he speaks about recently being in Turkey, before that Russia and, oh yeah, through central Europe also, Japan a few... > Read more

MAYNARD FERGUSON INTERVIEWED (2002): And the band played on

7 Jan 2002 | 3 min read

They don't make them like Maynard Ferguson any more. At 73 he's still out there on the road almost nine months a year playing his brand of gutsy, big-band jazz to audiences in small and large venues. Yet even in the world of jazz, Ferguson is unique. At one level, he's a populist and populariser, who is known for having hit songs such as his reworking of MacArthur Park and the theme... > Read more