‘OVER THE MOON’

A program of songs about the moon, including well known favourites such as Moonlight Serenade, Full Moon and Empty Arms, Blue Moon, There ought to be Moonlight Saving Time and later songs such as Moondance, Moon River, Swingin’ on the Moon, Moon over Bourbon Street and many others - all with interesting arrangements and interpretations.
Vocalist Fran Barton and pianist-trumpeter-arranger-composer Kevin Clarke have been working together since the early '70s in television, radio, live performances at festivals, studio recordings, CDs, restaurants and private and corporate functions. Fran will be remembered by many for her sparkling performances with Kevin on the Brian Edwards weekly live to air TV show in the late '70s.
Kevin has won several awards over the years for his music, including two “TUIs” for
Best Jazz Album of the year, a finalist once, and an award from the Theatre Federation
for Best Original Score for a stage show. The jazz market is small but his CDs have
made it on to play lists in California, Norway, Greece and Air New Zealand, with CDs
and tracks selling internationally on-line. Some of his compositions were recently
performed in concert in Brussels by a Belgian group. An album of previously unreleased
recordings of his 1970s psychedelic indo-jazz fusion music with Dave Parsons
has just been ‘discovered’ and released by a Spanish record company in the
USA, UK, Europe, Japan and New Zealand. In 2016 Kevin published,
FROM THE BANDSTAND, a book about his musical exploits over sixty five years. It has all
but sold out. A past tutor and external moderator at the NZ School of Music,
Kevin is still performing regularly, mainly with Fran, ‘nearly every week—somewhere’.

Bassist Rowan Clark completed his Master of Music in 2013, and has been playing with Kevin for the past twenty years, as well as with Roger Fox and others. He has toured Japan twice with Phantom of the Opera, and has played in international productions of Cats, Mama Mia and 52nd Street. Members will recall the stunning performance of the Aotea College Big Band under his direction at Meow last year.

Shaun Anderson, Drummer. completed his Honours Degree at the NZSM in 2011 and has been an active part of the Wellington Jazz scene ever since. His current projects include The Jac, JB3 and The Bird Soup. As well as playing music throughout New Zealand he has toured in projects across The USA, Australia and South Korea (appearing at the prestigious Jasrasum Jazz Festival). The groups he has played in have been nominated for VNZMA awards and have featured on the New Zealand top 40 charts as well as the Billboard charts in The USA. He is a international artist for TRX Cymbals, K Drums, Cympad and Inferno Drumsticks.