A near-capacity house gathered to hear the Taoist-infused jazz of Jake Baxendale and Waypeople on Anzac Day at Hanover Hall.
This evening programme is built around Baxendale’s lockdown project exploring the 2000-year-old Taoist philosophy using Ursula Le Guin’s translation written when the text became popular among Western poets including E.E. Cummings.
Wellington-based Waypeople are a perfectly in-sync ensemble led by Baxendale (composer, saxophonist and clarinettist), Jia Ling (guzheng), Daniel Hayles (piano), Seth Boy (double bass) and Rick Cranson on percussion.
Vocalist Chelsea Prastiti has an extraordinary facility with scat singing.
Improved microphoning helped her through the challenging lyrics.
The pieces represent selected Taoist verses. Taoing is initially laid-back. There are three which represent the mother’s voice and use scat vocalisations. Mindful of Little Things highlights piano and voice; Soul Food highlights yin and yang forces; and Children of the Way is introduced as exploring sarcasm.
Others explore social incoherence. Being Different with a drum solo is anarchic punk; Against War is a full-throttle exploration of carnage, reminiscent of Jenkins’ Armed Man and Schoenberg’s Survivor from Warsaw.
Lest we forget.
Freedom and Celebrating Mystery, highlighting the guzheng, are meditative and naive.
Including the guzheng in a jazz band is innovative and apt for Baxendale’s material.
Its 21 strings are plucked and depressed to create quarter tones within the Chinese scale and intonation.
A performance is always beautifully balletic to watch.
Unfortunately, in the Waypeople ensemble’s staging, the guzheng sat alongside the more imposing drum kit and behind the vocalist and, sadly, remained mostly invisible. The microphones might have raised its resonance to equal that of the saxophone and piano.
Waypeople are worth keeping an eye on. All musicians are sturdily competent and Baxendale’s innovative writing will continue to draw in well-seasoned artists.
Review by Marian Poole
