The Chris Buckland Quintet: NZ Jazz Standards + New Music for Quintet

You’ve seen him around town on the gigs and in the trenches of the Wellington music scene over the years with such luminaries as, The Richter City Rebels, Rodger Fox’s Wellington Jazz Orchestra, The JAC, The Hip-Town Bangers, Gold Nugget Pawn Shop, Soldiers of the Pharaoh, Myele Manzanza, Lisa Tomlins and many more.

Ever the consummate sideman, Chris brings his new quintet to the WJC to explore quintet versions of some of his favourite tunes from gigs past, alongside new original music to be premiered tonight.

Chris Buckland Quintet
Featuring: Chris Buckland (Tenor/Soprano Sax), Jake Baxendale (Alto Sax/Bass Clarinet), Ayrton Foote (Keys), Scott Maynard (Bass), Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa (Drums/Cymbals)
Date: Thur 6 December 2018, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Explosive and beautiful. Kira Kira features internationally acclaimed Japanese improvisers and composers Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura, and Australian keyboard player composer, Alister Spence. Their work is a suite in four parts that mixes piano and trumpet with electronics and drums.

‘Kira Kira weights layer upon layer of sound until it approaches a breaking point that never quite materializes. Instead, the music finds its way to someplace near perpetuity and how it gets there is never obvious. It’s awe-inspiring music.’
                                                               4 ½ stars Karl Ackermann Allaboutjazz.com

Kira Kira’s CD Bright Force is available at www.librarecords.com 

Listen here https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/bright-force/1366088612

Kira Kira
Featuring: Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Alister Spence (Fender Rhodes electric piano, preparations and effects), special guest John Rae (drum kit)
Date/Time: Thur 22 November, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Soulful tunes and laid back jazz sounds. 

Bringing some of the Capitals finest players together to perform for you The Jhan Lindsay Quartet will perform some well known and loved jazz standards and original songs composed by Jhan Lindsay. 

Featuring: Jhan Lindsay (voice and keys), Dan Ryland (guitar), Jacqui Nyman (bass), Mike Jensen (drums)
Date/Time: Thur 8 November, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Ever since his return from the studies at the University of North Texas, jazz guitarist Brad Kang has been a sought-after contributor to the New Zealand jazz scene. Kang was a member of the world-renowned One O’Clock Lab Band. Their album ‘Lab 2015’, which Kang involved as a composer and player, received a Grammy nomination for one of the tracks ‘Neil’. He is currently a part of the faculty at The Ara Institute of Canterbury in Christchurch. 

His return to WJC will feature a new collection of compositions, consisting of tunes written since his arrival in NZ, some of which were featured in the performance of his EP release show for ‘Farewell For Now”, which received the Best of Fest People’s Choice Award at the Wellington Jazz Festival in 2017. 

Brad Kang Quintet
Featuring: Brad Kang (g), Umar Zakaria (b), Tyaan Singh (s), Leonardo Coghini (p), Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa (d)
Date: Thur 25 October, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Featuring: Infernal Jamboree
Date/Time: Thur 11 October, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Check out a video from the gig on our YouTube channel!

Umar Zakaria ‘Fearless Music’ Quartet – 2018 Best Jazz Artist CD Release Tour

“If you are even vaguely curious about the state of New Zealand jazz then this is the album you need to hear.” -Graham Reid, Elsewhere.  

Umar Zakaria is a New Zealand bassist and composer filled with hope for the future. He was awarded Best Jazz Artist 2018 by Recorded Music New Zealand for his newly released debut album ‘Fearless Music’. The quartet will present compositions from the album as well as tunes inspired by Umar’s recent trips to Southeast Asia to connect with the music of his Malay heritage.

As a jazz bassist, Umar has performed in the United States, Europe and Asia as well as in New Zealand. Notably, he has performed with Bob Moses (US), Norio Maeda (Japan), Riduan Zalani (Singapore), Rob van Bavel (Netherlands), Snorre Kirk (Denmark), Magnus Hjorth (Sweden), Hagai Bilitzky (Israel), Steve Barry (NZ), and Myele Manzanza (NZ) among others. He is student of legendary bassists Lynn Seaton and Cecil McBee, and was awarded 2nd place at the BASS2014 International Jazz Bass Competition.

A graduate of the New Zealand School of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston, his innovative compositions and arrangements finely tread traditional boundaries of genre and style. These have been performed and recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand School of Music Big Band.

Umar’s music unites diverse musical traditions, particularly jazz improvisation and the music of the Malay Nusantara, in an effort to inspire communication and cooperation across ideological boundaries. Having developed a reputation for emotionally stirring performances, he now seeks to cultivate an international performance career in order to spread his message of consciousness in thought and feeling.

Umar Zakaria ‘Fearless Music’ Quartet
Featuring: Tyaan Singh (Alto Saxophone), Leonardo Coghini (Piano), Umar Zakaria (Bass), Luther Hunt (Drums)
Date/Time: Thur 27 September 2018, 8pm
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

This performance of the Dave Wilson Quintet features new compositions alongside the group’s developing material to present music grounded in notions of rhythmic, modal, and melodic overlap and interplay. The multifaceted musical experiences of the musicians come together in Wilson’s compositions, each layer of sound generating a new setting for the expressions of styles inspired by musicians from Elis Regina to Eric Dolphy, from John Coltrane to Umm Kulthum.

Dave Wilson Quintet
Featuring: Callum Allardice (guitar), Chris Beernink (bass), Luther Hunt (drums), Mike Taylor (trumpet), Dave Wilson (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet)
Date: Thur 13 September
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

WJC are delighted and proud to present our first emerging artist series in honour of the recent passing of jazz drummer and educator Roger Sellers.  This will be an annual event and we hope to provide a platform to showcase two chosen emerging artists with outstanding talent in both performance and composition to present a suite of mostly original music with their groups at our WJC fortnightly head-liner series.  

We would like to acknowledge the recent passing of much loved and respected jazz drummer and educator Roger Sellers.  Roger was a world-renowned musician who was possibly best known internationally for his work with the famous UK fusion band ‘Nucleus’ during the 1970’s.  Deciding to leave London Roger migrated to Wellington in 1981 where he devoted the remaining 38 years of his life to playing with, teaching, encouraging and inspiring students at the Wellington Poly-tech jazz conservatorium (now known as NZSM).  He also led his popular group ‘The Boptet’ which had a long-standing residency which ran for more than 20 years at Lido Cafe in Wellington. During his time as an educator at such a high-level Roger would have passed his knowledge and wisdom so gracefully onto thousands of budding young jazz students and in doing so gave them crucial industry skills and the confidence to go on to achieve great things on both the local and international scene.  

I’m sure that the NZ music scene would not be in the fine state it is today had Roger chosen to settle back in his hometown Melbourne upon leaving London and his return down under.  Here’s a lovely quote ‘Take music seriously but not too seriously but, most of all be a good guy’. (Roger Sellers).

For this our inaugural concert we will be featuring bassist Phoebe Johnson with her quintet.  For our second set, we present trombonist Martin Greshoff with his septet.  

Emerging Artist – Phoebe Johnson
Featuring: Joining Phoebe are Lily Shaw (s), Luca Sturney (g), Ben Stewart (p) and Olivia Campion (d)

Emerging Artist – Martin Greshoff
Featuring: Joining Martin are James Guilford-Smith (t), Louisa Williamson (s), Nicholas baucke-Maunsell (s), Leonardo Coghini (p), Seth Boy (b) and James Feekes (d).  

Date: Thur 30 August 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

On the 16th of August, Join Tui nominated jazz drummer, composer and producer Myele Manzanza for his debut performance at WJC. Featuring an all original set of music with a new quartet. Featuring Michael James Taylor on trumpet, Leonardo Coghini on keyboards and Johnny Lawrence on bass.

Myele Manzanza Group
Date: Thur 16 August 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8

Viata is the new self-release by Sydney trumpeter Eamon Dilworth (Tijuana Cartel, Ed Kuepper, Low Down Riders). The album concept stems from a trip to Romania encountering a new city with a different way of life, morales and stories. Viata means “Life” in Romanian, in terms of how we continue to exist and simply be. Learning to live with ourselves as we are.

“The trip opened me up to consider who I am, where I come from & how I deal with experiences and challenges… My musical output changed from this day to seek a deeper connection through my music and performance leading me to attempt to create soundtracks for my challenges in coming into adulthood.”

Eamon is best known for his previous albums with The Dilworths (“Introducing..”) & Tiny Hearts (“Alluvium”) and has performed with Dale Barlow, James Muller, The Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, Nigel Kennedy, Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy & Asgier. He’s toured Europe 3 times with Caravana Sun and regularly performs around Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.

Eamon Dilworth Album Release
Featuring: Alister Spence (p), Jake Baxendale (s), Eamon Dilworth (t). 
Date: Thur 2 August 2018
Venue: Pyramid Club, Level, 272 Taranaki St.
Time: 8pm
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $8