Nigel Gavin

Guitar

The distance from Nigel Gavin's Long Island, New York birthplace, to Auckland, New Zealand, where he now lives, may explain why his original working title for Thrum was, in fact, Off the Beaten Track.

At first a visitor, now a resident, Nigel has long been a featured player in New Zealand's music scene, particularly in Auckland, playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass - indeed, almost anything with strings - with the Nairobi Trio, the Fondue Set, the Jews Brothers, the Blue Bottom Stompers, Below the Bassline, Jonathan Besser's Bravura and his own Snorkel, among others.

He has also found time to create and mentor the multi-guitar Gitbox Rebellion (which, in turn, has produced some fine guitarists of its own) and to perform in collaborative ventures such as the free-jazz Vitamin S, often using other instruments such as the Chinese sheng.

So, what does a guitarist whose versatility is his calling card, who is respected by other players around the world, who excites audiences with jaw-dropping amplified solos do, when he decides to record his own album? If he's Nigel Gavin, he picks up his beloved acoustic seven-string (hand-made from native New Zealand woods by master luthier Laurie Williams), retires to the sun-lit kitchen of his Mt. Eden home for several weeks, and quietly records his own thoughts, compositions, improvisations and ideas.

Guitarist Gavin is probably well known to more people than they realise: he has played with the Nairobi Trio, the Jews Brothers, Bravura, created the guitar orchestra Gitbox Rebellion, and has been on albums by Wayne Gillespie, Whirimako Black, and most notably with Robert Fripp. Here is that rare alchemy at work where each inspires the other, where melodies can twist on an emphasis, and the improvisation is instinctively taken in a new and rewarding direction.

Richard Adams and Nigel Gavin have worked like few other New Zealand musicians, crafting their art in rehearsal rooms and recording studios, and presented their magic in concert halls and to festival audiences at home, Australia, the US and in Europe.