Te Marama Pouro o Aotearoa | NZ Music Month - May 2021

NZ Music Month’s Rodney Fisher commented: “With a focus on bringing great music from Aotearoa to all New Zealanders, we look forward to highlighting stories from across the country, along with the reminder to support our musicians by getting out and catching live gigs, streaming local, following local acts online, and buying local music and merch.”

To mark 21 years of NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa, the NZ Music Commission are proud to present Art of the Record, a travelling exhibition to showcase 21 iconic album covers. The exhibition will open in Auckland on May 1st, before travelling to Wellington for May 10th, followed Christchurch on May 17th and Dunedin on May 24th.

Art of the Record’s curator Willa Cameron from NZ Music Month commented: “We’ve compiled a beautiful collection of artworks across various musical genres, including Fat Freddy’s Drop’s Boondigga from Otis Frizzell, and The Mint Chicks’ Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! from Ruban Nielson. We think there’s something for everyone in our collection of 21 pieces.”

Beyoncé Leads the 63rd Grammys Awards With 4 Wins

It was Beyoncé’s night at the Grammys yesterday. The singer won four awards last night and is now winner of the most Grammys ever. This is her 28th win (plus one for daughter Blue Ivy Carter) 

Taylor Swift picked up Best album, and Billie Eilish scored Record of the Year. 

The Black Lives Matter movement was honored with a performance by Lil Baby and a film about Beyoncé’s 'Black Parade'. Megan Thee Stallion was left speechless by her Best New Artist win. 

2021 GRAMMYs Awards Show: Jazz Nominees

The 63rd GRAMMY Awards are airing Sunday, March 14, 2021. And we have the nominees for this year's Jazz Category 

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

Best Improvised Jazz Solo
For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter's name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.

• GUINNEVERE
  Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, soloist
  Track from: Axiom
  
• PACHAMAMA
  Regina Carter, soloist
  Track from: Ona (Thana Alexa)
  
• CELIA
  Gerald Clayton, soloist
  
• ALL BLUES
  Chick Corea, soloist
  Track from: Trilogy 2 (Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade) 
• MOE HONK
  Joshua Redman, soloist
  Track from: RoundAgain (Redman Mehldau McBride Blade)

Thana Alexa

Best Jazz Vocal Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.

• ONA
  Thana Alexa
  
• SECRETS ARE THE BEST STORIES
  Kurt Elling Featuring Danilo Pérez 
• MODERN ANCESTORS
  Carmen Lundy 
• HOLY ROOM: LIVE AT ALTE OPER
  Somi With Frankfurt Radio Big Band Conducted By John Beasley 
• WHAT'S THE HURRY
  Kenny Washington

Ambrose Akinmusire

Best Jazz Instrumental Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new instrumental jazz recordings.

• ON THE TENDER SPOT OF EVERY CALLOUSED MOMENT
  Ambrose Akinmusire
  
• WAITING GAME
  Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science
  
• HAPPENING: LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD
  Gerald Clayton 
• TRILOGY 2
  Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade 
• ROUNDAGAIN
  Redman Mehldau McBride Blade

Gregg August

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new ensemble jazz recordings.

• DIALOGUES ON RACE
  Gregg August 
• MONK'ESTRA PLAYS JOHN BEASLEY
  John Beasley’s MONK’estra 
• THE INTANGIBLE BETWEEN
  Orrin Evans And The Captain Black Big Band 
• SONGS YOU LIKE A LOT
  John Hollenbeck With Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Gary Versace And The Frankfurt Radio Big Band 
• DATA LORDS
  Maria Schneider Orchestra

Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra 

Best Latin Jazz Album
For vocal or instrumental albums containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.

• TRADICIONES
  Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra 
• FOUR QUESTIONS
  Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra 
• CITY OF DREAMS
  Chico Pinheiro 
• VIENTO Y TIEMPO - LIVE AT BLUE NOTE TOKYO
  Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola 
• TRANE'S DELIGHT
  Poncho Sanchez

Find out who is nominated in each of the 83 categories in the full nominees here: 

Groove gets down at the Island Bay Festival

Dean and Groove FM provided the sounds at the Island Bay Festival today.  For once the weather gods smiled a sunny 23 degrees with light winds.  Several 1000 locals turned up to share the day of food, fun and entertainment, including the traditional Greek blessing of the fishing boats.  

The Island Bay Festival started in 1985 and is one of Wellington's longest-running festivals.  Showcasing the talent and diversity of the South Coast, this annual 2-day summer festival is held every February.

The festival continues tomorrow - check out what's happening here

NZ Artists Release Open Letter To Music Industry

Last week's revelations of sexual harassment and exploitation in Aotearoa's music industry have resulted in a number of high profile sackings, including at Warner Music and CRS Management.  It has prompted a open letter calling for some much-needed significant change. 

The following, which has been published in a number of media outlets was written by Anna Coddington and signed by Bic Runga, Anika Moa, Lorde, Tami Neilson, Hollie Smith and Mel Parsons.  The letter below was originally published here.  

“Music is a powerful force, capable of moving us impressionable humans in all directions. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to make moving art without allowing yourself to be vulnerable and emotional sometimes. It is part of an artist’s job to feel deeply in all directions in order to create something worth listening to. 

People in the engine room of the music industry – studios, venues, festivals, any place where music is being made – are working in conditions where emotions may be high, hours may be long, green rooms may be small, and alcohol is often used as a social lubricant or a way to pass the time. These are the conditions of the workplace. 

To everyone working in the industry – you know the conditions. We’re all passionate about music and regularly in awe of the talent around us. But if the artist’s job is to feel deeply and be vulnerable enough to create moving music, yours must be to help them professionally and personally, without crossing boundaries and taking advantage of them. 

Right now is an opportunity to assess yourself honestly and reflect on how you conduct yourself in those environments. If you can’t work in those conditions while preserving the dignity of those around you, now is the time to either find another work environment that you can handle yourself in, or make use of the various resources and procedures being put in place by SoundCheck Aotearoa and other initiatives to educate yourself and change behaviours. This goes for everyone, industry-wide.

Men in the music industry have been operating in a safety-in-numbers scenario since forever. Young women, takatāpui, and other minorities stepping fresh into the music industry do not have that safety. Yes it’s a hard knocks career choice. Everyone needs to be ready to have their ego checked and confidence crushed, or the opposite – great success, fans at their feet, whatever. Either way artists are up for some head-messing times and need to learn to deal with that, hopefully with good support around them. What nobody should have to deal with ever – under any circumstance – is sexual harassment. 

We need better behaviour from those who hold power now, but ultimately we need more diversity in those positions of power so that the music industry as a whole can thrive and reap the benefits of different perspectives. Innovation in both business and creativity will follow – there is plenty of research to back this up. It requires active and conscious change, and the transfer of some power from the restricted group who hold it now to others who don’t look or think like them. We’ve been talking about this and failing to affect change for a very long time, but it can and must be done. 

• Learn about boundaries and consent. If you can’t operate within those boundaries don’t operate.

• Do not accept the transgression of those boundaries from anyone you work with. If you see or hear something don’t let it slide. 

• Check on people. If you suspect someone is being made to feel uncomfortable – ask them if they’re ok. 

• Do your best to be in the right, but always be ready to be wrong. If someone tells you a behaviour is not acceptable to them, no matter how small, don't get defensive – learn from it. 

• Diversify your workplace. If you need another person, actively seek candidates from different backgrounds, with different perspectives. 

• Speak to professionals who can help you achieve these goals – there are plenty. Do not rely on musicians and others in your own industry to teach you. That is unpaid labour and surprise – we aren’t psychologists or HR pros and probably don’t even have the tools you really need. 

• Don’t make public statements without taking private action.

Imagine a music industry without women, non-binary, rainbow community, differently-abled, Māori, and other ethnic minorities. Imagine if the artists demographically reflected the “industry”. No one wants that. It’s boring. You could say goodbye to most of the acts we’ve all been enjoying at festivals this summer for starters – the ones who have been helping EVERYONE in the industry recover the losses of last year. Without an interesting array of people the music suffers. Make it safe for them. Safety – it’s the very minimum every human being deserves.

The onus for change can’t sit with those of us who don’t hold that power. Everyone should want a better, safer, more productive industry. Artists are not here to help you make these changes. We don’t want to be writing open letters and talking to the media about the inappropriate behaviour of others. We want to be working on our music.”

 – Anna Coddington, Bic Runga, Anika Moa, Lorde, Tami Neilson, Hollie Smith and Mel Parsons

Groove supports this and condones sexual harassment of any kind.  We support all music workers and artists, no matter who they are.  If you are a music worker in Aotearoa and you need crisis or counselling support, the MusicHelps Wellbeing Service is available 24/7 online here, on the phone (toll free 0508MUSICHELPS) and in-person for free, fully funded by MusicHelps.

www.musichelps.org.nz/backline/wellbeing

www.soundcheckaotearoa.co.nz

This Just In: Dave Brubeck posthumously releases Time Outtakes

Featuring 7 never-before-heard tracks from the original 1959  'Time Out' recording sessions and 2 tunes that weren't on the original recording, this new release will have Brubeck fans buzzing.

“While researching books written to celebrate jazz legend Dave Brubeck's Centennial, a fascinating discovery was made; there were brilliant alternate takes for most of the tunes released on Time Out, the first jazz LP to sell over a million copies… These newly discovered recordings feature wonderful performances that are every bit as compelling as their famous counterparts!”
- Chris Brubeck

Includes previously unreleased takes of: 

1. Blue Rondo a la Turk
2. Strange Meadowlark

3. Take Five

4. Three To Get Ready

5. Cathy's Waltz

6. I'm In A Dancing Mood

7. Watusi Jam and 

8. Band Banter from the 1959 Recording Sessions

Read a review at All About Jazz

Strang's Instant Coffee

Kiwis love their coffee. 

We're known for producing fantastic roasted beans. And we can  and claim we're the inventors of the Kiwi classic, the flat white. 

Wellington can claim some of the Best brews- Havana, Lafarge, People's, Mojo, etc. Taranaki has Ozone Coffee, produced at a roastery in Waiwhakaiho.

Here's Robert Harris, Bravia and a whole hose of others. And in in the 60's and 70's  Welly had the famous brand Faggs, in Cuba St. 

Coffee has been around a long t8me. Usually dominated by the big brands, especially in the instant market: Netscape, Bushels and International Roast. 

But our New Zealand has a long history of coffee related innovation in coffee drinking. David Strang, based in Invercargill, invented what could be the very first instant coffee in the world, applying for a patent for “Strang’s Patent Soluble Dry Coffee-powder” in 1890. His coffee was on the shelves in 1889, 12 years before Satori Kato is credited with inventing instant coffee in Chicago. 

Either way, Strang’s coffee was a hit in New Zealand because of its ease of preparation. It was described in the Otago Daily Times as an economical and flavoursome solution for coffee drinkers. The use of chicory powder,made from roasted and ground chicory root, to mix with the coffee may not be as appealing to today’s coffee drinkers, the Strang method of roasting doesn’t sound too dissimilar to our methods today. It was “roasted by a current of hot air which develops the flavour more thoroughly”.

From Papers Past

SOUTHLAND TIMES, ISSUE 10201, 6 JULY 1889

Dave Dobbyn to be knighted

The 2020 New Year's Honours list includes Musician Dave Dobbyn, Epidemeologist Professor Michael Baker and  Pofessor Juliet Gerrard, the prime minister's chief science adviser. 

Dobbyn, with a career spanning 40 years, has been knighted for his services to music. This is his official entry:

"David Joseph (Dave) Dobbyn, ONZM, for services to music. Dobbyn received a record number of music awards and Silver Scrolls for his work across nine studio albums over a 40-year career.

Dobbyn came to prominence in 1979 with Th'Dudes, who undertook a reunion tour in 2006, and in the 1980s with DD Smash, before going solo.

He performed free concerts for residents of Matata after the floods, spent time at community centres following the Christchurch earthquakes, and has an ongoing connection to the families of the Pike River Mine tragedy after writing This Love in honour of the 29 men who lost their lives. In 2017, he recorded his anthem Welcome Home - Nau Mai Ra in te reo Māori. He was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2013."

The list also includes public health academic Cynthia Kiro, businessman and former television presenter Ian Taylor, Māori academic William Temara, economist Suzanne Snively, Māori academic leader Sir Mason Durie, and social scientist Dame Mary Anne Salmond.

Tony Randerson and Lyn Stevens QCs were appointed Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Randerson has chaired two government reviews into resource management in New Zealand.  Stevens headed 2016's inquiry into Havelock North's water contamination incident.

You can see the full list here:

https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2020

Stay Tuned, Groovers. 2031 is coming!

Merry Xmas, Groovers!

Thank you, Groovers for tuning in to us all year. And what a year it's been. Who'd thought the phrase 'turn your mic on' would ever apply outside the studio?

Anyway, we wish everyone around the country and the world a great Christmas 🎄 No matter how you celebrate it, in your bubble,  in isolation or in a crowd. 

Stay strong, Kia kaha. Blessing you all! 

Don't forget you can find us under 'tune in radio' app and online at www.groovefm.co.nz 

Remember Whakaari today

At 2.11pm, it will be exactly one year since Whakaari/White Island erupted.

Of the 47 people on the island at the time, 22 were killed.

Nearly all were brought home eventually, except for two who remain missing: an Australian tourist Winona Langford and a loca tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman.

Today, at 2.11PM, we remember everyone involved and thank all the first responders and medical staff who helped. And we salute their bravery. 

Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga
Kia mākinakina ki uta
Kia mātaratara ki tai
E hī ake ana te atakura
He tio, he huka, he hau hū
Tīhei mauri ora!

Taranaki Arts Festival Trust will not present WOMAD NZ 2021 but there may still be a reprieve!

Photo by Mckenzie Jennings-Gruar

Two conflicting messages were release today from the teams behind WOMAD 2020.   The current organisers of WOMAD New Zealand, The Taranaki Arts Festival (TAFT) said in a press release today that it had little choice but to pull out of the upcoming 2021 event.  They said the decision was 'gut wrenching' but given that it stood to lose millions of dollars and risked being declared bankrupt if Covid-19 disrupted the festival. 

In their own accompanying statement WOMAD UK, which oversees the event internationally, however said it was pushing on with plans for a New Zealand festival in March, drawing on Kiwi talent. 

For two decades sounds from around the world have rung around the Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth, attracting tens of thousands of people from around the country to the three-day WOMAD festival. 

The Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT) has until now held the contract to put on the event, but, sadly this wont happen next year.  At a press conference Chief executive Suzanne Porter said there had been a difference of opinion between TAFT and WOMAD UK about the risk Covid-19 posed to events in New Zealand. 

"Our government will close things down," she said, "as we've just seen recently in Auckland with just two days' notice.  We analysed what that financial risk was, modelled it right through.  We could carry that risk through until about February and in February we start going over the $2 million mark and I need to be very clear here - TAFT carries the loss, so we couldn't take that risk." 

My Baby at WOMAD 2019 - Photo Tim Gruar

Suzanne also said it would only take Auckland going into lockdown for WOMAD to fall over completely. If that occurred in the final week leading into the festival the charitable trust's exposure would have been closer to $3.5 million. "We would be committed to paying the artists. They'd be in town. We'd be committed to paying for the hotel rooms because they'd be in the hotel rooms. Our site would be set up...we wouldn't be able to honour our debts which is not the way TAFT works. We are not people who would simply not pay our debts and close up shop, it's just not kaupapa." 

Porter said the trust had looked at every avenue and even made a plea to the government for it to underwrite the event.  Howver that was not successful. 

An so, she said in the press release "that really is the essence of the decision. It has been gut-wrenching. TAFT has been here since the beginning, it took risks, it took losses for a number of years.  We were happy to take a rest year in 2021 and come back in 2022 when hopefully our borders were open at least to some countries and promote the full WOMAD experience again." 

Although TAFT has recently had to let two full-time staff go and reduce contractors' hours they were not sitting on their hands and are already planning a new international event for 2022. 

So what of WOMAD?  WOMAD UK director Chris Smith, however, thinks that New Zealand's risk to Covid is much less than the UK and the rest of the world.  "We have looked at what is happening in New Zealand and certainly we can see there are a lot of events that are still happening and selling very well and there's clearly a demand.   The situation in New Zealand is very positive regarding the pandemic and the advice we received was that there was good reason to carry on." 

Reb Fountain -WOMAD 2020 - Photo Tim Gruar

According to their press statement WOMAD UK was now working with multinational concert producer Live Nation on the New Zealand event. 

Porter told Radio New Zealand today that she believed that TAFT had lost its hosting rights indefinitely.  She suspected that Live Nation had swooped in and would call for a multi-year deal in return for carrying the festival. 

Smith, however, says WOMAD UK was open to working with TAFT again.  The press release he issued today said WOMAD New Zealand 2021 would be different and feature an almost exclusively Kiwi line-up. "There's a very rich range of artists from different cultures resident in New Zealand playing creatively and to a high standard and that's the model we've developed in Australia and we are looking to use in Spain and the UK. So we're very much moving during this difficult period to actually trying to keep the spirit of the event alive and to keep the spirit of cultural exchange alive, but mining the resources that are within the countries we are working in." 

"Not surprisingly," he continued, "the format for 2021 will be somewhat different but will present the usual diverse programme of artists with all or most of them based in New Zealand.  This is possible because of New Zealand’s richly diverse population and cultural heritage."  

New Zealand, he said, has had fantastic and enviable success in controlling the pandemic, and whilst this means it’s all but impossible for artists to attend from overseas it means a a local all Kiwi WOMAD festival could go ahead in its place - "with all the features we know and love."   "By promoting WOMAD in New Plymouth for another year, we will be able to offer employment opportunities to many of our longstanding crew and supporters in the toughest of years for our industry, and to continue to support local business with a festival that injects millions of dollars into the economy in a region we now call home." 

So, Groovers.  Watch this space!