Gitbox Rebellion were an all-guitar collective active from the late 80s that recorded two fine albums, Pesky Digits (1991) and Touch Wood (1994), and it was Gavin’s stewardship of this unusual grouping that led English master guitarist Robert Fripp (the King Crimson guru) to contact him, and ultimately, to his membership in Fripp’s League Of Crafty Guitarists.įripp – whose sterling contributions to the work of David Bowie and Brian Eno alone are inestimable – took a Guitar Craft workshop in Auckland in 1990, at which the members of Gitbox Rebellion were in attendance. While his skills as an accompanist inextricably lift any project he contributes to, the core of Gavin’s work can be found on the two Gitbox Rebellion albums, and his three solo albums. In New Zealand his professional life took a completely different turn, and he hooked up with a wide-ranging contingent of jazz, folk and improvising communities, over the years performing and recording with the Nairobi Trio, the Jews Brothers, Lorina Harding, Whirimako Black, Tom Ludvigson, and many more. In America, Gavin had roadied for one of his favourite guitarists, jazz fusion player John Abercrombie, and by the mid-80s he was what he describes as “the widdly-widdly” guy, a “guitar hero” in a band called Relayer that at one time, got a single into the USA top 100. In New Zealand his professional life took a completely different turn, and he hooked up with a wide-ranging contingent of jazz, folk and improvising communities. I had a year away from music, and came back to it with fresh ears.” At the same time I found out my father was born in New Zealand but left as a child, and I decided to start my life over again. I was so disheartened that I just said ‘forget it’. “It was the 80s, cocaine was at its peak in California, bad music was at its peak, and I was surrounded by people in the music industry who didn’t actually love music. Disenchanted with life and the music scene in the big hair and lite metal environment of mid-80s America, moving to NZ was his way of dropping out and starting afresh. Graham Reid, March 2021 ( circuitous route to life in New Zealand started with the discovery that his errant dad was born here. Further evidence of how linear time comes full circle with Curveball. Yet, out of that exotic and evocative melange of styles and influences, what emerges is - and has always been - distinctively Gitbox.įinally, the cover art is by Graeme Gash (also a guitarist, formerly of Waves) whose distinctive work graced the group's previous albums. The listener's mind can be taken towards contemporary classical music allusions to Spanish, Middle Eastern or North African styles the freedom of jazz, entrancement of minimalism or the economy of pop. Gitbox occuies a singular place in New Zealand music in that it draws from diverse sources. The perfect encore for their rebellious, pesky digits. And they close with Ennio Morricone's dramatic theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The bonus is hearing the ensemble in concert on the second disc where they essay some Curveball material but also other pieces, among them a variation on Threnody for Francisco Mendez from their debut album, a nod to the completion of that circle of time here. And a reminder of how sophisticated and seasoned these players are.įour of the group's original members – Nigel Gavin, Kim Halliday, Bodie Hermans and Russell Hughes – are still here, advancing this distinctive project into its fourth decade. As always, Gitbox subvert expectations but also deliver their beautifully realised, sometimes algebraic, melodies with a lively vigour or an elegant stateliness.įrom the pristine opening chimes of the ethereal Sanctuary where the glistening notes hang in still air and the urgently repeated figure which opens Absent Friend through the sub-tropical balm of the charming Dhoggs (My Dog Doesn’t Respect Me) to the concert chamber concentration and aural dynamics of the title track and beyond, the first disc of studio recordings is a constant revelation. And it has recorded artists as unique as the percussion group From Scratch and now, again, Gitbox.Ĭurveball – an appropriate title for a Gitbox and Rattle album – is the group's third for the label following Pesky Digits and Touch Wood in '94. Under the assured stewardship of helmsman Steve Garden, Rattle has since taken listeners on journeys through classical, jazz, sonic experimentalism, improvised music, the evocative sounds of taonga puoro. Thirty years ago, the Rattle label launched itself with the album Pesky Digits by the Auckland guitar ensemble, Gitbox Rebellion. But sometimes we can feel it as circular. Time, as we live through it, seems linear.
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