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Award winning jazz vocalist, Michelle is not only known as an improvising musician. (Mo Award 2001, 2003 & 2004, National Jazz Award (1998) winner and A.R.I.A Finalist 2001, 2004, 2009). She is known for her ability to get to the heart of a song, stripping away the inessential and finding new meaning in lyrics written in a bygone era.  

The Michelle Nicolle Quartet are critically acclaimed as one of the most prolific and inventive jazz ensembles in the country. For the last 15 years they’ve released seven CDs and touring extensively throughout Australia and internationally – in 2015 to South Korea, Finland, and Czech Republic. This will be their debut performance in Wellington where the band will perform music from their 2017 award winning album “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” featuring songs from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

“I have loved Michelle Nicolle’s singing perpetually and without ceasing since first I heard her [in 1998]. Michelle is a singer born to charm, enlighten and seduce through music. I only wish she lived in the States somewhere so I could manage to hear her more often.”                                                                                              Kurt Elling 2012

“ an Australian jazz singer ready to command a world stage.”
                                                                               Sydney Morning Herald, 2016

Michelle Nicolle Quartet
Featuring: Michelle Nicolle (v), Geoff Hughes (g), Ronny Ferella (d), and Tom Lee (b)
Date: Sat 09 June 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: Tickets available on Undertheradar.co.nz

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Since leaving behind the lush, verdant countryside and rolling hills of Drury, north of the mighty Waikato for the hot, suburban sprawl of Sydney in 2011, guitarist Peter Koopman has become a regular fixture on Australia’s music scene. This jaunt to NZ will see him reunited with long-time and long-suffering housemate, bassist Thomas Botting. Both Tom and Pete were award-winners on their respective instruments at the prestigious National Jazz Awards at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, which included a cash prize but this, alas, has been spent. Recent releases include “Honest Oblivion”, the second album from djazz pioneers Scoredatura and the self-titled debut from COAST.

Peter Koopman Trio
Featuring: Peter Koopman (g), Thomas Botting (b) and Shaun Anderson (d). 
Date: Wed 06 June 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: Tickets available on Undertheradar.co.nz

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WJC Sunday Sessions At Third Eye feature compositions by great jazz artists. The house band will open with a couple of tunes and then invite musicians to join in.

Featured composer: Charlie Parker
House Band:  Alex Boulton (g), Daniel Yeabsley (b) and Mark Lockett (d) 
Date and time: Sunday 3 June 2018, 2-4pm
Venue: The Third Eye, 30 Arthur Street, Te Aro.

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WJC Sunday Sessions At Third Eye feature compositions by great jazz artists. The house band will open with a couple of tunes and then invite musicians to join in.

Featured composer: Sonny Rollins
House Band:  Alistair Campbell (g), Wynton Newman (b)  and Mark Lockett (d).
Date and time: Sunday 27 May 2018, 2-4pm
Venue: The Third Eye, 30 Arthur Street, Te Aro.

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Kristin Berardi, Sean Foran, and Rafael Karlen are all strongly creative musicians, known for their clear personal aesthetic and artistic voice. Highly awarded nationally and internationally as performers and composers, their combined experience is formidable with performances around the world at the Montreux, Tokyo, and Bremen Jazz Festivals, and tours to the US, UK, Europe, Japan, China, Korea and more. The music of this group is unlike anything they have each produced before and draws on sounds from modern jazz, European folk music, and classical music. You may hear influences from jazz masters such as Kenny Wheeler, Bobo Stenson and Norma Winstone alongside the sounds of Debussy and Joni Mitchell. Intensely intimate, textural and emotional, the music of Berardi/Foran/Karlen draws you close, at times a whisper, the lush piano harmonies merging with Berardi’s sublime vocal lines and Karlen’s engaging melodic interplay. The intuitiveness of the improvising within the trio is stunning, with an interactive group sound featuring in the music.

“If you have not heard Kristin Berardi sing, rush to do so. She is probably the finest jazz singer Australia has produced…” – SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“The balance between composition and improvisation gives the ear a bit of structure to rely upon while keeping on its toes. Most of all, this music is about as beautiful as it gets (Rafael Karlen – Sweetness of things half-remembered)” – WONDERING SOUND

“a gifted pianist with abundant ideas and the technique to go with them (Sean Foran)” – IRISH TIMES

Berardi/Foran/Karlen
Featuring: Kristin Berardi (v), Sean Foran (p), Rafael Karlen (s).
Date: Thur 24 May 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $15 General, $8 Members and Students with ID

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WJC Sunday Sessions At Third Eye feature compositions by great jazz artists. The house band will open with a couple of tunes and then invite musicians to join in.

Featured composer: 
House Band:  Daniel Hayles (p), Daniel Yeabsley (b), and Mark Lockett (d).
Date and time: Sunday 20 May 2018, 2-4pm
Venue: The Third Eye, 30 Arthur Street, Te Aro.

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WJC Sunday Sessions At Third Eye feature compositions by great jazz artists. The house band will open with a couple of tunes and then invite musicians to join in.

Featured composer: Charles Mingus
House Band: Ayrton Foote (p), Chris Beernick (b) and Mark Lockett (d).
Date and time: Sunday 13 May 2018, 2-4pm
Venue: The Third Eye, 30 Arthur Street, Te Aro.

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Phil Boniface a New Zealand/Canadian bassist, composer and educator. Having spent more than a decade residing in Canada; he performed, recorded and studied with many of the finest jazz musicians on the west coast, alongside multiple performances in the Vancouver International Jazz Festival leading his own groups. 

As a composer, his first album as a bandleader ‘BaixaBlue’ was funded by ‘FACTOR’ and engineered in Canada. Featuring leading west coast Canadian jazz musicians this record exemplifies his abilities as a composer, arranger, performer, and improviser. 

In 2018, with support from the Lilburn Trust, ‘Ponguru’ has been released through RATTLE records. This duo album of improvisations and compositions is a collaboration between ngā taonga pūoro artist Al Fraser and Phil, which brings together the low voice of the double bass and the many voices of ngā taonga pūoro in an exploration of timbre, space, melody and our shared musical language. 

Joining him at WJC on May 10th is Lucien Johnson, saxophones, Matt Steele piano and Mark Lockett, drums. 

 

Phil Boniface Quartet
Featuring:  Phil Boniface (b), Lucien Johnson (s), Matt Steele (p) and Mark Lockett (d). 
Date: Thur 10 May 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $15 General, $8 Members and Students with ID

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WJC Sunday Sessions At Third Eye feature compositions by great jazz artists. The house band will open with a couple of tunes and then invite musicians to join in.

Featured composer: John Coltrane
House Band: Jake Baxendale (s), Wynton Newman (b) and Hikurangi Schaverien-Kara (d).
Date and time: Sunday 6 May 2018, 2-4pm
Venue: The Third Eye, 30 Arthur Street, Te Aro.