All the Jazz
WATCHING the double bass played in an army band fired a young
Umar Zakaria’s imagination.
‘‘I thought it was really cool.’’ His mother had taken him to the concert to help him discover a new instrument to play.
‘‘I started on the piano. It’s a common story: I hated it, so I never practised.’’
However, it took a while before he began to learn the bass as he was a shy child and it took him a long time to get up enough courage to approach his teacher.
‘‘That took a couple of months.’’
When he did, he found the double bass felt very natural.
‘‘Everything fit under my fingers. It didn’t take me long to understand how everything worked. Maybe it was the timing. I was 13, so maybe it was the time to learn something new. I enjoyed the sound of it, I enjoyed the size of it.
‘‘I ended up really loving music and really loving playing jazz.’’
While jazz was what he wanted to play, he had to learn to play classical music first.
‘‘When I finally got to learn jazz it was so interesting.
There was a bit of a mental hurdle. There is a lot of theory and knowledge to get under your feet and learning how different notes sound, so you can just play them without thinking about what note it is so you can improvise.
‘‘That was pretty mentally engaging for me as well.’’
He enjoys watching people improvise, knowing they are making up something from nothing. ‘‘There is a sort of freedom I picked up from being able to make something up or create something that wasn’t there before.’’
The attraction of jazz is a lot of things for Zakaria, but that freedom is definitely part of it, he says.
‘‘I think to play jazz, you are improvising and making something up, but the muse has to come from somewhere and generally it means the music comes from the people who are making it.’’
Playing with other musicians, such as Dunedin’s Karin Reid and Alex Wolken, allows him to give back to music. The trio will also play at the Wellington Jazz Festival in November.
‘‘It’s a big part of the pull for me. It’s almost a kind of social thing, I guess.’’
He met Reid in Wellington when she asked him for a tune when he was playing as part of a house band.
‘‘Like a lot of jazz gigs it starts with a jam session where two musicians meet and play. We developed some idea of each other’s
musical world, so when she asked me if I wanted to play with her, I was pretty confident to say yes.’’
Reid was taken by the double bassist’s playing.
“I knew in an instant his ability for deep listening and dynamic playing. He is passionate and thoughtful about his instrument and music and is renowned for his emotionally stirring performances. I really wanted to perform with him, feeling he would be perfect for our ‘jazz noir’ duo sound and musical personalities. We are very fortunate.”
Zakaria hopes to bring his energy and musical flavour to the gig as well as some intensity.
‘‘With double bass the sound can be sort of quite quiet compared to some instruments, but can take up the whole room.’’
Travelling with a double bass can be problematic, so it is not unusual for a player to borrow an instrument — as Zakaria will do in Dunedin.
‘‘It’s kind of understood among base players. I do have a gigantic case which can fit a double bass in it, but it’s quite pricey and doesn’t fit in every car. Sometimes it’s better to borrow one.’’
Wellington has been the musician’s base since 2011, although he has travelled overseas to study and perform.
‘‘I really like it here. I’ve been to Boston and Japan and I’ve been to Berlin. It’s quite unbelievable how much music there is [in Wellington] considering the population of New Zealand. I’m very happy to be here.
‘‘The more I travel, the more I value being here.’’
After finishing high school in his hometown of Christchurch, he was awarded a scholarship to the New Zealand School of Music.
In his third year, he accepted an opportunity to be an exchange student at the University of NorthTec in Texas, which is famous for its grammynominated jazz band.
‘‘That was the place that really kicked my butt for the first time; it was very enjoyable, but a very sobering experience.’’
From there he completed his master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
He is a student of legendary jazz bassists Cecil McBee and Lynn Seaton as well as New Zealand’s Paul Dyne, and was awarded second prize at the BASS2014 International Jazz Bass Competition. In 2018, he was named best jazz artist by Recorded Music New Zealand and won a Tui Award for his album Fearless Music.