Jazz in Elsewhere

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AUCKLAND'S LONDON BAR, CELEBRATED (2000): Half a century of sound

30 Jun 2000  |  3 min read

When the London Bar of the Civic Tavern celebrates 50 continuous years of jazz in a three-day festival you hope the organisers will have invited someone who was a regular all that time.Ask around any of the musicians who have played there down the decades and one name keeps coming up: "Oh, whatzizname-now?"This mysterious character appears in every conversation with jazz musicians,... > Read more

Cecil Taylor Unit/Roswell Rudd Sextet: Mixed (Impulse!/Universal)

1 Jun 2000  |  1 min read

Just as composer, multi-instrumentalist and, for want of a better word, "jazz" musician Ornette Coleman has undergone critical and public rehabilitation this past couple of decades, so too the abstract and angular playing of pianist Cecil Taylor is now finding its way closer to the centre of the main frame. That said, both Ornette's and Cecil's most recent free-form stuff is on... > Read more

TOM LUDVIGSON OF BLUESPEAK, INTERVIEWED (1999): Blues in the night

8 Feb 2000  |  2 min read

As an Auckland late-night jazz group, Bluespeak confront that most curious of problems - the criss-cross nature of various members' careers means they rarely perform live these days. Greg Johnson, the singer, composer and trumpeter with the cool mood outfit, is better known for his pop persona fronting the Greg Johnson Set. Pianist and co-composer Tom Ludvigson juggles time with - among... > Read more

CHRIS BARBER, INTERVIEWED (2000): Skiffling for a buck

7 Feb 2000  |  4 min read

Walk into any decent record shop and there is Chris Barber's name up front on a new album, The Skiffle Sessions: Live in Belfast, recorded last year with Van Morrison, legendary New Orleans piano man Dr John and Lonnie Donegan, the man credited with founding the skiffle movement in 1954 when he sang Rock Island Line.What history books seldom note is that at the time, Donegan, whose skiffle... > Read more

CHARLIE HUNTER, INTERVIEWED (1999): Has guitar. crosses over

6 Dec 1999  |  3 min read

Five years ago, in a smart career move, hot young jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter crossed from the jazz margins into the mainstream with a cover of Nirvana's Come As You Are on his first album for the venerable Blue Note label. That took him onto college radio and to an audience closer to his own age.He's carved an idiosyncratic path since. Subsequent albums have included a cover of Bob Marley's... > Read more

EDDIE DANIELS INTERVIEWED (1999): Seasons in the sun

7 Jan 1999  |  3 min read

Most jazz encyclopaedias don't give much space to clarinettist, saxophonist and composer Eddie Daniels. Certainly not as much as they should. Perhaps it's because Daniels doesn't conform to the jazz archetype of tortured artist. He is witty, smart and since graduating from New York's prestigious Julliard in 1966 has always been in work. Maybe it's because the instrument on... > Read more

Misha Alperin: Her First Dance (ECM/Ode)

26 Sep 1995  |  <1 min read

Someone who puts you on notice is ECM pianist/composer Misha Alperin who lives in that furrowed-brow world between European jazz and contemporary classical music. There are usually few laughs to be had in his company (Ukraine-born, grew up in Moldavia, studied in Moscow, lives in Oslo, probably never seen a palm tree) and even by ECM’s somewhat frosty standards his album covers are... > Read more