Three finalists for Best Jazz Composition all from NZSM
The APRA Best Jazz Composition finalists this year are Callum Allardice, Bruce Brown, and Jasmine Lovell-Smith.
Heralding from Motueka, Tasman Bay, is Callum Allardice, an NZSM jazz graduate who is in the running for his composition Deep Thought. The song is performed by Antipodes, a creative contemporary jazz sextet playing works by Callum, long-time collaborator and fellow jazz graduate Jake Baxendale and Australian pianist and composer, Luke Sweeting.
NZSM Artist Teacher Bruce Brown, a Los Angeles native who arrived in New Zealand in 1998, established the jazz vocal programme which is now part of the New Zealand School of Music. His composition It’s A Good Time (To Be A Man) was recorded and performed by the Bruce Brown Quintet.
The last finalist is saxophonist/composer and current NZSM DMA student Jasmine Lovell-Smith who has recently returned to live in Wellington after spending seven years in the USA and Mexico, where she taught jazz studies and the saxophone at the State University. Her composition Familia contains elements from both here and abroad.
Dugal McKinnon, Acting Director of the New Zealand School of Music, says it's terrific that all three finalists are linked to the New Zealand School of Music.
“This line-up reflects the excellence of jazz at the NZSM, and heralds the ongoing strength of jazz composition at the School. I look forward to an outcome which the NZSM can celebrate no matter which finalist receives the award!”
The Wellington Jazz Festival will be home to the New Zealand Jazz Awards in 2017. The winner of the APRA Best Jazz Composition will be announced on 11 June.