The Whanganui Jazz Club meets on the first Sunday of the month. That is not nearly often enough to accommodate the wealth of talented jazz musicians who want to perform in our town.
Jazz enthusiasts and music lovers of all genres tip our hats to Tony Sundeman of Porridge Watson who has created a venue that showcases music every week. That is where you will have the opportunity of hearing one of Aotearoa’s greatest living musicians on Sunday, February 25.
Hayden Chisholm, originally from Taranaki, has made his home in Europe for 30 years since moving to Germany in 1993 to study at the Cologne College of Music. He performs in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa and regularly returns home to share his musical gift by touring New Zealand.
That opportunity has arisen again this summer and we are fortunate that he will bring his project Unwind to Whanganui. Joined by sympathetic New Zealand musicians Paul Dyne on bass and pianist/composer Norman Meehan, Hayden will be performing original music that knows about jazz, but also dances with Indian raga, chamber music, and folk traditions from all over the world.
While Hayden may have lived away from Aotearoa for a long while, he still feels his music is connected to the country. He said, “A good half of my life I have been based in Europe, but I still feel very much like a New Zealander. You carry that with you wherever you go. I think the strongest underlying current I take with me, as a New Zealander, is the feeling of the land you get growing up here: being barefoot on the grass; the colours and the smells. That connection to the land is a very powerful thing.”
