The Epic of Black Music

Grant Haua's Maori Blues

Grant Haua in Paris (March 2022).

© Christian Rose

By: Joe Farmer Follow

3 mins

In New Zealand, the Maori culture is omnipresent.

Where is she from ?

How does she express herself?

What are its ancestral origins?

Is the Maori blues rooted in traditions or the simple emanation of a progressive interbreeding?

Guitarist and singer Grant Haua tastefully combines the heritage of his native land with the musical accents of his African-American heroes.

Like any overseas artist, the musicality of his native language asserts itself with a claiming accent, but it does not prohibit the influence of the universal blues.

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A long time from our lands, Grant Haua has developed, over the years, an identity that easily rivals the echoes of the historical blues repertoire.

From the southern hemisphere, the European and American continents seem so far away.

And yet, without suspecting it, Grant Haua was forging a musical style inherited from the pioneers.

This former rugby player turned instrumentalist found the time long before being able to make his works heard beyond the oceanic seas.

It was thanks to an invitation to Baton Rouge in Louisiana in 2016 that his epic accelerated.

His notoriety grew suddenly and, although the release of his first album

 dates back to the early 2010s, he feels the time has come to capitalize on this craze for his Maori blues.

He then set about writing new compositions.

Months pass and the opportunity to sign a record contract is slow in coming.

Grant Haua on Joe Farmer's microphone.

© Christian Rose

It is the French label Dixiefrog which will have the good idea to take a closer interest in the character.

Discussions are going well and a recording project is emerging.

Unfortunately, the health crisis will delay the implementation of this new album supposed to present Grant Haua to an audience still virgin of bluish New Zealand notes.

 will finally appear in the spring of 2021 without its author being able to come to Europe to defend his catchy melodies on stage.

It will be necessary to wait for the lifting of the travel restrictions so that the Northern hemisphere finally discovers for the first time this imposing artist attached to his idiom and his roots which he knows how to expose through a reinterpretation inspired by the rough American blues.

He also admits to listening with delight to the old vinyls of Freddie King, Mississippi John Hurt or Albert King, but also the Soul Music of Motown and Stax Records.

His voice sometimes recalls the intonations of a certain Otis Redding. 

Grant Haua on the RFI terrace.

© Christian Rose

His arrival in France is a unique opportunity to savor a mixed sound mood that summons the spirit of Maori ancestors like the lament of slaves at work.

It is ultimately not insignificant that he agreed to spend some time in the studio with American singer Natalia M. King on the album

.

The commitment of this luminous artist could only marry her own convictions.

Note that Grant Haua has already announced a new album recorded in public.

It will be

 to be released in June 2022! 

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