Brother J
About Brother J from Auckland
Ok, so the story goes like this…
A fresh Maori boy from Up North comes to Auckland, the big smoke, doesn’t know what to expect.
Jason Leslie Hall, Ngapuhi, hailing form the Hokianga, a young man with a love of music stemming from late night whanau singalongs.
Soon Brother J was rockin’ the mic with the Auckland stylee crewers including Slowdeck, Manuel and DLT.
Greenstone studios at Karekare was his first gig, hanging with Crowded House, cooking the Kai, trying not to get in the way while trying to learning as many tricks of the trade as he could. There he learned to hone his cheffing skills and also had time to develop his real love for taonga puhoro, playing log drums and perfecting his vocal range of baritone to soprano – which is today the unique sound of Brother J.
As his musical ability grew so did his interest in storytelling and the mixing of digital soundscapes with the organic sounds of nature. All this led him towards the start of the band Mesh with Paddy Free and James Pinker. Although the band was short lived, they were the toast of the scene and played at every good club in Auckland and many outdoor events, including WOMAD. They never actually released any material officially, apart from ‘Dragonfly’ on the first Styles compilation, but they had the longest ever #1 spot on BFM.
It was really at the Wellington, Cuba St Carnival jamming with the mighty Roots Foundation that J met DJ Mu ( Fat Freddy’s Drop) and a love of bass, reggae and songwriting led the two to start on J’s album. So armed with Neil Finn’s 8 track recorder, J set off on the train to Wellington and the beginning of a beautiful thing…
Album Title – Be bop a nui, recorded by the beach at Lyall Bay, Wellington.
Description – A Pop Soul Shakedown. Conscious lyrics, fat beats and fat bass…. An album of soul for the urban generation with nu-school dub-nicities.
add your gig
add to favourites
