MNZ Interview: CoffeeBar Kid Cuts S02 / E07 – Clear Path Ensemble

One of the more unusual spaces to see and hear music at this year’s Lōemis Festival will be the Begonia House in Pōneke’s historic Botanical Gardens. Filling that space will be one of the Capital’s most innovative jazz acts, Clear Path Ensemble.

Tim Gruar talks to the group’s main man Cory Champion (who’s worked with Electric Wire Hustle, Avantdale Bowling Club, Louis Baker and many others) about the upcoming concert and the most recent album, Black Sand.

“Clear Path Ensemble mainly started as a recording project. It came about in 2020 when I released a self-titled album,” Champion explains, “The main idea was a sort of avenue for jazz composition, using electronic production techniques, creating these pieces differently from the typical way you might make it a jazz record (which involves musicians playing ‘live’ in session or collectively). Using production techniques and the studio, itself, as an instrument.”

The self-titled album dropped mid-2020 and was followed up by some stunning live performances, pushing the ‘live’ group to the forefront the Capital’s vibrant jazz scene.

Many of the musicians he works with are well known around town and can be seen and heard playing in many different jazz acts, especially during the annual Jazz Festival. His current live line-up includes Johnny Lawrence (bass), Daniel Hayles (keys), Louisa Williamson (flute) and Daniel Ryland (guitar) – most of which play in each other’s groups or contribute to their various projects..

Clear Path Ensemble’s second release, Solar Eclipse (2022) gained further acclaim was also nominated as a finalist for Best Jazz Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards.

Overall, it’s hard to describe the Clear Path Ensemble sound. Champion doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed. My estimation: music inspired by the 70’s ECM catalogue – Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Azymuth. He might quibble that.

On Black Sand, Clear Path Ensemble’s 3rd record, Champion plays some stunning vibraphone tracks, which he says was achieved by multi-layering sound in his studio. That’s his usual way of working. However, Champion has also acknowledged that this album featured a mix of live and audio recordings. He says it was likely his most collaborative record. He involved players such as Johnny Lawrence, Daniel Hayles, James Illingworth, Louisa Williamson, and Mike Isaacs.

“I had a recording session in mind for early 2024. It was three days to record at Massey University, Wellington some of Louisa’s music, some of Dan’s and we had time to get through some other stuff as well.”

It was prior to those sessions that he took a trip to Japan and from that came a number of ideas for new compositions.

“So, in 2023 (prior to that session) I went to Japan with the idea of being inspired by the trip. I took lots of photos. I didn’t see lots of live music whilst there. But I hooked up with my friend Nick D (Documentary maker, Nick Dwyer) and soaking up Japanese Audio Culture, going around Jazz Kissa with him. He’s been making a documentary about this for the last while.”

Jazz Kissa is a unique Japanese concept, Champion says. “There are these cafes and bars that are dedicated to playing recorded jazz music on vinyl. There’s no talking. You go in, order a coffee or tea and politely like listen to a playlist or album with others in the place on these beautiful hi-fi systems and it’s very curated and all very amazing. It changed my perspective on how we listen.”

He tells me about his friend Nick-D who’s been documenting the phenomenon and has a documentary coming out soon about it. “It’s a dedicated work. It’ll be shown at a film festival. It’s been his life, really, for the last few years.”

“(Kissa is), I think it’s a sort of Japanese thing, really. It’s just a way of listening to music. It’s very deliberate. Very peaceful. It’s a kind of mindfulness because you are not really distracted by what’s going on in your phone or even who you live with. But it is a social thing, very intentional. You’re listening to the music with others. The people who own them (the Kissa) have been running these places for years.” Kissa has a long history and has been in operation for approximately 100 years.

For Black Sand, Champion says “(Kissa) ‘framed’ the direction of the record I was going to make. I wanted to create an album that you could really listen to. So, I wrote music that I wanted to hear in those spaces, or my memory of those spaces”.

Creating the music came about from some live ensemble work from the Massey sessions and additional work he did, “recording over myself” in his studio. He says it was something of a challenge to ‘stitch together the two disparate parts (because the recordings were made in different spaces). Help to mix came from Mike Fabulous (Lord Echo).

Although he’s known as a percussionist, it’s not always the beat or a rhythm that inspires a composition. “I’m definitely considering all that stuff but sometimes I’ll start with synthesiser sound. Sometimes is a feeling or a message or a theme.’

Champion tells me a little bit about some of the tracks on the album.

‘From Winds’ was a collaboration with Louisa Williamson (who plays flute on this mellow down beat track. Champion says it was inspired, in part, by a painting by South Korean minimalist painter, sculptor, and academic Lee Ufan.

One track not immediately impacted by Japan was Cascade d’Ars, which was influenced by a famous waterfall close to the French village of Aulus les Bains – often considered “one of the most beautiful of the Pyrenees”. “I did this really nice hike to it, one time. And (the music I’ve written) is like … being open to your environment. It has a certain feeling about it – how would you say? The insistence of the continuation of a waterfall. It worked well for that overdubbed vibraphone kind of feeling.”

The track Temple Block Sustain was the outcome of a visit to a Buddhist temple. “We were walking around this pool while the monks were chanting this sustained kind of drone. Monks were banging on different sized temple blocks and it’s all just echoing around. It has this sustained kind of drone. I found that interesting from a percussive point of view.”

The album title Black Sand, he says is “a very evocative title, especially if you live on the West Coast”. Essentially, though, it’s about going away and travelling, being receptive to spaces there, and also coming home and valuing your space. Where you grew up. In that same kind of mindset. Travel affords that. You get to go away. But then you have a new perspective on life and home as well.”

Standing in Front of The Lawn, I’m told was written about ‘The Lawn’, a painting by Tāmaki Makaurau artist Vishmi Helaratne. “How she paints… imagine piping icing on a cake. Dots of this paint. This painting is a beautiful landscape, really subtle. Because of the texture of the paint, it has a kind of polyrhythm and energy of the painting because there’s so much movement in it. And that was inspiring for me. The music is this slow. Building, clave rhythms, with rhythmic motifs overlapping on all the parts. So, the polyrhythms and the mood of it match with the painting. to it.”

Champion is looking forward to bringing some of the music from this album along with other CPE tracks to the Wellington Begonia House. He says that will be quite a unique space, surrounded by many tropical plants.

I ask him how the sound might differ from the record, acknowledging his inspiration of the aforementioned Jazz Kissa.

“That relates to how the music (on Black Sand) is composed. Obviously, we are not going to be able to do that thing in a live situation. There’s always interpretations and adaptions of music in a live setting because when I make in in a studio there’s no restrictions when I’m making it. But to play live, I have to arrange it for the group. The pieces sound different because of the limitations of the instruments and who’s in the band and who’s playing. I’m into that. The world of the record should be its own thing ,and the world of the band can be separate from that”.

It’s also not unusual for a musician to play in a public glass house. Princess Chelsea has a gig coming up in the Wintergarden in the Domain, Tāmaki Makaurau.

We also acknowledge the recent political efforts by ratepayers to keep the venue and to restore it and keep it from being knocked down.

“I think places like that are always pretty cool. I went up there recently in preparation. People in the rose garden and in the café. For people of Wellington (Pōneke) it’s a particularly valuable thing, you know?”

Indeed. Pōneke’s Begonia House, adjacent to the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens is a popular spot for Weddings and anniversaries and hold an infinite collection of moments in the Capital’s collective memory. And Clear Path Ensemble will contribute to that, too.

We’re all looking forward to making those memories.

Clear Path Ensemble, Begonia House, Botanical Gardens (Pōneke) Thursday 12 June – 6.30pm/8.30pm

Black Sand is now available digitally. It will be available on vinyl privately pressed in a limited run in early June.

Pre-orders for the vinyl and tickets for both events are available at www.clearpathensemble.com