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Howard Davis
Scoop Arts Editor
Educated at Cambridge and UCLA; worked on several major Hollywood feature films and as a Kundalini Yoga instructor in Los Angeles; currently enjoying life in Wellington.
Howard Davis - Latest News [Page 9]
Album of the Year - Van Morrison's 'Keep Me Singing'
Friday, 16 December 2016, 3:42 pm | Howard Davis
2016 was a grand year for Van The Man - The Belfast Cowboy turned 71, received a knighthood, and reissued an expanded set of soul-fired live recordings from 1973 ('It's Too Late to Stop Now'). In the game for 53 years now, Morrison's albums consistently ... More >>
Review: Bernard Herrmann's Scores for 'Vertigo' & 'Psycho'
Monday, 28 November 2016, 9:52 am | Howard Davis
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra reached out beyond their classical repertoire on Saturday night. Their adventurousness was richly-rewarded, as the deeply appreciative Wellington audience was given the opportunity not only to see a couple of Alfred ... More >>
Review: The Cosmic Dance of 'String Theory'
Thursday, 10 November 2016, 9:46 am | Howard Davis
Fly My Pretties sixth album is quite possibly their best yet - a concept album in the best sense, with superb arrangements, funky grooves, and some great vocalizing, all organized around the lyrical leitmotif of string theory. The initial inspiration ... More >>
Review: 'I, Daniel Blake' - Ken Loach's Bleak Masterpiece
Thursday, 27 October 2016, 11:15 am | Howard Davis
'I, Daniel Blake' is a bleak masterpiece, a chilling and moving story of two people striking up an unlikely friendship under extremely adverse circumstances. It is both a polemical indictment of a faceless benefits bureaucracy that strips claimants of ... More >>
Review: New Albums by Bic Runga & Anna Coddington
Thursday, 20 October 2016, 10:52 am | Howard Davis
What is it about the New Zealand climate that continuously produces such beautiful vocalists? From the superstardom of Kiri Te Kanawa and Lorde, to the more modest homespun musings of Mel Parsons and Moana Ete, extraordinary female singer/songwriters ... More >>
Review: A Girl Named Mo
Monday, 17 October 2016, 11:11 am | Howard Davis
Moana Ete brought her three-piece band A Girl Named Mo to Wellington's intimate and iconic Bats Theatre last week for a five-night residency. Each show was recorded and filmed live for the release of her debut album 'Platonic/Romantic' on Loop records ... More >>
Triple Echo - The Malevich/Reinhardt/Hotere Nexus
Monday, 19 September 2016, 4:27 pm | Howard Davis
'Jean Michel Massing, Towards a Global Art History,' co-edited by Mark Stocker, Curator of Historical International Art at Te Papa, is obviously a labour of love, handsomely produced with over 100 illustrations. It is a Festschrift to honour Massing's retirement ... More >>
Review: Henry Rollins Burning Down the House
Monday, 29 August 2016, 12:44 pm | Howard Davis
With his lantern jaw, close-cropped hair, and muscle-bound physique, Henry Rollins could not be further from the US Marine image his appearance might suggest. With a career spanning several decades and many different incarnations as a musician, ... More >>
Review: Steve Abel's Double Salto
Monday, 22 August 2016, 11:23 am | Howard Davis
Steve Abel's first musical venture was a bleak song called 'Hospice for Destitute Lovers,' which he contributed to Florian Habicht's art-noir feature film 'Woodenhead' in 2003, while his debut album had the equally inauspicious title 'Little Death.' ... More >>
Review: Phat Slabs & Funky Chunks - Fly My Pretties
Thursday, 18 August 2016, 1:35 pm | Howard Davis
Fly My Pretties is a collaboration of contemporary Aotearoa musicians who assemble periodically to record live albums in various locations, their diverse musical backgrounds consistently supplying an eclectic and unique blend of song stylings. The brainchild ... More >>
Orson Welles' Masterpiece - 'Chimes at Midnight'
Thursday, 28 July 2016, 5:01 pm | Howard Davis
I wish today could be tomorrow, The night is dark, It just brings sorrow anyway. - 'Days,' The Kinks. More >>
La Casa Azul - Frida Kahlo in Her Own Words And Photographs
Friday, 1 July 2016, 11:23 am | Howard Davis
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954) was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón, the daughter of a German photographer and a Mexican mother, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Her life began and ended in in her home at Coyocan, known as 'La Casa Azul,' ... More >>
Firmly in the Spotlight - Lisa Fischer
Monday, 13 June 2016, 9:57 am | Howard Davis
Lisa Fischer is rightly celebrated for her far-reaching vocal range and remarkable grace as a hugely accomplished session singer. From recording with Billy Ocean, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Alicia Keys, Bobby McFerrin, George Benson, Diana ... More >>
Mr. Weird - Wayne Shorter at the Wellington Jazz Festival
Thursday, 9 June 2016, 2:09 pm | Howard Davis
Year after year, the Wellington Jazz Festival attracts jazz luminaries from around the globe. Last year, we were treated to the mellifluous duets of Chick Corea and Gary Burton on piano and vibraphone. This year, the opening night headliner at the ... More >>
Securing NZ's Political Memory: Scoop As A Digital Archive
Monday, 30 May 2016, 12:45 pm | Howard Davis
As a callow undergraduate studying English Literature at Cambridge University in the 1970s, it was made abundantly clear to me that print was a dying medium. Original texts are constantly being lost and found as manuscripts and books disintegrate and ... More >>
King Lear at Circa
Tuesday, 17 May 2016, 10:13 am | Howard Davis
In order to celebrate it's 40th birthday, it is perhaps fitting that Circa Theatre should pick a production of 'King Lear,' since it's also somewhat fortuitously Shakespeare's 400th anniversary. If some of the more cerebral poetry is lost in Michael Hurst's ... More >>
Pie in the Sky: The Moral Ambiguity of 'Eye In The Sky'
Tuesday, 19 April 2016, 3:53 pm | Howard Davis
The use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) has prompted both protests and legal action, but few films have engaged in the debate, forgetting there’s someone at the controls and instead emphasizing the alien nature of a remote, robotic death. Colin Firth ... More >>
Mick Fleetwood Rediscovers His Roots
Tuesday, 5 April 2016, 3:33 pm | Howard Davis
Back in the days before the British blues revival in the 1960s, it's fair to say that one man virtually pioneered the form - Alexis Korner. Korner originally worked for jazz band leader Chris Barber, who was responsible for bringing many American ... More >>
The Light-Hearted Hermeneutics of 'Hail, Caesar!'
Tuesday, 29 March 2016, 4:48 pm | Howard Davis
The Light-Hearted Hermeneuticsof 'Hail, Caesar!' Howard Davis Despite rave reviews in both 'Variety' and 'The New Yorker,' 'Hail, Caesar!' is a box-office dud, costing an estimated $22 million, but only grossing $29 million in the US since its 2015 ... More >>
Venus in Fur - Todd Haynes' 'Carol'
Friday, 26 February 2016, 1:42 pm | Howard Davis
At a total running time of almost two hours, 'Carol' is a long, slow, languorous exercise in chemically-pure visual cinema. Just as Nastassja Kinski saved Roman Polanski's 'Tess' from becoming a gorgeous snooze-fest, it's really only Kate Blanchett's luminous ... More >>
