Indie Jazzers roadtrip their way up north

We’re on our way...

The opportunity to perform our original songs and reworked modern jazz gems in the upcoming Wellington Jazz Festival in November is confirmed... but to get there, we need your help! 

We are delighted to be programmed among New Zealand's leading contemporary jazz artists at the iconic Third Eye venue. In addition, we have Tui Award winning composer and bassist, Umar Zakaria, joining us for the concert.

Check out our festival listing here.

Where it all began…

About a year ago we happened upon a plan to use our jazz backgrounds to reinterpret some of our favourite alternative pop-rock tunes alongside some classic 50's and 60's post-bop and modal jazz standards. Although we had both largely been based in Dunedin for over a decade or so, we have followed divergent musical paths with Alex, initially more focused on contemporary composition and Karin, initially from a performing arts background, exploring a variety of jazz styles, yet we seldom worked together.

With Karin at this point based in Wellington, the project entitled “Songs from Inside and Outside the Jazz Ouevre” was initially conceived and manifested in a mini tour of the Dunedin area over the summer of 2019-20. When we came together and started developing our distinctly compelling and harmonically expansive takes on the material, our strong musical chemistry and the freshness of our sound quickly became apparent to us.

Listen to our rough demo recordings from the above summer project here.

Towards the end of our Dunedin sojourn, we began plotting our next moves, with a follow-up mini tour and special Wellington Jazz Festival appearance planned for April-May and June 2020 respectively.

Although lockdown interrupted these opportunities, we have been forging through the bumpy and uncertain pandemic terrain with indefatigable determination toward our vision and goals. We have continued to present concerts in Dunedin and embarked upon writing original material which extends upon the strong musical bones of the unique 'jazz-noir' aesthetic we have created.

An opportunity then arose to push ahead and rebook the gig with Umar Zakria in the revamped November 2020 Wellington Jazz Festival.

This is where you come in.

What we need…

As we are currently based in the South Island, we are looking for support towards our travel up to the North Island and with accommodation in Wellington for the Festival duration. We will also receive invaluable feedback from peers in the jazz ‘Mecca’ of New Zealand and network while we share the musical love from our offbeat neck of the woods to new audiences.

Regardless of the setbacks we have incurred with loss of gigs, income and momentum, we want to continue to creatively expand and bring jazz aficionados and music lovers a taste of our artistic medicine, but we need your help to move to this next level.

We aim to make the most of our visit and, as we write, are in the process of securing gigs in Wellington and the lower North Island for the months following the festival. This additional gigging will help us to broaden and grow our audiences and road test our material as well as feeding back creatively into our song writing pursuits. To achieve these goals, we need to take our trusty station wagon as a mode of transport and to carry our gear and be immersed in the Festival hum and beyond.

The time is now...

We are at an exciting and pivotal point in our respective musical careers. We have not only created our unique indie ‘jazz-noir’ sound but have embarked on our writing collaboration which will culminate in an album next year (watch this space).

We invite you to join our journey to the 2020 Wellington Jazz Festival... and beyond... and we will keep you updated as we go.

Thank you so much in advance, 
Karin and Alex.