Mark Lockett is in his happy place out on the road with his band playing music he has written to appreciative crowds.
"At the end of the gig, everyone had huge smiles on their faces. To think we’ve made them feel a little bit better, for me that is really cool. The power of music is amazing."
He is still amazed, even on his seventh album, that something he has written, has been recorded in a New York studio.
"It’s an amazing feeling. I wrote this for no other reason than self enjoyment and here is this club full of people and people are sending me messages saying the record sounds great.
"I do it because I love it. It’s my job. But you’ve still got to love it."
Lockett found his love aged about 9 when a friend got a drum set. While he came from a sporty family, it never felt right standing out on the hockey pitch or cricket field. Lunch breaks soon became music time watching his friend play.
"It came clear to me, I remember thinking at school, I was going to become a musician and try and get into jazz school and then move to Australia to play — I did all that and more."
His love of jazz came from his mother’s side. His grandfather used to sit them down and make them listen to ragtime jazz he played on the piano whenever they visited.
At that time Lockett’s taste in music leant to the pop music of the time such as Dave Dobbyn and the Netherworld Dancing Toys, the Narcs and Mockers. But when he was 13 he was invited by a neighbour who was a lighting technician for TVNZ to watch the filming of a programme called Jazz Scene.
"It had a live audience and it completely blew me away — that was an inspirational moment as well."
Such was his determination, he auditioned three times to get one of the coveted two drumming spots at what was New Zealand’s only jazz school in Wellington back then.
"You had to keep getting good enough until you could get in the door."
"Back then, there wasn’t so much jazz going on but in London it was my first real experience of going out every night to clubs. I learnt so much and heard so much really great music."
He moved back to New Zealand "intrinsically motivated" and knowing what he needed to do.
In 2002 he moved to Melbourne, where all he wanted to do was "play the living daylights out of the drums" with various top musicians. He did so for 13 years.
Over the years he studied with world-renowned drummers such as Joe Morello, Ari Hoenig, John Riley, Henry Cole, Jim Black, Graham Morgan, Andrew Gander, Felix Bloxsom, Ben Vanderwal and Roger Sellers.
He was in his 40s when he headed to New York.
"It was good for me, being in the environment with amazing players who never went to jazz school but grew up playing in the subway and in the park where you’ve got to find anyway to make the tips, to earn a living. You quickly learnt that you had to talk to people and put on a bit of a show and make sure the band is really smoking so people stick around."
Lockett got a regular gig at an outdoor cafe, Knish Nosh, in Central Park on the Upper East Side, "the most expensive place" to live in Manhattan, home to the likes of Madonna and Sting.
So five nights a week he would play requests and songs from the "American song book" and people would give them tips. He also played in clubs and venues around the city later at night.
In 2018 he released Any Last Requests, an album of jazz standards often requested during the residency.
"You played the park in summer, the subway in winter. When we were in New York U2 did a gig in the subway. You see crazy, amazing stuff going on."
He also used to play at Mac’s Grill where a "who’s who" of the music scene used to visit.
"I used to do this gig with a player who used to play with Bruce Springsteen’s band — a lot of people wanted to stop by and play with him. That’s New York for you."
"At different stages in your life you have different priorities. I headed to New York in my 40s and was approaching my 50s by time I left. You grow out of living on pizza and sharing a house."
He decided to come home, settling in Wellington, in what he describes as great timing, a few years before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
It was during the first lockdown that he started writing the new work, which is inspired by his love of American saxophonist and past jazz giant Ornette Coleman, especially his Shape of Jazz to Come album.
"I absolutely burnt a hole playing that in lockdown — it’s just go great."
One of Ornette’s innovations in that album was to get rid of chords so there was no piano player or guitarist leaving the drums, sax, trumpet and bass freedom to go in any direction at any time.
"It is quite exciting. My album is exactly the same. The irony is it was called The Shape of Jazz to Come and it was the shape of jazz to come. He had amazing foresight."
He does not describe himself as a prolific songwriter as 2012’s Sneaking Out After Midnight was the last to feature his tunes.
"Drummers don’t spend their lives playing chords and melodies like a piano player would, so for a lot of drummers it does not come quite as easily — you’re not sitting at the piano playing chords and melodies all the time but I really enjoy writing."
When Covid travel restrictions eased, he got back in contact with his New York friends, booked a recording studio and top musicians trumpeter Duane Eubanks, saxophonist David Binney and bassist Matt Penman. Swings and Roundabouts, complete with cover art by Pauline Bellamy, who sketched his likeness at the Jazz Loft’s first gig when he was playing with the Duncan Haynes Trio, is the result.
Back in New Zealand he got a band together featuring Auckland-based saxophonist, composer and educator Roger Manins, Wellington-based trumpeter James Guilford and bassist Daniel Yeabsley to tour the new work.
Having a band led by the drummer is not the norm, he says.
"It’s an interesting thing leading the band from the drums, having to do it musically rather than yelling. You’ve got to communicate. It’s fun,"
Being back in New Zealand for six years, he has been impressed with the amount of jazz now being played.
"In Wellington there is so much music — good music is being played."
While the "older generation" of Kiwi jazz players headed overseas for experience, now many younger players stay in New Zealand. He advises young drummers to follow their heart and to practise. Unlike in his day when he caught a plane twice a year to get tuition from top players, these days there are resources online.
"While it’s not a substitute for going to the source, it’s a good start. It’s a lot more than we had."
He was also enjoying sharing what he has learnt overseas with the younger generation of players and he helped set up the Wellington Jazz Co-op, a similar concept to Dunedin’s Jazz Loft, and presents fortnightly concerts of mostly new original music.
"When we started setting up in Wellington all these other initiatives have started up. It’s really great and young people have these ideas and are having concerts."
It is all those little things that make a scene like in Dunedin with Will Martin’s Jazz Club and the Jazz Loft.
"It all adds up. There is a bit of vibe going on."
He has also realised since moving back to New Zealand how much the music world is a global market as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection.
"Case in point, I wrote some tunes in Wellington. I know a bunch people, so I can easily pick up the phone and book some of the best musicians in the world, fly over to New York, get a black cab to the studio, make a record and come back here.
"I used to live in New York and commute back here. Now I live here and commute back there — get the things I need from New York."
TO SEE
Mark Lockett Quartet Album Release, Jazz Loft Project, Playhouse Theatre upstairs lounge, February 17.
