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The Dreamy Jazz Debut of Pacific Harp Project

Pacific Harp Project
Pacific Harp Project
Pacific Harp Project
Credit Pacific Harp Project

A local group is attempting a new way to bridge the gap between the classical and the modern. Pacific Harp Project combines the traditional repertoire of the harp with the improvisational nature of jazz.

It seems simple… but throughout history… a successful fusion of harp and jazz has only been done a handful of times.  In the 60’s, Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby broke the mold with a distinct brand of psychedelic jazz fusion.

Part of the difficulty comes from the design of the modern harp which itself has come a long way… but still lacks the ability to improvise.  Harpist Megan Bledsoe-Ward breaks down why.

Bledsoe-Ward says the difficulty fell on the other members of the band who constructed the sound around the music.

HARP_MUSIC.mp3

The result is a dreamy, new take on classical pieces by composers like Ravel, Debussy and Liszt.  And while it is jazz… it’s a version that hasn’t been heard in a long time. 

Pacific Harp Project makes their debut at the Blue Note Hawai‘i on October 31st.

Nick Yee’s passion for music developed at an early age, as he collected jazz and rock records pulled from dusty locations while growing up in both Southern California and Honolulu. In college he started DJing around Honolulu, playing Jazz and Bossa Nova sets at various lounges and clubs under the name dj mr.nick. He started to incorporate Downtempo, House and Breaks into his sets as his popularity grew, eventually getting DJ residences at different Chinatown locations. To this day, he is a fixture in the Honolulu underground club scene, where his live sets are famous for being able to link musical and cultural boundaries, starting mellow and building the audience into a frenzy while steering free of mainstream clichés.
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