A young Julian Lee was hired by the Auckland bandleader Bert Paterson, who, to stir up his edgy players, gleefully told them that Lee only played piano, accordion, alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, bass and drums. “He makes up for this,” he added, “by singing the vocals.” So…
Category: Features – Archive
Speaking after a live-stream concert at the end of May, the super-versatile percussionist Jess Ciampa guessed that in the year prior to the lockdown he’d only had one day off. Then, for the next seven weeks, he had zero interaction with other musicians. Some players went for over nine months…
Empty theatres due to pestilence – routine in Shakespeare’s time – created financial black holes sucking the lifeblood from companies, venues and individuals. Our governments, meanwhile were bewilderingly slow to understand that COVID was at least catastrophic for the arts as for the travel and hospitality industries. Streaming, embraced by…