Wellington Heads released their 4th Album, A Night On The Town, in April 2009 at Sandwiches – a Majoribanks Street music and food venue that we’d been playing at on a regular basis for a couple of years.
Since completing our previous album – Midnight Down in the Jungle – the band had been pretty busy playing in and around Wellington and also further afield; we’d played four Tauranga Jazz Festivals, twice at the Mission Bay Jazz / Blues Street Festival and also at the Manawatu and Nelson Jazz Fests. Through all this the band line-up had stayed pretty much the same so with some well road-tested songs we headed into Trident Studios, in the old SIS building on Taranaki Street, to record our next album.
This was our first digitally recorded album. We worked closely with our engineer and co-producer, Andrew Downes, to record the eleven songs on ‘A Night on the Town’, enjoying the high-quality and funky recording environment and Andrew’s amazing skills and abilities in the studio. Recording together with Neil, Bill and Geoff, Justin Hooper (drums and percussion), Michael Taylor (trumpet) and Jabin Ward (tenor sax) were again laying down some excellent grooves and it was great to welcome back Nick van Dijk (trumpet, trombone, tuba) and Damian Forlong (trombone) and to welcome Alan Norman (piano accordion), Andre Paris (baritone / tenor sax) and Kate Smith, Shelly Weir and Katrina Granger (harmonies). The album was mastered by Mike Gibson and released through Ode Records. Jenny O’Connor and Jesse Keith were again involved in the brilliant CD artwork, design and layout.
After 14 years of gigging and recording, and with their new album receiving wonderful reviews, Wellington Heads was ready to enter a new phase…
Thanks once more to Maurice (the high-priest of sonic sound) Priestley and PriMau Productions for bringing A Night on the Town’ to the on-line universe.