There is not a great deal of jazz in my music collection. Just a few essentials -- Bitches Brew, A Love Supreme, that sort of thing -- and half a dozen Sun Ra records. And although seeing Sun Ra and the Arkestra play twice in two days in London in 1989 was a transcendent, beyond-description experience for me, I haven't seen a whole lot of jazz played live.
But it was nice to meet John Fenton at a party recently and confirm that someone's on the case. John's the keeper of the excellent Jazz Local 32 blog, which is the kind of place where you'll find out that Auckland saxophonist Roger Manins is to be officially recognised as a Jazz Hero at the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards at the Blue Note Club in New York.
Local fans will be staging their own JJA satellite party this coming Wednesday at the Creative Jazz Club, a regular gathering in the basement bar at 1885 in the Britomart precinct. The CJC also recently hosted the Norwegian avant-garde outfit Motif recently. John's review makes it sound like something I'd like to have been there for. I'll be keeping an eye the blog henceforth.
Something else you might not have seen: The Samsung Naked Jazz Sessions, a nicely-produced live series shot at Juice Bar for Juice TV with the support of NZ On Air. Here's the first part of the Nathan Haines session:
Also online for you, the jazz writings at Elsewhere, the music site of Graham Reid, formerly of this parish.
Do please feel free to share the jazz intelligence in comments here.
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Have two copies of the new Bobby Womack album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, to give away. Just click the envelope icon below and send me your delivery address -- with "Bobby" as the subject line.
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Meanwhile, Peter McLennan has posted his remix of 'Regeneration' by the Auckland reggae band The Midnights as a free download on Bandcamp:
The Midnights play at Rakinos tonight, with DJ Dubhead in support.
And -- what's this? -- a new Bailter Space tune, after all this time. Thirteen years, to be exact. And it's a free download too:
It's from their new album Strobosphere on Arch Hill Recordings. The legendary three-piece is now down to two, with Alister Parker and Brent MacLachlan.
Some crazy-ass shit from The Conjurors is lurking (as a free download) on The Audience. With members from The Cosbys, Teenwolf, the Ruby Suns, the Tokey Tones and others, they're sort of a local indie supergroup. Or, as they prefer to put it, "New Zealand's answer to Velvet Revolver". Eeesh.
And finally, I've been getting a lot of vaguely guilty pleasure from Ellie Goulding's cover of The Weeknd's 'High for This', which is probably the biggest tune in the hype-o-sphere this month:
Goulding's ethereal voice has featured in various dubsteppy remix affairs, and as you might expect there are any number of remixes of this one bouncing around the Hype Machine. I do rather like this orchestral take:
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