Wellington Jazz Festival is ready to go!

With less than a week to go until the Wellington Jazz Festival we're super excited to see Wellington enlivened with more than 100 gigs across the city! 

Don't know where to start with the programme? We've got some inspo for you, with tributes to the classics and jazz for the film buffs among us to world premieres. 

To get you in the mood check out this playlist.

Here are a few highlights you need to note:

World Premieres

If you haven't booked yet for our amazing Jazz Premiere Series, get in quick. Riki Gooch's Ngā Tuone has already sold out and we wouldn't want you to miss out on the others! These performances will all feature brand new compositions commissioned by the Festival from some of Aotearoa's top performers.

Read Tim Gruar's interview with Riki on this amazing project.

Book now for the time-travelling tunes of Karla and The Divide by Blair Latham and the Noveltones, which will feature visual accompaniment created live on the night. 

For a celebration of resilience and coming together in the face of adversity from pianist Kevin Field and NYC-based bassist Matt Penman, make sure to check out the Kevin Field Quintet. 

In a performance for all the senses, join Anita Schwabe for a composition that will transport you from Cuba Street to Otari-Wilton's Bush alongside artistic photography. 

Classic Album Make Overs

Ol' King Cole

An ode to the great drum-less trio of Nat King Cole, featuring Louis Thompson-Munn. The formidable Ol' King Cole was born out of a love of the great music of Nat King Cole's early drum-less trio, which was active 1943-1950. Humour and a lively sense of banter is the essence of what makes this band a great enjoyment to behold.

Sat 21 Nov, 4pm | Southern Cross Garden Bar and Restaurant

Festival Big Band Play Sinatra/Basie

The annual All Stars Big Band takes on two iconic albums; The Atomic Mr Basie and Sinatra at the Sands featuring rising vocal star Eugine Wolfin. The All Star Big Band is led by the incomparable John Rae on Drums along with Ben Wilcock playing the part of The Count on piano.

Thurs 19 Nov, 7:45pm | Meow

Rogue Classic Albums Live: Ella and Louis

Local singer Ella Dunbar-Wilcox presents Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s 1956 masterpiece Ella and Louis with full band as The Rogue and Vagabond hosts five nights of classic albums played live by top local musicians.

Fri 20 Nov, 7pm | The Rogue and Vagabond

Jazz On Film

The Vincent Vega Four

 Hard-hitting mix of surf, soul & rock'n'roll.  These real pipe-hittin' muthas plus Wellington's very own soul diva Lisa Tomlins bring a raucous mix of Tarantino tunes. Grab your hunny bunny and bring out the gimp for a night of banging awesomeness full of great vengeance and furious anger!

Also featuring Chris Armour on guitar, Nick Lissette on bass and Richard TeOne on drums.

Fri 20 Nov, 10:30pm |  Hashigo Zake

Pandora's Box (Germany - 1929)

Jazz-age cinema classic with live improvised accompaniment.  The iconic Louise Brooks stars as free-spirited Lulu in G.W. Pabst's bold, lurid, dazzlingly ahead-of-its-time journey through the eroticism and desperation of Weimar Berlin. Long hailed as a silent masterpiece, Pandora's Box is now brought to you with a live-in-the-room musical score from Leonardo Coghini on suitably period keys and Frank Talbot on slinkily sexy sax!

Sun 22 Nov, 7pm | Hashigo Zake

Callum Allardice's Cinematic Light Orchestra

An Arthur Street Loft Orchestra special: new works for jazz orchestra inspired by music for film.

In 2016 Callum Allardice’s "Sons of Thunder" (from The Jac’s 2015 album The Green Hour) won the inaugural APRA Best Jazz Composition Award at the NZ Jazz Awards. He won it again the following year with "Deep Thought" from the 2018 Antipodes album Good Winter, and in 2019 was a finalist for his piece "Chungin."

Fri 20 Nov, 10pm | The Third Eye

Avantdale Bowling Club to headline the 2020 Wellington Jazz Festival

West Auckland rapper and hip hop artist Tom Scott will bring his “stunning” (NPR) genre-pushing jazz, hip-hop project Avantdale Bowling Club to Wellington for “an incredible journey of jazz, rap, soul, and spoken word” (Radio13) at the Opera House on Saturday 21 November. 

Joined by some of the country’s top musicians, Scott’s “turn-on-a-pin rhythmic cadence” (Metromag) and his “brutally honest, startlingly raw” lyrics (NZ Herald) promise one of the best nights of live music you’ll experience this year. 

In 2019, his first album under the moniker Avantdale Bowling Club saw Scott win the Taite Music Prize, Album of the Year and Hip-hop Artist awards at the New Zealand Music Awards, as well as being named a finalist at the Silver Scrolls for the song Years Gone By. 

Influenced by the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane, Scott describes his latest album as “a self-help book addressed to myself” that was four years in the making.   

Avantdale Bowling Club’s genre isn’t easy to pin down. Typically irreverent, Scott’s Spotify profile for the project calls it “irrelevant jazz from an island nation off the coast of Antarctica.”   

“The album’s about home and its inhabitants, with all their inadequacies and complexities. It’s about finding peace in the little piece of land you stand on,” he says. 

Scott first emerged in 2007 with Home Brew, a band that still performs live. His other projects – Average Rap Band, @Peace, a new Average Man collaboration and his new label ‘Years Gone By’, ensure that he continues to influence a generation of young rappers and push boundaries across genres. 

Scott has been hard at work on ABC 2, so the Wellington Jazz Festival audience is likely to hear new material from his stellar ensemble including Tonga Vaea (vocals/keys/trumpet), Guy Harrison (keys/trumpet), JY Lee (saxophone), Ben Turua (upright bass/bass guitar) and Julien Dyne (drums). 

Wellington Jazz Festival Creative Director Marnie Karmelita says she is looking forward to Wellington Jazz Festival audiences experiencing the incredible ensemble for themselves.  

“Surrounding himself with some of the best jazz musicians in the country, Tom Scott’s latest project has been recognised for its innovation and sheer brilliance. I’m thrilled we were still able to secure them for the rescheduled Wellington Jazz Festival in November this year in a completely New Zealand focused programme.” 

Tickets for Avantdale Bowling Club will be on public sale from 1 September on Ticketmaster. There will be a Culture Club supporters pre-sale from 25 August. Head here to join and find out more.

Keep an eye out for further programme updates over the coming weeks. 

Review: Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet – Wellington Jazz Festival, Michael Fowler Centre 6 June 2019

Photo:Tim Gruar

CoffeeBar Kid at the Wellington Jazz Festival 2019

Born and raised in Oakland, California, intrepid trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was as a member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, where he caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman who hired him as a member of his Five Elements band for a European tour. From there Akinmusire went from strength to strength, playing in the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. Studying at the famous Manhattan School of Music before returning to the West Coast to take a master's degree at the University of Southern California and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in LA.

He’s racked up a stash of industry awards and released a bunch of very ambitious discs starting in 2007 with his debut recording Prelude... to Cora. He’s a man to hire having worked with Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran. In 2011 Blue Note snapped him up and released his ground breaking album When the Heart Emerges Glistening. Four years ago he dropped The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint, followed by appearances on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 big effort To Pimp a Butterfly.

Critics agree, when last year he pulled off something of a small miracle of synthesis with Origami Harvest combining state-of-the-art improvisation with stylish, sophisticated pieces for string quartet, experimental electronics, and a dialogue of politically charged spoken word ‘beat poetry‘ performances. With a wind up like that I was fully charged with anticipation.

Photo: Tim Gruar

But first up NZ School of Music Big band, conducted by Roger Fox, gave us a short set played by 15 students, mainly horns. They blasted through a rapid paced selection from Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and a couple of other standards. Sadly, Fox’s break neck speed interpretation of Cheek To Cheek completely ran over it’s fledgling vocalist, leaving her in dishevelled heap on the side of the road. Ambrose Akinmusire has been up at the school teaching and mentoring the trumpeters today. Many in the band were clearly looking well pleased with their day. He'd graciously given some stage time for the students to get a bit of large hall experience. While it’s clear these kids were nervous they had potential and it showed. It was great to see our musical future is in good hands.

After a quick reset, we're underway with the main act. Tonight's audience was smaller and more intimate than last night with Herbie Hancock but still enthusiastic and engaging. A younger set but that's no surprise given that his latest album is such a wide ranging selection incorporating everything from chamber music to rap and hip hop. I’d hoped the night would include some of the material from Origami Harvest but that wasn’t on the agenda. Instead, the show drew inspiration from When the Heart Emerges Glistening and The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint. I say ‘inspiration” because none of these loose, free jazz approximations were announced. Even the most ardent fan would have trouble deciphering what belonged on wax and from which record it came from.

The first thing that strikes you is how incredibly coherent and tight this quartet is. No surprise, given that they’ve been operating as a working unit for nearly seven years. Individually, any one of these players could hold their own. But working together with this alchemist, Ambrose, Sam Harris (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass) and Kweku Sumbry (drums) reach a considerably higher plain. Watching this team at work, it seems to me more logical to describe how they operate rather than how they are lead.

Photo: Tim Gruar

In fact, it’s not really clear who’s in charge. Raghavan and Sumbry are a uniquely potent force and constantly show their singular ability to design and deliver the structure and the shape of each a piece. Over that there are textures of light and rough, delicacy and harshness from Harris’s piano and Akinmusire’s trumpet.

At just 21 and only recently graduated, Sumbry proved himself to be the real the star tonight. He gave us a relentless onslaught of multi cadenced rhythms and counter rhythms. There were times when his left and right hand, left foot and right foot were all travelling in different directions that made no sense but were perfectly aligned to navigate this twisted landscape designed and laid down by the other three.

I’d heard that Akinmusire is the future of trumpet playing in the jazz world, so tonight I was expecting great things. But somehow I felt a little bit let down. He seemed to be leading an the unremitting search for contrast, for tonal texture, to take the listener somewhere unexpected. Yet at the same time, he seemed to get a bit lost. His unstructured playing sometimes fell a bit flat to these ears. And a bit pointless. Still I’m not a player. Sometimes abstract playing is about the sculptures they create in your ears, rather than a simple melody abstracted and manipulated. Perhaps it was the odd, tuneless squeaks and blasts that didn’t go with the rest of the composition.

Occasionally, I thought he was playing bad, unintentional notes, as if his trumpet was malfunctioning. Only once did we get a proper solo section, which was simply a selection of random arpeggios, a re-imagining of a Bach prelude, or something like that. Other times he teased us into more conventional rich atonal moments that were more familiar to conventional jazz playing. It was only then that I really saw the skill bubble up. Yet playing this was seemed like a cop out. Where was the brash experimentation of his recorded albums? Ultimately I felt dissatisfied.

I’d like to say our attention was fully held through out the night but this wasn’t entirely true. I don’t want to write off the night as mediocre but I did come away feeling like there was more to this than I’d received. Akinmusire is clearly a musician’s musician and there were several mesmerising solos, especially from young Kweku Sumbry who is definitely one to watch, but beyond there seemed to be little more than a sustained intention to preserve a level of the Avant Guard within the confines of conventional modern jazz.

The 2018 Wellington Jazz Festival is on!

The Wellington Jazz Festival kicks off today, with an impressive array of international stars and home-grown jazz talent bringing their smooth grooves and cool beats to the city’s streets, bars and venues. 

Shelagh Magadza, Artistic Director of Wellington Jazz Festival, says that with around 150 gigs packed into the next five days, music lovers will be spoilt for choice - with many gigs that are either free or under $20 in the mix.

“Whether you’re seeing international stars Christian McBride, Chris Daveor Gretchen Parlato at the Opera House or enjoying some of the free gigs at Rogue & Vagabond, Te Papa or St Peter’s on Willis, the Jazz Festival is a mid-winter treat. Book tickets now to ensure you get to see some of the best acts on offer - but also make time for spontaneous late-night fun over the next week.” Shelagh said.

Performing with his ensemble New Jawn, Newport Jazz Festival director and renowned bassist Christian McBride will open the Jazz Festival with his anticipated one-off show at the Opera House tonight. Also on opening night, Ed Zuccollo will perform his magical soundscapes at Meow, while saxophonist Oscar Lavën takes to the stage at Moon in Newtown with his trio. Night owls in need of a post-show jazz fix should head to Meow to enjoy Jake Baxendale and the Jam for their late-night session. 

Thursday brings five-time Grammy Award nominee, guitarist Robben Ford to the Opera House stage, where he’ll be joined by American rock-soul singer Lydia Pense. Over at Civic Square, City Gallery will hold a special jazz-flavored edition of their Tuatara Open Late series, where Nigel Patterson (Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties) will play artist Michael Parekowhai’s stunning piano sculpture He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand River before Bella Kalolo takes to the gallery stage performing with a full band. Local drummer Myele Manzanza has brought pianist Mathew Sheens all the way from New York for their two shows at Meow on Thursday and Friday evenings.

Sultry songstress Gretchen Parlato presents her superb vocal range to the Opera House on Friday night, while Caroline bar hosts award-winning composer Callum Allardice with his Quintet. Saturday features one of biggest highlights of the Festival, John Beasley’s MONK’estra, a15-piece big band inspired by the musical spirit of jazz giant, Thelonious Monk. A handful of New Zealand musicians will join MONK’estra for the concert.

Free events include the family-friendly Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra performing takes on the Great American Songbook at Te Papa at 12pm Saturday, the Wellington Mingus Ensemble at the Southern Cross on Saturday evening, a round table discussion about gender and jazz in Aotearoa at The Third Eye on Friday, a pop-up jazz band at Wellington Airport, and a late-night DJ session with Martyn Pepperell at Meow on Saturday.

A collaborator with Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, D’Angelo and Adele to name a few, Chris “Daddy” Dave has been called the “most dangerous drummer alive”, and audiences will find out why when Chris and The Drumhedz take over the Opera House on Sunday night to conclude the Wellington Jazz Festival in style. 

About the 2018 Wellington Jazz Festival

The Wellington Jazz Festival runs 6–10 June 2018

Around 150 gigs take place over five days at 45 venues

The Jazz Festival draws a national audience of around 30,000 music fans

The Jazz Festival is home to the New Zealand Jazz Awards, with the winners announced tonight, Wednesday 6 June

Visit   www.jazzfestival.co.nz

Wellington Jazz Festival - Classic album : Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch

Jake Bexendale and Rueben Bradley and Paul Dyne plus friends do Eric Dolphy's amazing classic.

Wellington Jazz Festival - The Mellotones

The Wonderful all-Lady Jazz band the Mellotones entertain diners at the Wellington night market.

This week on the Adeventures of the CoffeeBar Kid - We preview the Wellington Jazz Festival

Yep. we have a look at the line up, just announced yesterday. 

Tune in from 7.30 tonite!

The festival features a variety of local and international acts including:

• CHICK COREA AND GARY BURTON DUET  

• JOSHUA REDMAN QUARTET  (USA)

• PABLO ZIEGLER  (ARGENTINA/NEW ZEALAND)

• LARRY CARLTON QUARTET  (USA)

• DAWN OF MIDI (USA)  

• BELLA KALOLO AND THE SOUL SYMPHONY  (NZ)

• THE TOM JOBIM SONGBOOK: BEYOND IPANEMA (Alda Rezende Sextet with Doug de Vries – Brazil/NZ/Australia)

• RODGER FOX BIG BAND OF NEW ZEALAND