Please join Te Herenga Waka University Press and Wellington’s creative music community for a launch party and gig to celebrate the publication of Future Jaw-Clap: The Primitive Art Group and Braille Collective Story by Daniel Beban.
Meow, 9 Edward Street, Te Aro, Wellington
This free event is a celebration of a community of musicians, artists and performers who have been a vital force in Wellington’s music, theatre and art scene since the late 1970s. The launch party will feature performances by members of Primitive Art Group and other Braille Collective acts including the Six Volts, Family Mallet, Black Sheep, Four Volts, Jungle Suite, Rabbitlock and others.
The book will be on sale at a special launch price, and Daniel Beban will be there to sign copies.
Performances will include Primitive Art Group’s Anthony Donaldson (drums) and Stuart Porter (sax), alongside tuba player Gerard Crewdson as the Family Mallet, performing an improvised soundtrack to one of Gerard’s unique visual stories.
From the Six Volts, renowned signer Janet Roddick will make a rare public appearance with David Donaldson (bass), David Long (guitar), Malcolm Reid (percussion), and Steve Roche (trumpet), performing a set of songs including Kurt Weill's much loved 'Surabaya Johnny’ from the Threepenny Opera.
PAG cellist Pamela Gray will beam in for a duo with viola player Peter Daly.
David Watson returns from NYC for the launch, performing a solo set on acoustic guitar.
And local free jazz legends, Devils Gate Outfit, will expand into the Devils Gate Orchestra to perform a set of Primitive Art Group’s original compositions. This large ensemble will be made up of Braille Collective members alongside a horde of musicians from Wellington’s longstanding creative music community including Chris O’Connor, Tom Callwood, Blair Latham, Bridget Kelly, Jeff Henderson, Cory Champion, Jonny Marks, Riki Gooch and others.
More about the book: https://teherengawakapress.co.nz/future-jaw-clap-the.../
Future Jaw-Clap tells the story of a highly influential movement in New Zealand music: the self-made musicians of pioneering free jazz ensemble Primitive Art Group, who carved out their own radical musical language in the cold, hard reality of 1980s Wellington, and have gone on to richly diverse careers in music.
From their beginnings as ‘the punks of jazz’ in small clubs and the anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid protests of the early 1980s, through the heyday of the Braille Collective's many colourful groups, self-released records and intersections with dance, theatre and visual arts, to the Six Volts providing music for the iconic album Songs From the Front Lawn, and beyond, these musicians and the many others they have drawn into their orbit have done much to shape the music of Aotearoa.
Based on a deep oral history project and extensive archival research, and vividly illustrated with photographs and other items, Future Jaw-Clap is a portal into an extraordinary musical world, and a celebration of a vibrant living tradition.
‘astounding and illuminating’ —Thurston Moore
‘wonderful' —Nick Bollinger
‘A must-read' —Mike Nock
‘Everyone who wants to start a band in Aotearoa should read this book.’ —Don McGlashan
Daniel Beban is a musician, sound artist and producer who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. He performs on a number of different instruments in groups including Orchestra of Spheres, Devils Gate Outfit, Imbogodom, the Stinging Nettles, Farewell Spit and UMU. He builds sound sculptures and invented instruments out of found objects and recycled materials. In 2013 he founded Pyramid Club, Wellington’s home for experimental music, which hosts weekly performances, exhibitions, workshops and other activities. In 2019 Daniel was awarded the Lilburn Research Fellowship to research and write about improvised music in Wellington during the 1980s.
This event is free
Special thanks to Creative New Zealand for supporting Pyramid Club's programme
