Wellington Jazz Festival - Check Out the Pictures

Click the Image or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/wellingtonjazzfestival/

Otis Taylor - Wellington Jazz Festival 5 March 2009

Despite a few technical hitches with pedals, Otis and Dughter Cassie managed to pull off a great informal blues soaked nite. Cassie, his daughter who plays bass came out singing an a capella version of 'Mona Lisa' before Otis strung up his banjo for a few no.s from his atest 'Recapturing' the banjo. bluegrass this aint as he pointed out this is African music. Otis who originally hails from Chicago later demonstated his Hambones, a knee slapping,rhytm thing which he extended to a song accompanied by two impromtu 'dancers' he'd plucked from a visit to Te Papa earler that day. the guys were on stage performing Haka in tie to Otis' harmonica and Cassie's throbbing bass. An interesting, humerous twist. You couldnt really say that Taylor was all blues but his stuff has appeal at many levels. His version of 'Hey Joe', a rare cover brought the house down, especially the guitar solo performed by one of his band mates ('When BB King plays my songs, I'll ply his"). Taylor uses a throbbing strum, in a cyclic motion to build up the rythm section of his songs, no drums required, although in his case un-needed. He uses distortions, via the elusive wah-wah peddle to create sound scapes ove which come the convention and familiar gravelly vocals and singalong choruses. Initially I was sceptical of his inclusion at a Jazz Festival, as he's more a pop/blues thing. but over all, and given his popularity with the crowd, this was a great and enjoyful choice.

Check our Photo album for more photos of the gig.

Photos of the Pacific Blue Lounge - Jazz Festival 4 Mar 200

Wellington Jazz Festival - And Otis Taylor

Wednesdays Night kicked off the Wellingotn Jazz Festival with a very nice Corpoarate do and some fine music. The Pacific Blue Lounge, the major venue for the festival is actually the Wellington Town Hall. With a difference: By 'recycling' the floor from Last Year's festival show 'The Black Watch' back into the Edwardian designed Town Hall, the crew have raised the floor to the level of the 1st flr Balcony: 'We lowered the ceilng by raining the floor' - fran Wilde Festival Chairwoman. Cassie Taylor, daughter and Bassist for Otis, told the assembled that they'd 500 8 yr olds earlier that day 'testing' it out, as part of a workshop they held - and the floor was safe. thank mingus for that!

The intro evening went off wth a Bag! The Kid met Kirsten Johnstone from Music 101, Cassie Taylor, Members of Twinset and Fat Freedy's Drop plus Chilean Bandleader Cristian Cuttorufo (who played one wicked jam during the intro nite). Also plaing was LA Mitchell (Who brought the house down with her powerful voice, especially on Hall and Oates' "Rich Girl"), Mike Nock who palyed some introspective ditties and Otis Taylor - who'd already done a blues for Children workshop earlier that day ( See pic above).

The Coffee Bar Kid is in two minds about this year's festival. While this year it's gone big time as an alternation with the International Arts Fesitval and run by the International Arts Festival Team, the underground, skoey independence has gone. Gone, too is the intimacy of some of the venues. the Pacific Blue Lounge is great, but still an auditorium. BUT, but this year's international line up far supercedes what previous festivals could attain, given the sponsorship deals and team now on the board. Let us thank many times over the previous chairs and organisers and thank the new crews too for a great Festival. Last year's Venue Happy was just a little too dingy, so the new venue the Pacific Blue Lounge, uplifts and does give one the chance to pack in the Punters.

I also want to personally thank Sarah at Transmit, who understands that while Groove is a smaller pplayer, we can contribut to the Media mix. Sarah sends us CDs, interviewees and keeps us in the loop re the festival and many other artist endevours - Kia Ora, Sarah! Oh and love those funky hats!

The Kid took a couple of Photos of thePacific Blue Note which are on the next Blog - Check 'em out.

Laters - Coffee Bar Kid

We're BACK!

Hey. Hey. Coffee Bar Kid Here and back on line. Life has been full on for the Groove Crew. Dean has had a new Kidney replacement, The Kid's new daugther, Katie was born on 15/2 (Forever to be known as DJ Demitasse - get it), and the Wellington Jazz Festival is up and running. Plus, Groove Goes to WOMAD in New Plymouth next week. Whew!

OK, first tings first. Big ups to the mysterious donor who provided Dean, our Station Manager with the kidney. Dean had been suffering from a condition that slowly saw the shut down of both hiskidneys and had already forced him on to dialysis. thanks to the gerous donation, Dean was able to re-gain his life, and dignity again. it also meant he could look forward to working full time again (Dialysis involves long periods of down time while the 'blood cleaning' process goes on - 12 hours every 2 nights on average, it varies) What that means, is that the possibility of leading a life, less a night life is severly restricted. When Dean went on holiday a couple of years ago he had to drop into prescheduled hospitales to dialise - you get the idea of how diabilitating this can be. So long story short, Dean's op went well last year and an enjoyable, relef-ful, Xmas was held. Dean's now back on his feet, gainful employment has smiled on him, and perhaps love, too. Yes you heard right. Welcome to the lovely Pam, who is frequenting Dean's new life.

Speaking of Greeting, the Kid would like to say a big Theankyou to Katie-Kat - who has now departed us to Christchurch. Rergular Thursday listeners will have heard her and the Kid on Air late last year getting up to all hhi-Jinx. We'll Miss Ya, Kat. Aroha!

And welcome to the new Kat. Bearly 2 weeks old she's already grooving to Sola Rosa's new album, Kate Elizabeth Gruar joined the home crew at the Kid's house on 15 February, after the usual birthing excitements. Kate, DJ Demitasse, to you, loves pink, milk and sleeping but is keeping her options open - not dought her sister McKenzie will be looking for oppotunities to subject her to Hi-Five and Hannah Montana. But you'll be please to know, Baby Jazz, the CD is very big at the residence right now, thanks Mingus for that!

Speaking of Mingus, the Mingus Big Band plus loads of others are at the Wellington Jazz Festival this week! Yo Yo Mama! As is the Sexy Melainie Pain, whom I saw in a little off-festival bar show last nite, what a voice, babies! Sarah at Transmit very kindy hooked the Groove team up with some Tickets to see shows, Roy Ayers and Otis Taylor were fan froggin'tastic. See my review on the next blog.

Finally Groove will be doing the Do at WOMAD (you heard us!) Next weekend (13-15 March) in the 'Naki. The artist list is massive check the links for the scedule - Looking forward to seeing Anika Moa, Speed Caravan, Gurrumul and Fat Freddy's Drop to name but a few.

Well I gotta blog more often - my fingers are burnin' Blog soon Groovers, Ka kite Anou - Coffee Bar Kid

The Woolshed Sessions: Did you catch the Interview with Jess Chambers and Age Pryor?

Last Thursday on "The Adventures of the Coffeebar Kid" (Thurs 6PM) We were honoured to have the multi talented Jess Chambers (Solo Work, Rhian Sheehan) and Age Pryor (Solo Work, Wellington Ukekle Orchestra, Fly My Pretties) in the studio to talk about their latest project : The Woolshed Sessions.

What's resulted is an album, a deluxe limited edition version (incl Session Photos by Andy Morley-Hall) and a live October Season at Bats - Thurs 9, Fri 10, Sat 10 (2 Sessions) & Sun 11 (2 Sessions)

http://www.bats.co.nz/plays/08/The-Woolshed-Sessions.html

Or phone 802 4175

The Woolshed Sessions music was captured on an improvised recording set-up; essentially a borrowed collection of nice microphones plugged into a tired old computer as the musicians worked four days straight, morning, afternoon and night. The tunes are mostly fresh songs written by various members of the eight strong collective. These songs were jammed and then recorded ‘live’ - everyone singing and playing together, often with many attempts made until getting a version down that was felt to be ‘the one’.Throughout is the ambient resonance of the space the music was created and recorded in – a converted woolshed with bare timber floors, lined with plywood and clad in corrugated iron looking across the Takaka Valley.

For more details go to http://www.myspace.com/woolshedsessions

LA Mitchell In town for 1 Show

Just in LA Mitchell the Canterbury Jazz/Soul Singer is in Town to release here new album "Lve at the Matterhorn"

Playing at the Famous Matterhorn 8 October
- contact them on 03 849918

Background:: The evening of April 23, 2008 was a watershed moment for LA Mitchell as she prepared to perform. This was no ordinary gig, nor was it an ordinary venue. It was a triumphant return to Wellington to play at the world famous Matterhorn, following in the giant footsteps of Fat Freddy's Drop at the same venue that catapulted them to heights never before reached in NZ music.
For the entirely independent Kiwi musician, the performance represented a significant new stage in her career, when she would build on the success of her acclaimed 2007 album Debut with an album that would solidify her status as one of the rising talents of homegrown music.
LA Mitchell: Live at the Matterhorn is a gorgeous album of her original music spliced with new tracks and reinterpretations of classics. The album sees Mitchell uncork a sparkling collection of seductive soul and jazz, that reveals her undeniable talent as both a singer-songwriter and musician.
Recorded live one special evening at the famous drinking and dining venue, to a crowd that was tightly packed in and full of anticipation, LA Mitchell: Live At The Matterhorn captures the magic of the atmosphere. Playing at the Famous Matterhorn 8 October - contact them on 03 849918

Here's Our Photo Album

Check Out Photos from the Food Show on Flickr.com. See link to the right: Groove Photo Album (OR copy this to your address line : http://www.flickr.com/photos/groove1077fm/sets/72157605077150582/)

What a month!!!

Well! Where do I start? We were on and off-air a fair whack for a couple of weeks there with 3 different transmission faults! One of our transmission masts fell over. We got that fixed but still no signal. What are the odds that the transmitter at a different location blew up at the same time! Got that fixed and then a few days later the power at the transmission site went out. Luckily it's all fixed now and we're happily back on-air, sounding great.

The technical problems didn't stop there though. We must have had a power surge in the studio I think as we also damaged the emergency backup power, the no.2 PC, 2 x turntables, on-air desk, CD player...

As you can imagine, there is a bit of a repair bill (although a big thanks to Phil for helping out). So, now would be a great time to donate some money to the worthy cause that is Groove 107.7FM. Remember, we are the only station of our kind in NZ and we, to date, have had no funding from anyone apart from our fabulous advertisers and donations from you wonderful listeners. Scroll down the page to find out how to donate.

On a personal level (and while all this was happening) I had the fantastic luck to have a successful Kidney transplant, amazingly from a complete stranger who wanted to do a good deed (while living)! I believe that this is only the second time this has happened in Wellington. After being on the waiting list and on dialysis for nearly 5 years it really was a case of prayers answered. I'm incredibly thankful to the donor (who I have not met). It all went perfectly and the doctors said I was their star patient. By the way, if you want to be an organ donor, having it mentioned on your drivers licence is not enough (in fact it's irrelevant). You must tell your family/next of kin your wishes. They are the ones who make the decision in the event of your passing...

Anyway, back to ramping Groove up a gear. Lots of new music to get on-air.

Stay tuned and feel free to contact us for any reason.

Groovemiester

GROOVE IS BACK AT THE FOOD SHOW

Go here to read more about the Food Show and the Exhibitors : http://www.foodshow.co.nz/index.cfm/Home

Carrara Park Jazz Picnic (Sat 7/3/08)

Come and join us down at Carrara Park in Newtown for the Jazz picnic as part of the Newtown festival.

Free live jazz from midday from Deja Blue, Premo 4tet, Warick Murray and Jessie James and the Outlaws (who blew everyone away at the Parihaka festival) as well as music from Groove in between. The forecast is great so come and join us!

The park his a hidden gem, down the short path opposite Donald McLean St (see http://www.wises.co.nz/ for a map).

Entertainment runs until 5.30.

Jazz News!

There are 2 Wellington jazz Club gigs this month;
The welcome return of the 10th avenue band from San Diego, 1 day shy of a year since they last performed for us. Tight swing and trad jazz on Wednesday the 20th of Feb at the Loaded Hog ballroom from 7.30.
Feb 24th sees Eric newton - popular English clarinet player - return once again to bring us that classic jazz sound at Old St Pauls. 5pm start. Both concerts are $15 or $12 for members of the Wgtn JAzz Club.

The 46th National Jazz festival is comming up over Easter in Tauranga. Stay tuned to Groove 107.7FM formore details.

Also, the International Festival of the Arts features some jazz artists this time around. Again, more information on Groove.

Supporting the community and especially the jazz scene, Groove 107.7FM, NZ's only cafe style jazz radio station!