JAZZSCORE

AMBIENT JAZZ.  On a rainy winter night in June 2008 three Auckland jazz musicians spent four hours recording twenty new pieces of blues flavoured music for a documentary film soundtrack.  The resulting tracks are not easy to categorise - “ambient jazz” comes closest – but the music is absolute magic, and deserves to be heard outside of the soundtrack context.  JAZZSCORE are pleased to be able to host six of the mixes for your listening pleasure.

Click the players to listen to tracks from the session:

ART 6 Meditations 
ART 8 Strictly Blues 
ART 9 Conversations 
ART 11 Long Distance 
ART 18 Latin
ART 20 Bass Throughout 

Recorded at SCAPA (School of Creative and Performing Arts, University of Auckland) Shortland Street studios, Sunday 15th June 2008

Edwina Thorne played the trumpet with a variety of mutes
Peter Scott plucked and bowed the double bass
Tom Ludvigson composed the pieces, played the Yamaha grand piano, directed the session, mixed the recordings and produced the final master tracks
Jason Hole engineered and recorded the session to 24-bit digital multi-track audio
John Bates, film maker, produced the television documentary about New Zealand artist Christine Hellyar for which the music was composed and recorded
Stephen Matthews provided studio and resources support

Session production approach maxims:
•    Minimal materials - the charts are minimal sets of instructions to the players, not symbols of sounds
•    Charts are augmented by verbal suggestions (see notes and stickies)
•    Interaction among the players, use of visual cues
•    Concentrate on texture rather than harmony, explore the full range of sounds of each instrument 
•    No rehearsals or run-throughs before recording – all takes are first takes to keep things fresh