It's official. This weekend Soundtree Live is up and running again.
Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to be at what I'm sure will become one of the hot tickets for Bay music connoisseurs – the filming of Soundtree Live's second season. It was the debut show, with Grant Haua playing live in the studio.
Musical mix
There were about 20 people in the invited audience, a mix of musicians and musical cognoscenti; three cameras ran, and Grant powered his way through a collection of hi-energy songs, including an extraordinary new epic, 10 minutes of wild imagination that seemed to combine John Lee Hooker with Homer's Odyssey via a quick trip through The Devil Went Down To Georgia.
There was a bit of stopping and starting, as you'd expect with the recording of a TV show. Grant broke a string well into the new epic and had to start again; the smoke machine was a bit iffy at times. But none of that blunted the enjoyment.
(And you can't help but be impressed by the dedication and skill on display – at one point I saw studio head Shane Davies crawling silently across the floor behind Grant, staying just out of camera sight, to adjust the recalcitrant smoke machine.)
Going live
It's a great idea and a great format – after playing, Grant was interviewed by presenters Lisa Rudd and Paul Alderton. The show will be going live this weekend – either Friday or Saturday – and can be found at www.youtube.com/user/soundtree1.
Filming this Sunday is Brilleaux (who will see their episode will go live next weekend); and then a band each week after that. What a brilliant thing for the Bay. Hats off to Shane and Soundtree.
Now, a few gigs to pop onto your calendars. Firstly, a reminder of Thursday's gig by the Nairobi Trio. When I mentioned this last week I naively assumed everyone knew who the Nairobi Trio are, since the boys in the band have been fairly regular visitors to Tauranga during their almost quarter of a century together. But it seems not, so here's a little detail...
The trio are Richard Adams on violin, John Quigley on acoustic guitar (also the current director of the Waiheke Island Jazz Festival – but we don't hold that against him here in Tauranga), and bass player Peter Koopman. They all sing and play swinging jazz of the variety popularised by Stephan Grapelli and others. And they're really good, regularly jaunting their way around the world to jazz events in Europe. Most recently, they performed a successful season with the Sixpence Brothers at the Edinburgh Festival.
They're playing at the Te Puna Memorial Hall on November 14. Tickets are $20 on the door, and the show starts 7pm (drinks and nibbles available).
Then, next weekend, the fun continues at Bureta Park, where they just can't get enough of ‘final gigs'.
Unfortunately, I fed you some bad oil last week when I was mistakenly informed the ‘official' final gig is this weekend. It is, in fact, next Saturday (November 16), and is going by the name Bureta Park Motor Inn Closing Down Party. Entertainment includes B-Side Band, Eclipse, Chris Gunn and Friends, special guest Graham Clark, with doors opening 7pm. Tickets $10 – that's all you need to know.
Clearly, however, the ‘final gig' memo failed to reach the good folk at Village Radio, who are holding their fundraising Variety Concert for Village Radio the day after the Closing Down Party. On Sunday 17, to be exact. Nonetheless, it should be an entertaining day as they have assembled an eclectic mix of performers, including Bay Dixie Jazz (the name kinda sums it up), singer Barry Spedding, the jazzy Murray Mason Quartet, singer and all-round fabulous musician Marion Arts, award-winning Tauranga Boys' College jazz combo T Jazz, poet Val Taylor, bluegrass fiddler Colin Addison, comedian James Marks, and theatre folk Dale and Toni Henderson – dunno what those last two do, but they're awfully nice people, so I'm sure it'll be fun.
The whole shebang kicks off 2pm, with tickets $20 on the door. If anyone's planning more ‘final' gigs at Bureta Park just lemme know – any excuse to celebrate – as another Tauranga musical landmark is sacrificed at the essential altar of grocery shopping.