Love classic Kiwi pop songs and jazz? Anna Coddington, Tami Neilson, Ria Hall and Julia Deans, accompanied by a fine band, including NZM columnist Dixon Nacey on the guitar, Adam Tobeck on the drums and Roger Manins on the sax, will be performing 19 iconic Kiwi pop songs reinvented as jazz this Saturday, May 21 at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland for a new event called Alchemy. Anna Coddington kindly agreed to answer Sam Vegar‘s questions about the show.

The songs in the show span over several generations and genres, how was each piece chosen, did you have any input in the pieces you’re performing?

We did have some input. I think I bagsied Blue Smoke straight away. I love that song. But also the organiser Mark Casey curated a lot of the show.

This performance is straying away from your own style, how do you find singing jazz?

I think the cool thing about this show is that none of us are jazz singers. We will each be bringing our own style to the songs and arrangements. Definitely no scat singing from me!

The beauty of shows like this as a singer is being able to give your own interpretation of a familiar song so I don’t think we were expected to sing “jazz style” as any point. But the band is holding down the jazz component for sure.

Has this experience in any way inspired or sparked a new jazz influence in your music?

No. I like jazz music but know it’s a big, big musical can of worms that I’d love to delve into someday. I’m actually in the final stages of finishing my new album so am way too far down my path to throw any jazz in there now!

You’re expecting your 2nd child in a month, will this create any difference to your usual performance?

Not really. The only difference is that I can’t play an acoustic guitar standing up now because the bump makes the guitar sit too far out from my body. So the one song I might play guitar on I’ll sit down for, which I wouldn’t normally do. Other than that and looking rounder than normal, it’s business as usual.

You can find tickets for the show here.