Variety spices jazz award finalist line-up

September 20, 2007

Variety spices jazz award finalist line-up

There must be something in the waters of the Bay of Plenty because in 2007 they have served up a bucketful of jazz talent.

Two of the three finalists for 2007’s Best Jazz Album Tui were born in “the Bay” while the third is a capital city composer of 40 years standing.

Soloist Whirimako Black and pianist Charmaine Ford make up the Bay-born contingent while the third finalist is Kevin Clark from Wellington. Black and Ford now make their music in Auckland.

The winner of the 2007 Best Jazz Album Tui is to be announced at the Wellington International Jazz Festival on November 6.

Whirimako Black’s sixth album Soul Sessions was the top-selling New Zealand jazz album of 2006 and spent five weeks in the New Zealand Top 40 Chart. Soul Sessions features Black performing a selection of 11 top jazz standards including Stormy Weather, Black Coffee and What A Difference a Day Makes.

Black was born near Tuhoi, Whakatane and is her custom, she records seven of the Soul Sessions tracks in te reo Maori. The balance are in English, the first time Whirimako has recorded in the language. Whirimako Black received the NZ Order of Merit in the 2006 honours for her services to Maori music.

Wellington-based composer, arranger and producer Charmaine Ford was born in Tauranga in 1980 and educated in Auckland. Her self-penned second album Busy Silence, released in December 2006, follows in the footsteps of her debut Blues For Guppy, a finalist in the Best Jazz Album category in 2004.

During 2005, Ford studied under Tui award winner John Psathas (Best Classical Album, Vodafone NZ Music Awards 2004). She has toured New Zealand and Australia and in 2006 performed with Tim Beveridge and the NZSO in Wellington.

Wellington-based Kevin Clark is a finalist for his 2006 album Zahara. Clark already has two Best Jazz Album Tuis on his mantle-piece – for The Sandbar Sessions (2005) and 2003’s Once Upon A Song I Flew.

Clark’s website (www.kevinclark.co.nz) describes Zahara as “an album of jazz orientated music with a ‘world music’ flavour”.

Zahara is a village in the Andalucian flamenco heartland where the musician stayed on a recent research trip. The eclectic collection of original compositions is inspired by travels and music research in Spain, Morocco, Cuba and South America the website says.

Campbell Smith, spokesperson for the music awards says: “We are again delighted to bring the Tui award for the Best Jazz Album to the prestigious Wellington International Jazz festival.

“This year’s finalists embody so much that is good about New Zealand music at the moment – the experience and ‘big’ jazz sound of Clark, Black’s extraordinary solo vocal talents and the young talent of Ford. It’s going to be a great evening on November 6 in Wellington.”

It is the third year the Tui for Best Jazz Album has been presented outside the main New Zealand Music Awards event. The winner will be also recognised at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2008.

ENDS

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