Phil Broadhurst Photo: Phil Broadhurst
Phil Broadhurst didn't live to see the release of his final album, but there was no question his fellow jazz musicians would complete the project after his death.
The composer, pianist and broadcaster (remember The Art of Jazz on RNZ Concert?) died from cancer in April 2020, in the midst of recording Inverted, an album of his music arranged for big band with the Auckland Jazz Orchestra.
It's taken the best part of four years to complete, but Inverted is finally out on the Rattle label. This Sunday will see the Auckland Jazz Orchestra, led by Mike Booth, performing tracks off the album in an Auckland Arts Festival gig at the city's town hall.
The Auckland Jazz Orchestra plays the music of Phil Broadhurst this Sunday, 17 March. Photo: Supplied
The album, produced by Booth and Rattle's Steve Garden, is all the more poignant because it features several beautiful piano solos by Broadhurst recorded just a few months before his death.
Broadhurst wrote most of his music for smaller ensembles. The idea of Inverted was to record some of those works with a big band.
Speaking to RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Booth says the logistics of getting the album done, without Broadhurst, during a global pandemic, meant it's been a long time coming.
Phil Broadhurst in the studio. Photo: Supplied
"Covid just constantly got in the way. When you have to get 18 musicians into a studio, and the studio has to be available, and that's tough enough in a normal time, but with the restrictions of Covid, it just kept on getting stopped and interrupted."
But in a way, Booth says, the ultimate goal of the process is the live tribute concert the Auckland Jazz Orchestra is giving this weekend.
"It's so vital to be able to perform. It's all very well having some sort of a product and that's also nice, it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort, but to perform in front of people is of course what it's all about."
Auckland Jazz Orchestra leader Mike Booth. Photo: RNZ/Tim Dodd
That concert, part of this year's Auckland Arts Festival, is coming up this Sunday afternoon at the Auckland Town Hall, a fitting tribute to one of the giants of New Zealand jazz.
"Phil was certainly one of those key people," says Booth. "Just his enthusiasm and his intelligence and fervour, his love of jazz music."
RNZ Concert's jazz show Inside Out featured tracks from the Inverted album in this show from 2023.
