Oct
31
2008
2

November is NZ Music Month in Brum

A battalion of New Zealand musicians are invading Birmingham over the next few weeks. None of this was apparently planned, but it’ll effectively double the kiwi population of the city for a few nights anyway… here’s the (entirely coincidental) line-up:

The Black Seeds are on the road promoting their new album Solid Ground, and they’re playing the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath tomorrow night (1st November). Unfortunately I’m out of town for the weekend…

Pianist and producer Mark de Clive-Lowe has been London-based for a while now but he’s soon to be setting up in LA. One of his last UK engagements is as musical director for 8sixteen32, a show put on at the Birmingham Rep by the Decypher Collective, a bunch of local grime MCs who come together to perform ‘grime theatre’… it sounds pretty unique.

A week later, Whakatane‘s most famous sons Kora are play Barfly in Digbeth on the 13th of November. Apparently they were awesome when they played Brum last year, so this is the gig I’m hoping to get along to.

And if all that weren’t enough, Fat Freddys Drop arrive in town the following night to play the Academy. I saw them in London back in April in front of a 95% kiwi crowd, they were awesome as usual. It was almost like being at the Grey Lynn Festival, except it was indoors, at night, and you could only get Carlsberg at the bar.

(The video above is a Fat Freddy’s performance in France on Canal+, at the start it’s funny to hear the crowd clapping on the 1 and 3 rather than the 2 and 4.)

Written by Richard in: Music,New Zealand,birmingham,jazz,video | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
May
16
2005
5

Mark de Clive-Lowe: Before the Beats

Mark de Clive-Lowe – Naisei
From Vision: Tap Records TAP004 [OOP]

Mark de Clive-Lowe – Hinde Hinde
From Manifesto Auckland Jazz Sampler: Tap Records TAPSR001 [OOP]

Half Kiwi, half Japanese, Mark de Clive-Lowe today lives in London and is a well established part of the nu-jazz/broken beat scene, working with artists such as Kaidi Tatham (Bugz in the Attic), DJ Spinna, and Sa-Ra. If you want to hear what he sounds like in 2005, his new album Tide’s Arising is well worth a listen.

But prior to establishing a reputation for killer jazz-influenced club tunes, Mr de Clive-Lowe had a previous incarnation in Auckland in the 1990s as a rather well-rounded acoustic jazz pianist, and one of the genuine movers and shakers of the musical community. Wherever Mark was, stuff happened – gigs got organised, funding got secured, record labels got started, jam sessions congealed.

Here’s some recordings from that time: Naisei with Matt Penman (b) and Nick McBride (d), displaying the influence from Keith Jarrett’s earliest trio work with Paul Motian and Charlie Haden. And then we go a little African with Hinde Hinde: the trio is joined by Phil Slater (t), Carl Dewhurst (g) and Ghanaian musicians Kojo Owusu and Nii Tettey Tetteh on percussion.

Written by Richard in: Music,New Zealand,jazz | Tags: , , , ,
Feb
25
2005
0

Breakin the Beat

Broke n’Beat Radio – respect. Now I’m not always the biggest fan of dance/club music, but there is some stuff I can really get to: for example, the stream of work represented by artists like NuSpirit Helsinki, King Britt, Mark de Clive-Lowe and New Zealand’s own Thisinformation. Broke n’ Beat Radio is one of the best places I’ve found to sample this sort of stuff, an outfit out of Philadelphia that has great DJ sets available online in mp3 and streaming realaudio. Normally there’s a new mp3 every week or so.

They also have a some nice photos and some styley wallpapers… this one particularly grabbed me of course, the cross-colonialism going on here is quite mind-bending.

Tumeke !

For the most part, the stuff served up on Broke’n'Beat is pretty intelligent, and very concious of its roots – whether that’s Sun Ra, Curtis Mayfield or Sugarhill Gang. Nice groovy listening.

Written by Richard in: Music,USA | Tags: , , , , , ,

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