Category: Features – Archive

September 24, 2020 / Features - Archive

She was used to hearing classical or pop music humming from the cream-coloured Bakelite radio that hunched on the Whangarei kitchen’s Formica bench. But on this particular afternoon her 13-year-old ears heard something new. She recognised the song, East of the Sun, yet after the melody the band seemed to…

September 21, 2020 / Features - Archive

The presiding doctor at his death assumed he was between 50 and 60. Four possible causes of death were given: perforated ulcer, advanced cirrhosis, pneumonia and heart-attack. In fact Charlie Parker was only 34. In his brief career he’d burned brighter than any comet in the jazz firmament, and this…

September 16, 2020 / Features - Archive

Robert was rubbish at school. Rubbish at the trumpet too, for which he swapped his violin, vexing his father, who declared there were no great concertos for trumpet. Robert ventured to suggest Miles Davis with Gil Evans, but his father scoffed. When his trumpet teacher lost patience with him, too,…