Winston Watusi Music Plus

After last week's glut of live music I thought this time we'd look at recent recordings from local musicians.

But there's a gig I also wanted to mention, so I'll do that first. If you're gagging to find more about two new instrumental albums, one rock guitar, one jazz sax, then skip ahead...

The gig, and it's one I'm most excited about, is at the Mount's Totara Street next Friday, February 17, featuring Sydney's larger-than-life brass collective, the Hot Potato Band.

The band was built through a 10-year history of street performances and includes three drummers, a sousaphone and five horns, none of whom I'm going to name here. They do, however, provide a 'beautiful harmonic cloud”, as the band describe it, for their singer, Ben Goldstein, to float above.

The band is a reinvention of the New Orleans street brass band, though their music wanders freely, with soul, Creole, reggae and all sorts of influences. What unites it all is that everything sounds like party music. The Hot Potatoes have released only one album but there has been a steady stream of two or three singles a year for nearly a decade, so there's plenty to listen to online should you choose. Tickets are $32, things happen 8pm and it's an R18 show.

Guitar wizardry

Okay. Recently released music. Virtuoso Tauranga guitarist Sean Bodley has unveiled his latest collection of jaw-dropping guitar instrumentals. A companion piece to last year's release, this is ‘Past Present and Future Volume 2', eight tracks of meaty guitar work-outs, most of which have been released as singles in the past year.

Of particular note is the opener ‘Five Alarm Funk' – with its popping bass and horn section – but everything impresses with both the musicality of the compositions and the sheer inventive wildness of the guitar playing.

When speaking to Sean, he seems a little disillusioned by the constraints of Tauranga's music scene and I feel for him. For someone working at such a high level in such a specialist field it must get lonely out here in the wops. I suspect he might bugger off eventually to more creative climes, and who would blame him? In the meantime, check out his music and be amazed...

Sax magic

Also displaying virtuoso musical chops is saxophone monster Oscar Lavën whose debut album under his own name, ‘Questions In Red' is getting high praise all over the world. 'You could drop the needle on any spot of ‘Questions in Red' and find satisfying, thoroughly involving music,” says the ‘London Jazz News', while Scottish newspaper ‘The Ileach' states: 'It's not hard to see why Lavën is noted as such an innovative force within NZ's jazz scene”.

Wellington resident Oscar – who holds the tenor sax seat in the Rodger Fox Big Band – is the son of two Tauranga musicians, Marion Arts and Robbie Lavën, and has in recent times become the first-call sax player in Wellington. He's also in high demand for his trumpet and clarinet work. I've heard a number of albums Oscar has contributed to and they are hugely varied, from guitar-led Gypsy jazz to brilliant neo-trad guerillas the Wellington Shake-Em-On-Downers, who have appeared at Tauranga jazz festivals.

He even played here on a number of songs by local artist Dave Roy. So this one could have gone in any direction.

As it turns out, the line-up is reminiscent of the famous ‘50s cool be-bob bands, a five-piece including piano, fronted by the twin leads of Oscar's tenor sax and Mike Taylor on trumpet. As with be-bop bands, most tunes open with those two playing the melody/head in unison or close harmony before improvisation occurs.

Occasionally I feel completely out of my depth in reviewing certain styles of music. This is one. However, I can report it isn't scary at all. For hard jazz it is both melodic and welcoming. The tunes are complex but accessible and the playing is simply wonderful, an absolute pleasure to listen to. While there's only one song on Spotify – the lovely ballad ‘Ile De Batz' – you can hear (and buy) the whole thing on Bandcamp. Highly recommended.

Hot Potato Band.

Oscar Lavën's debut album