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Cory Champion was presented with the 2025 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award for ‘Cascade d’Ars’ performed by Clear Path Ensemble. The award was presented at a private event in Pōneke on the eve of the Wellington Jazz Festival.

Cory Champion is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist from Pōneke, Wellington, now based in Melbourne. His group Clear Path Ensemble riffs on jazz-fusion in the mode of Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Azymuth while folding elements of minimalism, ambient, techno and break beat into a borderless, exploratory sound world.

Their latest album Black Sand, which hosts the award-winning piece ‘Cascade d’Ars’, was released independently in May with the first pressing of vinyl selling out within a month. The album had support from Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 6), Mark de Clive-Lowe (BBE), and Mike Gurrieri (PBS Radio), among others.

‘Cascade d’Ars’ references a waterfall in the Pyrenees Mountain ranges. Laced vibraphone and glockenspiel motifs create a foundation for chime passages supported by light guitar, percussion and the spacious double bass, with the piece flowing in a liminal space between American minimalism and bossa-nova. The piece is performed by Champion (drums, vibraphone, congas, glockenspiel, chimes, percussion, guitar, MS-20), Johnny Lawrence (double bass), Mike Isaacs (bass clarinet), and Louisa Williamson (flute).

2025 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award finalists:

‘Cascade d’Ars’ composed by Cory Champion, performed by Clear Path Ensemble
‘Children of the Way’ composed by Jake Baxendale, performed by Waypeople (with words by Ursula K. Le Guin)
‘Tone Clocks’ composed by Daniel Beban, performed by Devils Gate Outfit

This is the tenth year the APRA Best Jazz Composition Award has been presented in Aotearoa. The finalists and winner are decided by an anonymous panel of judges who are also APRA members and active in the Aotearoa Jazz community. Past winners include Lucien Johnson, Louisa Williamson, and Callum Allardice – see a full list of past winners here.

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