Musical Worlds Collide for NZ Music Month

Musical Worlds Collide for NZ Music Month

The worlds of jazz, dance, pop, roots, folk and classical music intersect on 3 May, when four icons of Kiwi music join forces for a concert at Auckland Town Hall.

The event, which is titled APO Amped and takes place for NZ Music Month, brings the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra together with saxophonist/flautist Nathan Haines, roots musician Warren Maxwell (Little Bushman/Trinity Roots/Fat Freddys Drop) and composer John Psathas.

Haines plays Omnifenix, John Psathas’s concerto for tenor saxophone, drum kit and orchestra. He is joined by Australian drum virtuoso David Jones.

Written for the late sax legend Michael Brecker, Omnifenix is unusual for a modern concerto in that it leaves considerable room for improvisation.

“It’s a wild and challenging piece,” admits Psathas, who is the APO’s Composer-In-Residence. “It requires real technique and musicality, but music fans will know that Nathan has plenty of both.”

The second half of the evening is dedicated to the world premiere of Pounamu, a collaboration between John Psathas and Warren Maxwell.

A folk-roots concerto for acoustic and bass guitars, voice and orchestra, it takes as its subject ‘invisible people’: the homeless, the elderly, the impoverished.

It’s not the first meeting of the two composers, who worked together on the Little Bushman vs The APO project in 2008.

“I enjoy these sorts of collaborations,” says Psathas. “Warren, Nathan and I generally work in separate worlds, so concerts like Amped remind us that what we do isn’t jazz or roots or classical – it’s music.”

Who: Nathan Haines, Warren Maxwell, John Psathas, David, Hamish McKeich Jones and the APO
What: APO Amped, for NZ Music Month
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: 3 May, 7.30pm
Book: THE EDGE 09 357 3355 or www.buytickets.co.nz

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