This group bring you a melting pot of original compositions and standards. Louisa is in her honours year at NZSM and will be joined by some of her favourite Wellington Musicians.
Louisa Williamson Quartet
Featuring: Louisa Williamson (s), Callum Allardice (g), Leonardo Coghini (p), Chris Beernink (b) and Cory Champion (d)
Date: Thur 19 July 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8
WJC is pleased to present Bryn Van Vliet has his quartet. Bryn is a Wellington-based saxophonist whose credits include performing locally and internationally with the Rodger Fox Big Band, dub-rockers Tunes of I, as well leading his own groups around town and playing sideman to a range of others. An avid composer, Bryn’s pieces reflect his strongest musical influences, which include – Brazilian, soul and folk music, alongside a strong dose of traditional jazz.
Byrn Van Vliet Quartet
Featuring: Byrn Van Vliet (s), Leonardo Coghini (p), Scott Maynard (b) and Hikurangi Schaverien-kaa (d).
Date: Thur 5 July 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8
A rare appearance from one of the best-known pianists and composers on the Auckland jazz scene. Phil Broadhurst makes his first appearance at the WJC after numerous gigs at CJC in Auckland since its inception. Phil will bring with him trumpeter Mike Booth, a fellow member of his award-winning quintet (“Panacea” Tui Jazz Album of the Year 2016). Phil also re-unites with tenor man Craig Walters (now based in Wellington) after several fruitful gigs in Auckland before Phil took off for a year in Europe. Another reunion also with bassist Paul Dyne, an original member of ‘Sustenance”. Completing the band on drums will be the fabulous John Rae
Phil Broadhurst Quintet
Featuring: Phil Broadhurst (p), Mike Booth (t), Craig Walters (s), John Rae (d), Paul Dyne (b).
Date: Thur 21 June 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8
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
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
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
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
WJC is pleased to present Craig Walters, a wonderful tenor saxophonist who has recently returned to NZ after living in Sydney for 30+ years.
Originating from Dunedin Craig studied at Berklee College of Music. After living in Wellington in the early ‘80s he moved to Sydney Australia in 1985 where he performed with Bob Mintzer, Michael Bublé, Louie Bellson, Billy Cobham, Cleo Lane, Bob Florence, Rob McConnel, John Riley, Jim McNeely. Local Jazz Groups include Don Rader Quintet, Mike Knock Quartet, Dave McCrae Quartet. Big bands include the James Morrison Big Band, Sydney All Star Big Band and the Sydney Jazz Orchestra.Craig has led & recorded his own quartet and played at most of the major jazz festivals in Australia.
Craig Walters Quartet
Featuring: Craig Walters (s), Noel Clayton (g), Paul Dyne (b), Mark Lockett (d)
Date: Thur 26 April 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $15 General, $8 Members and Students with ID
Jake Baxendale (saxophone) James Paul (guitar) and Cory Champion (drums, no relation) perform some free-flowing meditations on their own themes and any others that might occur. Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Paul Motian or Radiohead might have a hand in proceedings, indirectly of course – or they may not. Songs and improvisations blur into one another and provide a springboard into the next soundscape.
Breakfast of Champions
Featuring: Jake Baxendale (saxophone), James Paul (guitar) and Cory Champion (drums).
Date: Thur 12 April 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: $15 General, $8 Members and Students with ID