kevin clark
Recent content on Elsewhere by Graham Reid tagged as kevin clark.
Brian Smith: Taupo (Manu/Ode)
Most New Zealand jazz is like the Kiwi: endangered, pokes around in the dark away from public gaze and doesn't take flight. This year however is shaping up to be a good one: albums by Wellingtonians Kevin Clark and Charmaine Ford are both worth serious attention, and now a long overdue new album from Auckland saxophonist Brian Smith....
Kevin Clark: Zahara (KCM)
Wellington pianist/composer/arranger Clark won best jazz album of the year in 2003 with Once Upon Song I Flew, and again two years later with The Sandbar Sessions. Clark is something of a rarity in New Zealand jazz, he has an internationalism about his music and thinnks nothing of incoprorating what we might call "global...
Liam Ryan: Mississippi 2 Mauao (Torch)
On the release of excellent recent albums by Wellington pianists Kevin Clark and Charmaine Ford, and Auckland saxophonist Brian Smith I have noted what a rare year it is shaping up to be in New Zealand jazz. And here is further evidence -- but something very different to those mentioned. Ryan was once the songwriter/keyboardist in the...
Carolina Moon: East of the Sun (Global Routes)
Even more New Zealand jazz. And different again. Moon began her career in London more than a decade ago, moved to Australia (where as Caroline Lynn she won considerable media praise) and then came to New Zealand. She is now married to saxophonist Roger Manins who appears here, along with pianist Kevin Field, guitarist-for-all-seasons...
Norman Meehan: Modigliani (Ode)
Pianist/composer Meehan may well be a scholar (he teaches jazz history and composition at the New Zealand School of Music, and is working on a biography of pianist Mike Nock) but there is nothing academic in his approach here. These angular, spacious compositions can be gutsy and deep or spry and flighty, and with bassist Nick Tipping (from...
Carolina Moon: Mother Tongue (Moon)
Although this enchanting album -- songs of the Sephardic Jews of Spain -- might seem a departure for Wellington-based jazz singer Carolina Moon, she has previously explored what we might call world music, although never with this depth and resonance. These glorious songs -- intimate, yearning, emotional -- come from centuries ago but are...
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Carolina Moon
Released in early 2011, Carolina Moon's album Mother Tongue was unique in New Zealand's musical landscape. Moon, a jazz singer with an abiding interest in world music, had looked to the Sepharic Jewish music out of Spain in the Middle Ages and with excellent musicians -- which included Nigel Gavin, Roger Manins, Kevin Field and others --...
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