Waiata Maori Music Awards ceremony

PRESS RELEASE 13

Friday, September 14, 2012

Waiata Maori Music Awards ceremony and celebrity breakfast

Maori singers Ria Hall, Anna Coddington and Majic Paora will perform a tribute song to the late Dr Hirini Melbourne as part of the National Waiata Maori Music Awards ceremony being held at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House in Hastings tonight.

The three singers were among 13 artists who produced a multimedia resource album, reworking the Maori language masterpieces of Dr Melbourne, who is credited with the revival of taonga pūoro, or traditional Māori musical instruments.

Dr Melbourne is the joint recipient of the Lifetime Contribution to Maori Music Award, one of four nominated awards, which will be presented at tonight’s ceremony.

There are also 15 artists named as finalist across nine open categories at this year’s awards. The winners will be announced in front of a live audience inside the Hawke’s Bay Opera House theatre from 7pm.

Some of them will also appear as guest artists including Sid Diamond and Ahorangi, Kirsten Te Rito, Te Awanui Reeder and Leon Wharekura.

The awards ambassador, Taisha Tari, and opera singer William Winitana will also perform tonight.

The “King of Dubs” Tiki Taane is also among the guest performers along with New Zealand’s Got Talent act, J GEEKS.

The ceremony is being recorded by Maori Television for delayed produced and is also being broadcast live by Radio Kahungunu to the iwi station network across the country.

Maori Music Celebrity Breakfast

Well-known bass player and music producer Billy Karaitiana was the guest presenter at this year’s Maori Music Celebrity Breakfast, held this morning at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House in Hastings.

Mr Karaitiana now lives in Northland but grew up in Christchurch where he began playing in bands such as Max Merrit and The Meteors, and Ray Columbus and the Invaders.

He presented on his career which spans six decades and included playing for bands in Australia, Asia, the US and in England where he was based for nearly a decade.

“A highlight of my life was meeting Paul McCartney in England.

“I got rung up to do a session at Abbey Road, Studio 2, the Beatles studio. Paul had bought the rights to a show for his niece and he wanted to do all of the music for it. So I spent two days in the studio with him and got to met his wife, Linda.”

Mr Karaitiana also had success with a band Filthy McNasty which signed a multi-million deal to produce two albums and two songs from the first went into the Billboard Top 20 in the US.

“I believe that may have been the first time a Kiwi band had such success in the US.”

Mr Karaitiana had further success when he came back to New Zealand, producing albums for Herbs. The first, Long Ago, went gold and the second, Sensitive To A Smile, went platinum.

He’s also work on production projects for Whirimako Black, Ruia Aperahama and 1814 in recent years and often opens up his production studio for young musicians to record their work “free of charge for a day”.

“My advice for musicians, well just go for it because I love music. Listening is a great factor and it’s important for young musicians to listen to what other people say, whether they like it or not.

“People used to say to me, how do you get that sound? Bass playing comes from the soul and the heart, it doesn’t come from the amplifier. If you want it louder, play it louder. The amp should be set low and the EQ set basic. It’s very important that the music comes from your heart and soul when you are playing with other musicians.”

Mr Karaitiana will receive the Maori Music Industry Award, in the Nominated Award section, in recognition of an international career, at tonight’s awards ceremony.

Waiata Maori Music Awards ceremony, at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House theatre, 7pm.

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