Accompanied by husband Ian Tilley on piano and keyboard, Pears and La Petite Manouche will range from bluesy duets to fast-fingered folk, Celtic, jazz, Jewish and classical compositions, many owing a nod to Django Reinhardt, the legendary French gypsy guitarist.
Pears might have started out playing classical music but by the time she turned 12, rock, folk and jazz were increasingly appealing, in particular the music of Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.
Pears has released several albums, performed at Ronnie Scott's famous jazz club in London, opened for Ottmar Liebert and the late Victor Borge, as well as recorded with Dave Dobbyn and Bic Runga, among others.
Translated roughly as ''the little gypsy'', La Petite Manouche is the brainchild of Burke Goffe and Robbie Averill, graduates of the CPIT Jazz School in Christchurch.
Having been mentored by guitar tutor Bob Heinz, Burke won the 2007 First-Year Guitarist's Award and the 2008 Jack Urlwin Scholarship at the CPIT school.
Like Burke, Averill has also completed a degree in music (hons) at the University of Canterbury, majoring in jazz performance guitar and jazz composition, and has spent the past few years playing in a variety of musical contexts, including folk festivals, musical theatre orchestras, big bands and church choirs.
British-born Tilley has produced and co-produced various albums, including releases by Hayley Westenra, All Angels, The Choirboys, Libera and Aled Jones.
As well as being a classically trained pianist, he is a composer and arranger, has been a recording engineer on numerous productions and a musical director for Westenra's world tours.
For the record
As part of Record Store Day celebrations around the world, Dunedin music shop Relics is today hosting the release of IR 77, a six-track sampler CD from Dunedin label Independent Records NZ featuring songs by Kahu, Paul Kathro, Red Sky Blues, Ciaran McMeeken, Greenslade and Ded Sparrows.
Kahu, aka Tristan Dingemans (who also performs with Mountaineater) and Kathro will be performing at Relics from 5pm today.
Playing
Fiona Pears, Ian Tilley and La Petite Manouche perform the following dates in the South
• Tuesday, April 22, Cromwell Memorial Hall, 7.30pm
• Wednesday, April 23, Earnscleugh Hall, Alexandra, 7.30pm
• Thursday, April 24, SIT Centrestage Theatre, Invercargill, 7.30pm
• Friday, April 25, The Te Anau Club, 7.30pm
• Saturday, April 26, Memorial Community Centre, Owaka, 7.30pm
More info
www.relicsmusic.co.nz
www.recordstoreday.com
