Summer Sounds about to stir the Garden’s Shell

Mark Sunday 11 January in your social calendar – it’s the start of 22 days of free live music at the Botanic Garden’s Soundshell. This year’s ASB Gardens Magic series features Wellington’s finest musicians – some local legends and some just starting out. There’s everything from jazz and soul to folk music from all over the world.

City Council Events Programmer Craig Ireson says the ASB Gardens Magic series is often what people think of when they think of summers in Wellington, or hear about the Summer City festival.

“And it’s no wonder,” says Craig. “The beautiful surroundings alone are enough to attract the crowds, but we’ve been so fortunate over the years to have a rich variety of acts to profile for more than three weeks every year. If it wasn’t for the huge amount of great talent in this city, the Gardens Magic series would be hard to pull off as well as we do.”

The series kicks off on with a blend of Brazilian rhythms, reggae, ska and drum ‘n’ bass by Zirigidum. And if you like Marvin Gaye and Charles Mingus, you’ll love Electric Wire Hustle’s modern take on music’s past the following night. On 13 January, the Klezmer Rebs combine guitar, mandolin, violin, accordion, keyboards, trumpet, trombone and clarinet with vocals sung in Yiddish, French, Italian, Russian, German and English. Wellington troubadour Ryan Prebble will sing bittersweet blues to the crowd the following night – making the first few nights of the series a good example of how varied the line-up will be for the next few weeks.

Maori folk-poet and chanteuse Hinemoana Baker and power-pop artist Christine White are likely to put on one of the more eclectic shows of the series on 28 January. They won’t be armed with just guitars – Christine is discovering the joys of all kinds of alternative instruments while studying Sonic Arts at Victoria University.

“People are going to hear household items like wine racks and cheese graters being used as musical instruments,” says Hinemoana. “Christine has attached microphones to an old Black & Decker Workmate, which she’ll play with a violin bow – it has a great singing sound. This is something people will just have to come along to see and hear.”

Craig says people should check out the Summer City brochure or go to the Council’s website to check what’s on every night throughout those weeks as there’s “almost too much to mention”.

“We’ve got ‘future folk’ from Urbantramper who have just returned from the UK, soulful and funky grooves from My Golden Soul – guaranteed to get everyone into the spirit of summer, and fresh song-writing from a group of well-known Wellington musicians called the Woolshed Sessions. The list goes on…”

More details are available in NZCT Summer City brochures, which are available from Council service centres, libraries, pools and cafés around town. You can also check out details of the NZCT Summer City festival on the Council website, www.Wellington.govt.nz

Wellington City Council news releases are also available daily as Web Alerts through the Council's website, www.Wellington.govt.nz. To subscribe, select the Web Alerts icon on the home page.

ENDS

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