The four finalists in the 2024 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award (Clockwise from the top left - Anita Schwabe, Dave Wilson, Mitchell Dwyer and Lucien Johnson Photo: Supplied
Last year, Louisa Williamson took out the 2023 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award with her experimental work 'Dream Within A Dream'.
Aotearoa's top jazz composition of 2024 will be announced at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards on 8 October, with the winner receiving a $1000 prize.
Listen to excerpts of the four compositions in the final
Finalists in the 2024 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award are:
'Drifting' composed by Anita Schwabe, performed by Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra
New Zealand jazz composer Anita Schwabe Photo: Supplied
'Drifting' was commissioned for the Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra and features on their 2023 album Kaiwhakatere - Navigator. Inspired by Sam Hunts' poem 'My White Ship', the piece emulates the ebb and flow of tides and of relationships and features Kaito Walley's trombone-playing as its central melody.
'Morning Like an Infinite Clarity' composed by Mitchell Dwyer, performed by SPACE FOE
New Zealand composer and guitarist Mitch Dwyer, aka SPACE FOE Photo: Supplied
'Morning Like an Infinite Clarity,' is the opening track from Flower Ocean Burning Sun - Dwyer's debut album as the cosmic jazz entity 'SPACE FOE. Written and produced by Dwyer, it also features Nicholas Baucke-Maunsell on soprano saxophone, Cheena Rae on flute, and Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa on drums.
Listen to 'Morning Like an Infinite Clarity' here
'Satellites' composed by Lucien Johnson, performed by Lucien Johnson
New Zealand jazz composer Lucien Johnson Photo: Supplied
'Satellites' comes from Johnson's 2024 solo record Ancient Relics, following on from his 2021 debut Wax /// Wane. Ancient Relics has a unique quality which values contemplation and ephemerality above all else.
'What shines is a thought that lost its way' composed by Dave Wilson, performed by Dave Wilson Quintet + String Quartet
Musician and academic Dave Wilson Photo: Nick George Creative
'What shines is a thought that lost its way', was written as a reflection on the challenges we all seemingly faced in 2020. ;The Aurora' served as Wilson's inspiration for the composition as did Rita Dove's poem 'Aurora Borealis' from the 1986 collection Thomas and Beulah.
Listen to 'What shines is a thought that lost its way' here
Find out more abotu the APRA Best Jazz Composition Award here.
This year's nominated composers:
Anita Schwabe is a jazz pianist and composer currently tutoring at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington. She has studied both in New Zealand and at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Netherlands, the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and Berklee College of Music in the US. She has performed at all major domestic jazz festivals in NZ with her own groups and as a member of the Rodger Fox Big Band. In 2020, Schwabe was a recipient of the Wellington Jazz Festival commission, writing 'A Snapshot of Wellington' with photographer Saskia van Dijk accompanying the suite. In 2018, Schwabe won APRA Best Jazz Composition for 'Spring Tide' for Eat Your Greens featuring Ron Samsom, Cameron McArthur and Roger Manins. Schwabe was also a 2021 Best Jazz Composition finalist for 'August Augmentation'.
Mitch Dwyer is a guitarist and producer originally from Ōtautahi | Christchurch, currently based in Pōneke | Wellington. Dwyer has released music under the pseudonyms 'Mitch Zachry' and 'SPACE FOE,' as well as having recorded and performed with artists including Jack Page and Darren Pickering (Small Worlds). Dwyer holds a Bachelor of Music Arts from Ara Institute of Canterbury.
Lucien Johnson, winner of the 2021 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award, has been described as "a saxophonist of the highest repute" (Giles Peterson, BBC). His music has taken him around the globe, touring and performing in the USA, Brazil, Europe, China, Japan, Haiti and India. A highly imaginative music creator with a career spanning over two decades. Johnson's releases have received rave reviews in international press with France Musique calling them "bewitching and astonishing," and London Jazz News describing them as "mystical, a touch retro and increasingly spellbinding."
Dave Wilson is a saxophonist, clarinettist, composer, scholar, and contributor to the music community of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. With his 2023 album, Ephemeral, he was a finalist for Te Manu Taki Tautito o te Tau | Best Jazz Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards. With multiple album releases, Wilson has also co-authored the book Gateways to Understanding Music, presenting all music as worthy of understanding through deep listening, a tome used by students in music appreciation courses around the world. Wilson's music is about people connecting with one another and the world around them. His projects are all grounded in his conviction that musical interaction built on trust, respect, gratitude, and generosity can infuse our communities with those same qualities.