Outstanding keyboardist Daniel Hayles bringing quartet to Wanganui Jazz Club

Daniel Hayles will bring a quartet to the Jazz Club's monthly meeting on Sunday, August 1. Photo / Supplied

Keyboard sensation Daniel Hayles returns to the Wanganui Jazz Club's monthly meeting at the St Johns Club on Sunday, August 1.

Daniel was classically trained (Performers' Certificate, Trinity College London) in his home town New Plymouth.

He has a background in jazz, having completed a postgraduate diploma in jazz piano at the New Zealand School of Music, and loves to play in a range of styles. He spent some time playing piano on cruise ships around New York, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and has found his place as a busy working musician amongst the wealth of talent in the cultural hub of Wellington.

The last time Daniel played for us, he brought his Golden Nugget Pawn Shop Band, with a strong Dixieland-influenced repertoire. We will be hearing something quite different from him this time, such is the versatility of so many of the young musicians on the Wellington jazz scene today.

We invited him last December to set a date, and he replied:

"I'm not really doing the New Orleans thing right now but I have a great organ trio (JB3) that we will expand to make a quartet. We play jazz and boogaloo, some funk stuff, originals and standards, it's fantastic … at the moment we're looking at JB3 plus Eilish Wilson - which is myself on organ, Jake Baxendale on reeds, Shaun Anderson on drums with Eilish guesting on saxophone. We'll play a bunch of different stuff."

These are seriously exciting young musicians, and we can look forward to hearing some of the latest grooves coming out of Wellington.

• St Johns Club, 158 Glasgow St, Sunday, August 1. Music 6.30pm–8.30pm. Meals served from 5.30pm.