Wellington-based saxophonist and composer Jake Baxendale brings together a remarkable collective of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia’s leading jazz and contemporary musicians for Waypeople, a luminous new album inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s English-language version of the Tao Te Ching. Drawing from jazz, Chinese classical music and improvisation, the project fuses lyrical storytelling with meditative textures and powerful ensemble interplay.
Combining voice, woodwinds, piano, bass, drums and the majestic guzheng (Chinese zither), Waypeople transforms the timeless Taoist philosophy of harmony, balance, and paradox into sound. The result is a work of shimmering beauty — grounded in jazz but alive with the rhythm of ancient poetry and the pulse of contemporary life.
Nexus Arts acknowledges the Kaurna people as the owners of the land where we live, learn, and work. We respect their culture and elders and acknowledge their sovereignty was never ceded. We recognise that visual arts, music and storytelling have been central to Aboriginal cultures for over 70,000 years. We work to support this lineage.
