Judge Charmaine Pountney said Bourke had interviewed many of the musicians that featured in the book, "drawing out anecdotes that enrich our understanding of our nation's cultural development".
Bourke scored a hat-trick, his book also taking out the general non-fiction award and the people's choice award.
The fiction award went to Dunedin writer Laurence Fearnley for her seventh novel, The Hut Builder.
Judge Emily Perkins said Fearnley had written "elating, transformative prose".
Wellington-based poet Kate Camp won the poetry award for her collection, The Mirror Of Simple Annihilated Souls, described by judge Michael Harlow as a truly thoughtful and engaging book of poems.
Gisborne freelance art historian and curator Damian Skinner took out the illustrated non-fiction award for his book The Passing World, The Passage of Life: John Hovell and the Art of Kowhaiwhai.
Judge Bob Harvey described the work as a beautiful book that showcased Hovell's astonishing design and creativity for marae projects on the East Coast, urban Auckland and Coromandel.
The trilogy of wins meant Bourke was awarded $30,000 - $15,000 for the book of the year, $10,000 for his category win and $5000 for the people's choice award.
Award winners
* BOOK OF THE YEAR, GENERAL NON-FICTION AND PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS WINNER Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964, by Chris Bourke
*FICTION AWARD WINNER
The Hut Builder, by Laurence Fearnley
*POETRY AWARD WINNER
The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls, by Kate Camp
*ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION AWARD WINNER
The Passing World: The Passage of Life: John Hovell and the Art of Kowhaiwhai, by Damian Skinner.
- NZPA
