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Since signing up with French world music agency Caramba two years ago,
Kiwi jazzman Aron Ottignon and his band Aronas have begun to pack full
houses around the country, wowing the public with an eclectic style and dance
beats entirely their own. Sally Green caught up with Ottignon in Aubenas.
The grand piano sat
stoicly in a rock band
set, flanked by drums
and a bass guitar on one side
and steel pans and a long
drum on the other. Aron
Ottignon’s bright blue
trainers pounded the floor
and his fingers were a blur on
the keys. In this performance
full of verve and energy it
would not have seemed out of
place for the piano to start
flexing its bandy legs to the
groove. On the rare moments
that Ottignon was not at his
piano he was jiving on stage,
and from the first piece the
crowd was captivated by this
jazz pianist extraordinaire.
International critics have
lauded Ottignon with high
praise, ‘The Observer’ citing
him as potentially one of the
finest jazz pianists. These are
expectations which, despite
his young age, appeared to sit
comfortably on shoulders that
dipped and dove with the
music and its rolling Pacific
rhythms. The groove
dissipated and the percussion
swelled into an increasingly
complex ballad, something
Ottignon masters best,
juxtaposing and blending a
medley of styles.
Into the mix of soul,
groove, lounge jazz and rock
is a heavy dose of percussion,
partly derived from the Maori
and Polynesian beats he grew
up alongside. “I’m still trying
to develop this,” he said over
a glass of wine at the end of
the show. “Tonight, it was
jazz fusion pop with south
Pacific tribal rhythms and
heavy-based dance piano
motifs.”
And there’s no trace
of Caribbean in there? He
smiled. Since relocating to
London two years ago,
Ottignon has found
replacements for the
Australian members of his
band, including long drum
player and percussionist Josh
Green who had perfected his
art in the Cook Islands. “Yeah
well, Sam the steel pan player
is British but with roots
in the West Indies.”
Aronas has earned itself a
shifting set of labels from
south Pacific jazz, groovy
tribal pop jazz to punk jazz…
but its music seems subtler
and less anarchic than that.
Ottignon weaves a melody,
builds up the sound and
suddenly at the end of
those flying fingers, the
morsel deconstructs and
morphs into something
quite unexpected.
It is not hard to figure out
why he was hailed as a jazz
wizard by ‘The Telegraph’ in
2002. Not bad for a 25-yearold
you might say, but then
Ottignon fell into the family
cauldron when he was small;
his parents and siblings are
all accomplished musicians
and his grandmother a
concert pianist. Nonetheless,
his career was hardly mapped
out from infancy. “My
grandmother started me on
the piano and I was really
terrible, then I got a real
teacher,” he said, amused.
“My classical teacher said
that I had no talent for piano.”
So Ottignon took his
mother’s advice, trained in
jazz and never looked back.
At 11 he won the ‘New
Zealand most outstanding
jazz musician under 25’, and
in Sydney a few years later
the unknown teenager sent
waves through the Australian
jazz scene by reaching the
finals in the national jazz
awards and winning ‘Jazz
instrumentalist of the year’ in
2003. Since then, he has been
snapped up by the likes of
Russell Crowe to play at
his wedding and New
Year’s party.
Yet London hasn’t all
been plain sailing, with
regular gigs harder to score
and Ottignon’s original style
sometimes clashing with
traditional expectations of a
jazz pianist. He was ousted
from the high-class Four
Seasons Hotel half-way
through a set when his hat
came off revealing his
mohawk. Unfazed, Ottignon
has continued to forge his
way and resist commercial
pressure to sing: “I want to
give this a go without voice
first because the piano is my
instrument and I want to see
if there is a way of touring
and making my way just by
playing piano,” he stated.
With a string of concerts in
France ahead of him, it seems
to be working.
And when he leans over
and says rather engagingly:
“You know my middle name
is Cabernet,” this story of
blends and affinity for French
turf all starts to make sense.
Look out for Aronas’ first
album ‘Culture Tunnels’
recently released in France.
Look out for new soul icon Yael Naim.
The Israeli songstress gave two sell-out gigs at the Printemps de Bourges in April
Upcoming concerts:
01/05 Festival ‘Jazz dans le Bocage’ Rocles (03)
30/05 Festival ‘Jazzelerault’ Châtellerault
03/06 Le Moods Monte Carlo (Monaco)
04-07/06 Le Moods Monte Carlo
23/06 Jazz à la Défense Puteaux / La Défense
30/06 Les Nuits Couleurs Château de Jonquières
11/07 Les Soleils Bleus Nantes
09/08 Les Nuits du Sud Vence
11/10 Nancy jazz pulsations Nancy
More info: www.myspace.com/aronas
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