Blair Latham Photo: James Gilberd/Photospace
There's a tradition among North American creatives to head south of the border for a bit of Mexican inspiration.
Think of the composer Aaron Copland, or the author Jack Kerouac. New Zealand jazz saxophonist Blair Latham is part of the same trend, only he had to travel a lot further.
Latham's band Fire Waltz has just won this year's SOUNZ Jazz Recording Project (Ngā Hopuranga Puoro Tautito a SOUNZ).
RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump spoke with Latham to mark the band's success, and quickly discovered the sax player has taken the long road to get to where he is.
Mexico City - no shortage of people. Photo: AFP
Latham has spent many years in Mexico City. Initially the throng of the metropolis was a culture shock, but Mexico has become something of a second home to Latham, a country where he spent many years performing and touring with local bands.
Back in Aotearoa, the SOUNZ funding will enable Fire Waltz to make high quality recordings it otherwise couldn't afford, or would have had to spend a lot more time raising money for.
Latham's looking forward to the recording sessions at Massey University's Wellington Studios later this month, where the band hopes to put down half an hour of its music, both as audio and - crucially for its presence online - video.
Fire Waltz (the band is named after a great jazz track by Booker Little and Eric Dolphy) already has some recordings and videos under its belt as you can see below, but the SOUNZ funding will give it access to far better facilities, and better sound and video will hopefully lead to greater exposure.
Who knows, if it really takes off, perhaps Blair could take the band to Mexico.
