On Tuesday evening, October 8 2024, we celebrated the winner of the APRA Best Jazz Composition Award - announced at the 2024 APRA Silver Scroll Awards ceremony in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The finalists and winner were decided by a panel of APRA members who have a respected understanding of jazz composition.
It's a pleasure to announce the 2024 Best Jazz Composition Award winner is ‘Satellites’ composed by Lucien Johnson.
This is Lucien Johnson’s second time winning the award, having previously won in 2021. Johnson has been described as “a saxophonist of the highest repute” (Giles Peterson, BBC). His music has taken him around the globe, touring and performing in the USA, Brazil, Europe, China, Japan, Haiti and India.
A highly imaginative music creator with a career spanning over two decades, ‘Satellites’ comes from Johnson’s sophomore solo recording Ancient Relics, following on from their 2021 debut Wax /// Wane.
On the composition, one of the anonymous member of the judging panel said: “Sporting Wellington's finest pair of knee-high Iberian riding boots and the leatheriest bottom lip in the local sax trade, Lucien Johnson reaches a distant and glorious orbit with his outstanding composition 'Satellites'.”
Released earlier this year, Ancient Relics has a unique quality, which values contemplation and ephemerality above all else. Johnson's releases receive rave reviews in international press, with France Musique calling them “bewitching and astonishing” and London Jazz News describing them as “mystical, a touch retro and increasingly spellbinding.”
Listen to ‘Satellites’ here.
The Silver Scroll ceremony was fitting place to celebrate the jazz composition winner, with the evening also honouring jazz composer and performer Mike Nock (ONZM) as they are inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame. In attendance at the celebration were other finalists Anita Schwabe, Mitchell Zachary Dwyer and Dave Wilson, as well as many distinguished members of the Aotearoa music community.
Learn more about the 2024 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award finalists here.