The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Little Ross of Bird Nest Roys
2 Sep 2013 | 2 min read
Bird Nest Roys apparently never actually signed to Flying Nun even though their music appeared on the label, and they didn't quite fit the stereotypes anyway. They weren't from Dunedin or Christchurch (they were from Auckland and specifically West Auckland before it became fashionable to be a Westie) and they didn't wear black jeans and polo-neck sweaters. They actually dressed up in... > Read more
Who is the Silliest Rossi?
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family
26 Aug 2013 | 2 min read
As the Handsome Family, the husband and wife duo of Rennie and Brett Sparks have made some of the most beguiling, curious, romantic, strange and delightful albums to come out of the corner we sometimes call Americana. They have written albums about science, Brett's bi-polar affliction and the wonder of Nature (the excellent Last Days of Wonder, see here) and their songs have been... > Read more
Caterpillars
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Rodger Fox
23 Aug 2013 | 4 min read
Rodger Fox has managed to do the unthinkable and what some might have said was impossible. For 40 years he has kept a big band viable in a small country. And along the way he has taken various versions of the band on overseas tours and brought in big names from the States to perform with his players in New Zealand. His bands have also recorded -- and he has a catalogue of releases under his... > Read more
Brazilian Fantasy
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Nick Granville
20 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
Wellington guitarist and composer Nick Granville first appeared at Elsewhere as far back as 2008 with his Wishful Thinking album with his group. An in-demand session player and guest performer (on everything from Dancing with the Stars to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) he is also a tutor at the New Zealand School of Music teaching classical and jazz guitar. He has played alongside such... > Read more
Blues for Les
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Phil Somervell of the Datsuns
19 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
We still get excited when New Zealand acts do well overseas – recently Gin and the current coverage of Lorde – but when the Datsuns out of Cambridge made the cover of the NME in late 2002 and were called the best live band on the planet we really started to pay attention to them. Mainly because they'd made more of an impression in the UK than they had on home-turf at that... > Read more
Bullseye
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Mark Robinson
5 Aug 2013 | 5 min read
Jazz advocate and radio host Mark Robinson started buying 7" singles as a 10 year old back in 1974. He was born in the Home Counties west of London and lived there until 27 then move up North. Seriously into soul, funk and jazz-funk until plunging heavily into jazz in late teens. He lived in Auckland for 18 years until relocating to Melbourne and has now been in Adelaide a few years... > Read more
Silo
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: John Bell
1 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
Multi-instrumentalist John Bell (vibes, horns, noises) has been at the cutting edge of New Zealand improvised music for many years. His name is on releases by CL Bob, the Spirals album with his own trio, various albums which take a new look at the possibilities of brass bands (which he grew up in and he revisits with the Spoilers of Utopia album on the iiii label out of Wellington) and latterly... > Read more
O Boundless Salvation
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Grant Haua and Mike Barker of Swamp Thing
27 Jul 2013 | 3 min read
The duo is a well-established format in pop, rock and blues. A line runs from the Everly Brothers and Sonny Terry with Brownie McGhee to the White Stripes, Black Keys and local acts like the Hasselhoff Experiment to the Bemsha Swing . . . and Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing are Grant Haua and Mike Barker, the former a singer/songwriter from Tauranga, the later longtime drummer with the John Butler... > Read more
Bumping and Grinding
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Max Pellicano
24 Jul 2013 | 1 min read
Probably best to give Max Pellicano the title that he tours under, Elvis to the Max, because he is one of the best Elvis impersonators around (one of my sons bought me the t-shirt after we saw him years ago, I still have it) and he's coming back for another New Zealand tour. Dates below. This time Max is playing with a 15-piece orchestra so we can expect some pretty big ballads. Max has... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Roger Manins
18 Jul 2013 | 3 min read
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 sensitivity to hard bop and recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums, among them the Trio album for Rattle Jazz with bassist Moysten Cole and drummer Reuben Bradley (reviewed here). Elsewhere... > Read more
Hip Flask
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Simon Thacker
15 Jul 2013 | 4 min read
Scotland's Simon Thacker is one of Elsewhere's kinda people. He plays classical guitar but has his ears wide open to the world and mostly works in cross-cultural contexts with musicians from India. His most recent album Rakshasa with his ensemble Svara-Kanti finds him exploring that area deeply, but the centrepiece is a commission from minimalist innovator Terry Riley. And look at his... > Read more
Dhumaketu
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Fergus Barrowman
15 Jul 2013 | 4 min read | 1
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. This year VUP has its biggest ever literary list: eight books of fiction (including four first books and two second books) and nine of poetry (one first, two second). Barrowman also edits and... > Read more
Poem
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Paolo Chagas
10 Jul 2013 | 2 min read
Portuguese-born woodwind player and musical experimentalist Paolo Chagas features on the impressive duets album Forest Stories with pianist Tania Giannouli, who has recently answered our Questionnaire here. But Chagas -- who also works with electronics, studied at the Conservatory of Lisbon and has engaged with pop, classical and jazz artists -- is also a very interesting character who... > Read more
Spring's Chronic
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Simon Gooding of The Map Room
8 Jul 2013 | 3 min read
Simon Gooding is one half of The Map Room whose debut album All You'll Ever Find has impressed Elsewhere. He is a graduate of School of Audio Engineering and that was where he met fellow Map Room player Brendon Morrow. They studied in Auckland for a year then both went on to Byron Bay in Australia to complete their degrees. “The studios over there were incredible,” he says,... > Read more
Elastic Tongue
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Sam Scott of Phoenix Foundation
4 Jul 2013 | 4 min read
And now for someone who should need no introduction, Samuel Flynn Scott of Phoenix Foundation. They have frequently appeared at Elsewhere and Scott has appeared under his own name also. But this is appropriate right now because with their new album Fandango and a tie-in national tour (dates below) we need to ask the questions, and go right back to the beginning with . .. The first piece of... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Tania Giannouli
2 Jul 2013 | 2 min read
Earlier this year Elsewhere -- and many other reviewers locally and internationally -- was impressed by the album Forest Stories by Greek pianist/composer Tania Giannouli and woodwind player Paulo Chagas. These improvised pieces had an evocatively cinematic quality or, as Nuno Lourenco observed in a liner note, "the haunting piano sets the canvas on which the wind instruments add... > Read more
The Way Back Home
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Benjii Jackson of Muzai Records
1 Jul 2013 | 6 min read
You gotta love the motto of Benjii Jackson's Muzai Records: "independent Fighting Spirit". And they been going their independent way since 2009 wqith some of Elsewhere's favourite fuzzy pop albums. Records by the Wilberforces, the Bemsha Swing, god bows to maths, Sunken Seas, Zen Mantra (and yes even Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing) have had considerable airtime in the Elsewhere... > Read more
Deluge Slides
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Phil Broadhurst
24 Jun 2013 | 2 min read
So, where to begin with acclaimed pianist/composer and teacher Phil Broadhurst who was awarded the MNZM back in 2001 for his services to jazz? We could mention his study at Berklee then four decades of playing and recording back in New Zealand, albums with his group Sustenance, all the awards (three times winner of jazz album of the year not to mention nominations) and his Masters degree in... > Read more
Scoreless
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Dixon Nacey
21 Jun 2013 | 6 min read
Guitarist Dixon Nacey's new album Cross Now with drummer Ron Samsom and bassist Kevin Haines is a real step up for this trio whose debut Oxide (with guests) annonced a trio of impressive strengths and thoughtfulness. Nacey has been playing professionally for almost two decades and isn't just in the jazz corner. He has played in funk and rock bands, worked the corporate circuit, is a... > Read more
The Remarkable Mr Hopkins
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: J. Willgoose of Public Service Broadcasting
17 Jun 2013 | 3 min read | 1
Let's get out of the way quickly here because you'd rather hear from this gentleman than Elsewhere. But just to say the debut album Inform Educate Entertain by the British duo Public Service Broadcasting was an immediate favourite at Elsewhere (see review here) and so it is pleasure to have the knob-twiddler and sampler J. Willgoose Esq from the group answer the Famous Elsewhere... > Read more