Wellington-based saxophonist and composer Jake Baxendale brings together a remarkable collective of Aotearoa’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.

Featuring Chelsea Prastiti (voice), Jia Ling “Jessie” (guzheng), Callum Passells (saxophones), Daniel Hayles (piano), Seth Boy (double bass), Rick Cranson (drums) and live art and shadow puppetry from Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant, 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.