100% Kiwi music at Myers Park

Get a great start to the new year by kicking back and relaxing to the chilled out sounds of a sensational line-up of Kiwi bands on Sunday 8 January.

Auckland City's free Music in Parks concert features Kora, Sola Rosa, SJD, Open Souls and DJ Aroha at Myers Park (central city) from 2pm-6pm.

Kora, a 5-piece roots-rock band, has funky dub and reggae beats, rich vocal harmonies and a uniquely Pacific flavour to their sound which has been described as a fusion of TrinityRoots and Che Fu. The band is based around the four Kora brothers - Laughton, Francis, Stuart and Brad - who began playing together as a band in the early 1990s under the name Auntie Beatrice, winning the national Rockquest high school band competition in 1991 and the East Coast region Battle Of The Bands three years running. Brad also won Best Drummer in the national Battle of the Bands in 1999.

Sola Rosa (aka Andrew Spraggan) became known for his live wizardry of dance/electronica. He has now grown the live-and-direct experience by adding a tight unit of Will Scott, Ned Ngatae, John Highsted and Matt Short who have played with Dimmer, Trinity Roots, Che Fu, Nathan Haines, Anika Moa, and King Kapisi. The resulting sound has solid grooves and a funky flavour of part soul, part R 'n' B.

SJD (Sean James Donnelly) is a production whizz, class bass-player, and song-writer. His music is a combination of electronic and live instrumentation, with songs featuring a bevy of New Zealand musicians. SJD first came to indie prominence in 2003 with the debut of his hugely popular Lost Soul Music and then followed up with the release of Southern Lights in 2004.

Opensouls is New Zealand's leading exponent of urban soul music with smooth and jazzy electronic and hip hop sounds. The band is a collective of some of the hottest up and coming musicians in Auckland - MC Bjorn, Tyra Hammond, Ota (Jeremy Toy), Julien Dyne, Chip Matthews, Isaac Aesili, Steph Brown, DJ Buttafingers and Scott Towers. They are also in high demand as session musicians and producers, individually working with Scribe, P Money, Fat Freddy's Drop, Tha Feelstyle, Anika Moa, Che Fu, and Ladi6 etc. Opensouls won the bNet award for Best Unreleased Song for "In Our Hands" in 2004.

DJ Aroha is probably best known for her Monday morning slot on Radio 95bFM; easing listeners' "Monday-itis" with her eclectic selections. She can also be heard DJing around Auckland. Among other events, in 2005 she played at the 95bFM Summer Series in Albert Park, opened for international hip hop band The Roots, and played at the bNet New Zealand Music Awards.

The Auckland City Music in Parks series has plenty of music and there's plenty of space to enjoy it in this summer, so grab some food and some friends and head out to one of the city's beautiful parks to enjoy some first class music. Check out www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/mips or listen to 95bFM for more details.

This concert is produced by Auckland City, with support from 95bFM. It is just one of more than 60 free events provided by Auckland City as part of the Ak@Play summer events programme.

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