NZ jazz luminary, Nathan Haines, graces the Hallertau Biergarten on Friday evening, October 14, from 5.30pm to play an all vinyl, jazz DJ set as part of the 2016 Auckland Jazz Festival.
Here's some background from Nathan himself:
My father Kevin is a jazz bassist, so it was pretty much decided from birth that jazz would be the leading force in my musical journey through life.
At home there was always music on Dad’s turntable - not just the jazz greats like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans, but great black soul artists like Stevie Wonder, Sly and Family Stone, Otis Redding and the awesome, jazz-influenced Earth, Wind and Fire (probably one of the biggest bands in the world in the late '70s and early '80s).
But by the age of 13 the world (and most of my intermediate school) had discovered hip hop. It was the sampling of jazz and soul records that intrigued me, and by the time I formed my own band at Northcote College, mixing jazz harmony with beats seemed like the way forward. It still is after all these years.
I bought my first record at the age of 13 - 'Heavy Weather' by Weather Report who, to this day still, are one of my favourite bands, featuring jazz legends Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and the ultra cool Jaco Pastorious on bass. It was an intense day of mourning amongst my musically minded friends at Northcote College when we found out Jaco had been beaten to death outside a nightclub in Florida, after a decade of mental illness.
I continued buying vinyl at Real Groovy, and when I moved to New York in 1991 I kept buying records - at this time they were still cheap for the most part, and were a portal to instant inspiration and ideas for albums - my first album 'Shift Left' was recorded in 1994 and at that time I had just discovered The Roots via Gilles Peterson on an album I bought at Real Groovy.
I arrived in London in the summer of 1995 when dance music was at its peak - it was the age of the super club, the super DJ and there were an incredible amount of DJ record shops in Soho. Through my good friend Roy the Roach who owned Quaff records, I was introduced to proper house music, and another amalgamation of jazz and harmony happened.
Through the many great club nights I experienced, and the through the amazing record collections of my DJ friends in London, I stated to SERIOUSLY get into record buying. I slimmed down my collection several years ago by weeding out the records I never played, and I found I still played and loved my jazz and Brazilian records.
In the last few years I’ve really focused my collecting on beautifully recorded jazz albums from the '60s and '70s, as well as some great classic soul/jazz/funk gems which you can play out when DJing and rock the party with (without being too obvious), and also listen to at home.
I have four turntables in use at home, one of which is fitted with an Ortofon SPU mono cartridge, which is how mono records were designed to be listened to.
There is always music on at home, jazz being a big part of that, and I’m constantly buying and selling and upgrading valve amps, pre-amps, turntables, cartridges… the list goes on!
I rarely get much of a chance to play out my 'proper' jazz records so I'm really looking forward to dusting off some of my favourites for my set in October for the Auckland Jazz Festival.
I LOVE vinyl and I've moved my collection around the world 3 times - and it was always worth having vinyl to play at home and also to have to DJ.
Anyone can spend an hour and download a set of banging party tunes to play off your laptop - but having a good vinyl collection takes years and years of patience, of care and of passion. That's why I pressed my last albums on vinyl, and perhaps that's why they all sold out so quickly. Lately I’ve been buying back some of my earlier vinyl releases off eBay! And now I have a son, Zoot, who LOVES music - well they're all going to him one day, so I'm aware of keeping the quality up.
Nathan Haines
All-Vinyl, jazz DJ set - live at Hallertau, Friday, October 14, 5.30pm
Part of the 2016 Auckland Jazz Festival and Friday Wheels of Steel at Hallertau #2016AucklandJazzFestival #FridayWheelsofSteel
