George Garzone

We’re thrilled to announce Tenor sax heavyweight and renowned educator George Garzone will be visiting New Zealand in August, with gigs and workshops in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Garzone is well-known as a sought-after jazz educator, currently teaching at the Berklee College of Music. He has also previously taught at New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, New York University, Manhattan School of Music, Northeastern University and the New School University. He has pioneered the triadic chromatic approach and students of his have included Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Teadross Avery, Luciana Souza, Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin, Doug Yates and Danilo Perez, to name a few.

Details onhis Wellington gigs to be announced in June, so watch this space.

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Ari HoenigSee event listing for 7 June for more details.

Ari and Nitai will be play CJC (Auckland) on 9 June,  tickets available from Event finder. The Christchurch show is at Orange Studios on 10 June, tickets available from Cosmic Ticketing.

Ari Hoenig Group
Featuring: 
Nitai Hershkvits (k) and Ari Hoenig (d)
Date: Thurs 8 Jun 2017, 8pm and 10pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: $34, tickets available from under the radar.

Ari Hoenig

WJC is pleased to presents Ari Hoenig Group (USA) for 2 dates at the Wellington Jazz Festival. Ari is a jazz drummer, known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming emphasizing complex rhythms in direct harmony with other group members. He is widely noted particularly for his drumming not being relegated to just keeping tempo, or being a side issue to the music he plays in, but rather for elevating drumming as an indispensable part of the performance. He is also known for his unique ability to modify the pitch of a drum by using drum sticks, mallets, and even parts of his body. Using this technique, he can play any note in the chromatic scale, virtually any melody, and even improvise on a chord structure in the same way as any other instrumentalist would. For this concert Hoenig will be joined by outstanding piano/organist Nitai Hershkvits.

Ari Hoenig Group
Featuring: 
Nitai Hershkvits (k) and Ari Hoenig (d)
Date: Wed 7 Jun 2017, 8pm and 10pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: $34, tickets available from under the radar.

Ari will also be holding a workshop at Musicworks  6pm Wed 7th. Tickets $15 from Musicworks Wellington.

In a rare turn of events, these iconoclastic musicians share the stage at the Wellington Jazz Co-op, playing new music and deranged standards.

French Johnson Bleakey Rae
Featuring: 
Lex French (t), Lucien Johnson (ts), Patrick Bleakley (b), John Rae (d)
Date: Thurs 1 Jun 2017
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID

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Callum Allardice Quartet

Born and raised in small town Motueka, it took some time for Callum to discover jazz. However, it quickly became an enduring passion. In 2008, he left to study at the New Zealand School of Music, completing a Bachelor of Music and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Jazz Performance. During this time he started writing and performing his own compositions with long-time collaborator Jake Baxendale. Together they started The Jac, an all-original eight-piece jazz ensemble, now with a Tui-nomination and two albums under their belt.

Seeking new sounds and inspiration, Callum moved to Berlin in 2013 and immersed himself in the local jazz scene. Since his return to NZ the following year, he has been busy writing fresh tunes to take on tour. In 2014 and 2015 tours, New Zealand and Australia revelled in the latest compositions of The Jac, as well as Antipodes, a creative contemporary jazz sextet playing works by Callum, Jake and Australian pianist and composer, Luke Sweeting. Recent performances of the Callum Allardice Quintet have revealed a captivating new direction for his small group writing and playing.

Callum continues to write for his various projects and is currently pursuing a long-time desire to write larger ensemble pieces.

“…his guitar soared as if free of gravity…” John Fenton

“…his authoritative solos and fills just sing. He gives a soft but penetrating edge to the mix.” John Fenton

Callum Allardice Quartet
Featuring: Dan Millward (p), Paul Dyne (b), Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa (d), Callum Allardice (g)
Date: Thursday 18 May 2017, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID

Matt Steele

Matt grew up in Lower Hutt and discovered a passion for jazz during high school, which he honed with studies at the University of Auckland under the tutelage of pianists Kevin Field and Stephen Small. He was the first jazz pianist to win the Lewis Eady Emerging Artists Series in 2013 and graduated with First Class Honours in Jazz Performance in 2014. This will be Matt’s last gig in Wellington for a while, as he is soon off ‘across the ditch’ to Melbourne. The quartet will be showcasing its member’s original music as well as one or two favourites from the repertoire.

“Steele is always an interesting pianist and always one to watch. It is his determination, his preparedness to take risks and his ability to learn on the bandstand that marks him out from many of his peers. He grows as an artist each time I see him.” – John Fenton, Jazz Journalists Association, 2015

Matt Steele Quartet
Featuring: 
Blair Latham (s), Johnny Lawrence (b), Cory Champion (d) and Matt Steele (p)
Date: Thursday 4 May 2017
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID

WJC - Peter Koopman Trio

Since leaving behind the lush, verdant countryside north of the mighty Waikato river in his native New Zealand in 2011, guitarist Peter Koopman has become a regular fixture on Australia’s music scene. In addition to (occasionally) leading his own trio, he also plays with Katie Noonan’s Vanguard, jazz-metalheads Scoredatura and jazz/apparel enthusiasts The Turtlenecks among various others. In 2014 Peter placed 3rd in the national jazz awards at the Wangaratta jazz festival. Brought together by a mutual love for genre-crossing, rhythmic interplay and Vietnamese pork rolls, this new band will feature deadset legends Max Alduca and Tim Geldens on bass and drums respectively.

Peter Koopman Trio
Featuring: Max Alduca (b), Tim Geldens (d) and Peter Koopman (g)
Date: Thurs 20 Apr 2017
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID

Ari Hoenig

WJC is pleased to presents Ari Hoenig Group (USA) for 2 dates at the Wellington Jazz Festival. Ari is a jazz drummer, known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming emphasizing complex rhythms in direct harmony with other group members. He is widely noted particularly for his drumming not being relegated to just keeping tempo, or being a side issue to the music he plays in, but rather for elevating drumming as an indispensable part of the performance. He is also known for his unique ability to modify the pitch of a drum by using drum sticks, mallets, and even parts of his body. Using this technique, he can play any note in the chromatic scale, virtually any melody, and even improvise on a chord structure in the same way as any other instrumentalist would. For this concert Hoenig will be joined by outstanding piano/organist Nitai Hershkvits.

Ari tours worldwide and performs weekly at the legendary New York jazz club Smalls. Ari has performed/recorded with include Jean Michel Pilc, Mike Stern, Kenny Werner, Joshua Redman, Wayne Krantz, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Potter, Toots Thielemans, Pat Martino.

Ari Hoenig Group
Featuring: 
Nitai Hershkvits (k) and Ari Hoenig (d)
Date: Wed 7 Jun 2017, 8pm and 10pm and Thurs 8 Jun 2017, 8pm and 10pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: $34.50 per set, tickets available from under the radar.

Andy Sugg Group

Andy Sugg is a Melbourne–based tenor and soprano saxophonist. His music explores contemporary post-Trane improvisation in original compositions written for a small group setting. While firmly grounded in its stylistic time and place, the Andy Sugg Group plays music that has left home. It’s music in the moment, played by highly articulate musicians with something to say both as soloists and as members of a collective. The Group’s music embraces an eclectic range of compositional influences, which include contemporary jazz, funk, R&B and avant-pop. It’s Andy’s “blowing band”; a vehicle for extended improvisation in the best traditions of contemporary jazz.

Andy Sugg Group
Featuring: 
Matt Steele (p), Johnny Lawrence (b), Mark Lockett (d), Andy Sugg (s)
Date: Thurs 6 Apr 2017
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID

Umar ZakariaReturning from Boston after two years of research, practice and compositional work, bassist Umar Zakaria presents a program of Malay jazz from Malaysia and Singapore, featuring a mixture of traditional tunes, original compositions and arrangements of songs by the Malay composer P. Ramlee.

Umar Zakaria is a New Zealand bassist and composer filled with hope for the future. His music unites diverse musical traditions, in an effort to inspire communication and cooperation across ideological boundaries. His innovative compositions and arrangements finely tread traditional boundaries of genre and style. These have been performed and recorded variously by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and the New Zealand School of Music Big Band.

In 2016 he graduated from the prestigious New England Conservatory in Boston with a Master’s degree, having worked closely with jazz luminaries (and winners of the MacArthur ‘genius’ Grant) Miguel Zenon and Jason Moran. It was at the Conservatory that he began getting in touch with his Malay roots under the watchful eyes of Oud master Malcolm Barsamian, flautist Amir Milstein, vocalist Dominique Eade and Warren Senders, a master of Hindustani ‘Khyal’ vocal style.

Umar Zakaria’s ‘Jazz Melayu’
Featuring:
 Oscar Laven (s), Tyaan Singh (s), Fraser Walker (p), Luther Hunt (d) and Umar Zakaria (b)
Date: Thurs 23 Mar 2017
Venue: Pyramid Club, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $10 General, $5 Members and Students with ID