From his humble beginnings experimenting with a 4-track recorder at the ripe age of 19, Sola Rosa frontman Andrew Spraggon has cultivated over 15 years of rich and well-crafted melodic beats. Fusing a rotating mix of hip-hop, jazz, reggae, latin, neo-soul and funk topped with an assortment of diverse vocalists, Sola Rosa have released five critically acclaimed long players to date.
The latest construct of this collective sees this five-piece strip away their collaborations with an array of session musicians, choosing instead to record together as a complete band, which has allowed them to enjoy a more simple and methodical creative process.
Currently Sola Rosa is made up of five key individuals. Matt Short joined Sola Rosa in 2004 as an incredibly accomplished session player, who has previously played with the Opensouls, Tyra & The Tornadoes and Vietnam War. Ben White an accomplished jazz guitarist followed suit in 2007. Vocalist, producer and MAINZ teacher Cherie Mathieson joined the band in late 2011 as their touring female vocalist. Mathieson has collaborated with celebrated producers and artists like Mark de Clive Lowe, Dego (4hero), Lanu (The Bamboos), Zed Bias and closer to home with The Relaxomatic Project, Solaa, Manuel Bundy, Jason Eli ( Joosika) and Lewis McCallum.
The latest addition is British artist and The Streets co-vocalist Kevin Mark Trail. Trail has collaborated with local jazz wizard Nathan Haines, international heavyweights Nitin Sawhney, Estelle and Black Twang and landed support slots for N.E.R.D, Massive Attack and Angie Stone.
Keyboard player, percussion, computer whiz, and all-round beat maestro Andrew Spraggon began performing and touring for the first time in his early 20s, as the lead vocalist and guitarist of indie rock band Cicada. Six years later, in 1998, Spraggon made the leap from 4-track to software and never looked back. He initially performed solo, but quickly recruited a revolving door of Sola Rosa collaborative incarnations and a band of talented session players that included players from Fat Freddyâs Drop, Opensouls and Ladi6. Spraggon was also a member of Dimmer from 2000 â 2004. Most recently he has produced local acts including Batucada Sound Machine and Tahuna Breaks.
Over the years Sola Rosa have enjoyed many achievements in New Zealand, including a #1 on iTunes and the Independent NZ Music Chart with their 2009 smash record âGet It Togetherâ. It reached #15 in the album charts and went on to achieve Gold status. The awards in Sola Rosaâs cabinet include Best Independent Release in the 2000 bNet Music Awards for the âEntrance To Skywayâ (EP) andBest Electronica Album in 2001 for âSolarizedâ. They also received nominations at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards for Best Dance/Electronica Album in 2006 for âMoves Onâ, Best Producer and Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2009 for âGet It Togetherâ and Best Electronic Album in 2012 for âLow and Behold, High and Beyondâ.
Internationally, the lead single from âGet It Together -Del Rayâ was picked up for a number of compilations â including DJ Easeâs edition of Stereo Deluxeâs âComing Homeâseries, and Putumayoâs Latin Beats compilation. The albumâs full release in Europe and the USA, along with a successful debut tour of both, received attention from radio stations such as KCRW (L.A.) and Funkhaus Europa (EU) across both continents, was picked out as Marco Wermanâs album of the year for 2011, and several of the albumâs tracks were licensed for use on episodes of Criminal Minds, The Protector, Gossip Girl and Mob Wives.
Sola Rosaâs sixth album Magnetics sees the band introduce a glorious assortment of fresh new vocalists from all over the globe: Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Sharlene Hector (UK), Jordan Rakei (AUS), Georgia Anne Muldrow (US), Tawiah (UK), Noah Slee (AUS) and Oliver Daysoul (UK). Expect a tour both locally and internationally on release.
Sola Rosa continue to experiment and evolve, which is a true testament to their success over the years. Expect big things this Summer.
Website: http://www.solarosa.com/
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Below is the track listing for the Boogie Wonderland show dated 26th June 2015. A link to the show can be found here:
JBiA (James Brown Is Annie) formed in a piano bar, rehearse next to a sex shop, and take their name from a Saturday Night Live Eddie Murphy sketch.
In 2014, the band received investment from Creative Scotland to record its debut album with Average White Band saxophonist Molly Duncan producing. Mastered by Atlantic Records' Gene Paul, Average White Band's Alan Gorrie contributed a song (debut single, Ask Your Doctor), exclusively for the band's album, to be released on 22nd February - 40 years to the day AWB's Pick Up The Pieces topped the American charts. Regular recipients of national press and national radio air-play, JBiA have opened shows for the likes of AWB, Little Feat, Electric 6, Spin Doctors, Robert Cray, Public Service Broadcasting, to name but a few. They opened again for The Average White Band on May 8th at the 02, Glasgow. They will be debuting in London on the 20th June at The PizzaExpress Jazz Club, joined by Molly Duncan himself. Their self-titled album was released on Friday 24 April. website - http://www.jbia.co.uk/
Below is the track listing for the Boogie Wonderland show dated 18th June 2015. A link to the show can be found here:
The Boogie Wonderland Show - 18/06/2015 - James Brown is Annie in Conversation by Radio Winchcombe on Mixcloud
Saxophonist and flautist Julie Kjær’s edgy and thoughtfull playing and ‘dark, otherworldly imagery’ (Jazzwise) has become incerasingly evident around Europe, inhabiting ground between composition and free improv.
Since she graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus DK in 2007, she has played with various jazz groups and ensembles in Denmark and England. She is a member of the Danish experimental bigband Blood Sweat Drum’n Bass, with which she has recorded several cd’s and toured internationally with amongst others Dave Douglas, Arve Henriksen, Palle Mikkelborg and Jørgen munkeby. She has toured internationally with with Django Bates and his band StoRMChaser and can be heard on his cd: “Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?)” (Lost Marble’08). She has played with Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (then Klüvers Bigband) on various projects amongst others a tour in Denmark featuring American trumpeter Terell Stafford. She plays with London Improvisers Orchestra, Paulo Duartes Overground Collective and Jeff Chambers variable n-tet. Own projects: In 2009 she released her debut cd “Baglæns ind i det forkerte rum” with her danish quartet. Currently she is working on a new trio project with two of the most interesting and inventive improvisers on the english avantgarde scene, John Edwards and Steve Noble and on a project with the Danish-English sextet ‘Pierette Ensemble’. The ensemble’s cd will be released spring 2014. She is a leader and co-leader of various ensembles and groups. Amongst others: Pierette Ensemble, Cardboard Whale, Julie som en engelsk kvinde, Julie Kjær quartet, Musson Kjær Duo, Wigdump, Witte/Kjær Duo. With her english quintet, Cardboard Whale, she has already made an impression on the British Jazz-scene. Of her F-IRE session with the quintet at the Others, London, Joseph Kassman-Todd wrote [Jazzwise, Dec ‘09]: “Dark, otherworldly imagery was palpable as Kjær on alto saxophone and Dylan Bates on cornet interwove folkloric melodies like the unravelling of a malign Heinrich Hoffmann nursery rhyme” … “Kjær’s playing reached Braxton-esque levels of surreal linguistic expression. This was a synthesis of dark Scandinavian folk with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” She plays with various other duos, trios etc. and has played with people like: Veryan Weston, Steve Beredsford, Oren Marshall, Chris Biscoe, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Steve Watts, Gimo Mendes. Website: http://juliekjaer.com/
Below is the track listing for the Boogie Wonderland show dated 11th June 2015. A link to the show can be found here:
The Boogie Wonderland Show - 11/06/2015 - Julie Kjaer in Conversation by Radio Winchcombe on Mixcloud
Cath Roberts is an improvising baritone/alto saxophonist and composer from Northamptonshire, based in London. She leads two groups playing her compositions; Sloth Racket (formed for Gateshead Jazz Festival 2015) and Quadraceratops (which released an album in 2014 on Efpi Records). Cath writes and improvises new music with guitarist Anton Hunter as Ripsaw Catfish (which released an album in 2014 on Raw Tonk Records).
She is a member of the Madwort Sax Quartet, Anton Hunter’s Article XI, the eight-piece improvising saxophone group Saxoctopusand the collaborative quartet Word Of Moth. As a curator/promoter, she co-runs the weekly original/improvised music night LUME with Dee Byrne.
Cath completed an MMus in Jazz Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2011, where she had saxophone tuition with Jean Toussaint, Christian Forshaw and Carlos Lopez-Real. She attended regular classes with Scott Stroman, Malcolm Edmonstone and Martin Hathaway. Also, over the course of the two years she studied with some fantastic visiting artists including Jim Black, Hilmar Jensson, Andrew D’Angelo, Mark Lockheart, Mark Turner, Mark Sanders, Eddie Prevost, Christian McBride, John Scofield and Dave Liebman. Since leaving Guildhall, Cath has attended F-IRE Collective workshops led by Barak Schmool and Stephane Payen.
In 2008 Cath co-founded the pop/New Orleans style brass band Hackney Colliery Band. She was involved with it until 2011, and many of her compositions and arrangements (mainly of 90’s hip hop!) can be found on the band’s eponymous first album (released in July 2011 on Wah Wah 45s records). Cath has also composed production music for JW Media Music and Reelscape Productions.
Website: http://cathrobertsmusic.co.uk/
Dee Byrne holds a Bachelor Degree in Linguistics and Literature from Stockholm University and a Masters in Jazz Performance from Trinity College of Music. A freelance saxophonist based in London, Dee composes for and leads contemporary jazz group Entropi, is one half of experimental electronics/sound art duo Deemer, is involved in numerous collaborations including six piece improvising electro-acoustic ensemble Zonica, eight piece saxophone ensemble Saxoctopus and Word of Moth. Dee also plays as a side woman with Xantone Blacq, the Soul Immigrants (P-Vine records Japan), the Vicky Tilson Quartet and Paul Baxterâs Destination Out. She co-runs LUME, a weekly original/improvised music night with Cath Roberts and is Project Manager and Regional Tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective.
Website: http://deebyrnemusic.com/
Below is the track listing for the Boogie Wonderland show dated 4th June 2015. A link to the show can be found here:
The Boogie Wonderland Show - 04/06/2015 - Dee Byrne and Cath Roberts in Conversation by Radio Winchcombe on Mixcloud
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October 2019
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