Hopetoun Brown

Ashley Grogan from UXBRIDGE Arts and Culture

Join us this Friday for and evening with three of the country’s finest musicians stomp and parp across a musical landscape of blues, roots, soul and jazz live on stage. You’ll see sweat dripping from the furrowed foreheads of these musicians as they ring every last decibel from their trumpets, trombones, tubas, bass clarinets, tenor saxophones, cornets and pianos. Did we mention the vibraphone….? It’s an exotic and atmospheric pitched percussion instrument usually found at the back of the orchestra or holding up a Henry Mancini film score. This show is a journey through what’s possible with these unconventional instruments.

You may recognise Tim Stewart and Nick Atkinson from Hopetoun Brown as the horn-section and founding members of local funk juggernaut Supergroove. They also play horns for Tami Neilson when she’s in town, but they’ve been making waves with their unique duo up and down the nation, often with their key collaborator Finn Scholes in attendance. Scholes was hand-picked by Neil Finn for his recent tour to Australia and South East Asia and it’s a measure of the musician that Neil chose Finn mainly for his outstanding skills on his second instrument, the piano. While Finn Scholes dazzles at the keyboard, it’s his chops on the trumpet that leaves audiences with jaws agape. Just ask those who saw these three players perform at WOMAD or the recent Waiheke Jazz Festival. Grab your tickets now!