A Kiwi hip-hop legend’s about to fuse his sound with a modern big band in Queenstown.
King Kapisi, the first New Zealand hip-hop artist to receive the Silver Scroll Award at the APRA Awards for songwriter of the year, for his 1999 single Reverse Resistance, will take to the Wakatipu High School auditorium with the Rodger Fox Big Band, and special guest, singer Erna Ferry, on October 19.
It’s the first South Island show in a seven-stop national tour, which will showcase a distinctly Aotearoa sound.
Premiering new arrangements of Kapisi’s back catalogue, which evoke the spirit and emotion of his original tracks, the performance will combine hip-hop’s driving rhythms with a big brass sound.
The 49-year-old Samoan Wellingtonian keeps his music ‘‘real’’ by rapping about his Pacific heritage, using hip-hop to promote authenticity through culture, language and knowing where you’re from.
The Rodger Fox Big Band is widely acknowledged as New Zealand’s leading exponent of big band music and over its long history — this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary — has more than 90 compositions to its name, of which it has record ed 76.
The band’s also worked with some of the jazz world’s greatest artists, including Michael Brecker, Mike Stern and Kurt Elling, Michael Houstoun and Simon O’Neill.
Tickets cost $51.22 for Gold Card/senior citizens, $61.47 for adults and $25.30 for students, via Eventfinda
