It has been 60 years since Tauranga first hosted the National Jazz Festival. As the festival prepares for this year’s 10-day music event, reporter Emma Houpt sat down with some of the people who are part of it to talk about what makes it so special.
Marc Anderson still remembers the nerves coursing through him as he drummed for the first time in his secondary school big band at the 1980 National Youth Jazz Competition.
Now, the National Jazz Festival manager says the experience helped to galvanise his belief that music “was the industry I wanted to be involved in”.
At just 13 years old, Anderson debuted in the school competition – then held at Tauranga Racecourse – alongside fellow Whakatāne High School big band members.
The youth competition has always been a prelude to the jazz festival, which is now in its 60th year.
Anderson, along with several others involved, spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend ahead of the special anniversary.
The festival, believed to be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, will run from April 1 - 10, with more than 20 events taking place across Tauranga. It is expected to draw around 20,000 people to its events.
Reflecting on that first competition more than 40 years ago, Anderson said he was “really nervous but excited”.
“You’ve been practising for months, these few songs, and then it would be the kind of crescendo of playing them in front of people,” he said.
It was then he realised “I don’t want to do anything else”.
Much of his working life had been spent in the music industry as a technician, production and tour manager, he said.
“I believe music is good for the soul - and when you can get it in young adults, it will just keep on keeping on for the rest of their lives.”
Anderson said organisers over the years worked hard to “create an atmosphere that you just want to embrace”.
When he competed all those years ago, he did so among some “really awesome drummers” that ended up “quite famous” in that era.
“The youth comp is a really good pathway to musicians making it,” he said.
At 16 years old, guitarist Michael van Lieshout was inclined to agree.
Van Lieshout, lead of the Tauranga Boys’ College big band, was just six years old when he found inspiration, having watched DVDs of blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughn.
“I took those home, watched them on the telly and have been hooked ever since,” said van Lieshout.
Now, he would be taking part in his fourth National Youth Jazz Competition. He described it as “such a cool event”.
“No one is there for the competition, if that makes sense. It’s an awesome couple of days of watching, hanging out and playing.”
Van Lieshout was in Year 8 when he was asked to join the school’s big band for that year’s festival, and had “stuck with it [jazz music]” since then.
In the view of Tauranga Jazz Society general manager Mandy Ryan, the youth competition was the “jewel in the crown of the festival”.
“There’s nothing like seeing 500 students rock up to Baycourt,” she said. “They bring all that excitement and energy into their performances.”
This year, 520 students from 31 secondary schools across the country would come to Tauranga to compete, she said.
Mandy described the students as the “future of the jazz community”. Some would stay involved for many years either as performers, music teachers bringing their students or audience members, she said.
“So many have come through the youth competition, and it gives them that taste of, ‘This is something I could turn into a career’.”
In reference to the wider festival, Ryan said the staff and volunteers put the effort in “to see jazz flourish in our community”.
Mandy’s husband Liam, manager of the youth competition and a former member of 1980s band The Narcs, praised the high level of talent in the area. Bands from every school in Tauranga were competing, which was a credit to all music teachers and students involved.
“Just all the energy involved in creating this spark that hits the city once a year.
“It’s an amazing thing to be part of. Jazz is a way of life and seeing the world. It’s something that’s beyond music.”
Liam, also a life member and past president of the society, said the youth competition was a “big machine” that had churned out “generations of players”.
He would also be performing as part of the festival with Sassy and the Blue Riders on April 9 at the Baycourt theatre.
For Tauranga Jazz Society life member Jocelyn Buchanan, she will never forget the “very special” exhibition showcasing the festival’s history 10 years ago. A highlight of the 50th anniversary for many was the concert featuring Earth, Wind & Fire at the Tauranga Domain, she said.
“This festival will be more low-key, but it will still honour the 60 years our community has [been putting] this together, which is awesome.”
Since then, Buchanan had continued to archive photos, programmes and newspaper clippings each year.
“Sometime in the future, somebody is going to write about this jazz festival because it’s so amazing - and all this will be waiting there for them.”
Buchanan, president of the society from 2010 to 2012, attended her first festival in 2002, and felt it was “phenomenally important” because of the life it brought to the city.
“It brings us to the nation’s attention - we are highly respected.”
Trombonist Dr Rodger Fox was an example of those who live elsewhere who made the annual pilgrimage to the festival.
The Wellingtonian had long been involved, having first played in 1970 with funk fusion band New Zealand Trading Company. Years later, he went on to form the Rodger Fox Big Band.
“Back then, I was very ‘early 20s’ - to go to a jazz festival was a novel thing. Tauranga was the first jazz festival along the lines of what we saw happening overseas.”
Fox said he had been involved most years since, either as a performer or judge of the youth competition.
The long-standing festival was an “incubator for jazz music” and a “focal point” for musicians at the time, he said.
Asked why the festival had continued for so many years, Fox said it had “never been left for chance”.
“There have always been enough well-meaning people from the community who love the music. It’s going to always keep going, I think.”
In 1978, Fox, also a jazz educator, led the winning band from Mana College in the first youth competition ever in Tauranga.
Fox reiterated the importance of this event, saying young jazz musicians played a crucial role in the festival’s continuity. It had grown hugely since the ‘70s, he said.
“Quite frankly, without younger players coming through, musical art forms die,” he said.
“Education is the biggest component - it’s how the festival will keep going.”
His band would be playing at Baycourt on Thursday to celebrate the Rodger Fox Big Band’s 50th anniversary.
After reminiscing about that first drumming performance all of those years ago, Anderson said he was looking forward to this year’s festival.
A performance Anderson was especially anticipating was that of E Rere Rā. Singer-songwriter Allana Goldsmith (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tai) and composer-pianist Mark Baynes would put on a show “completely in te reo Māori,” he said.
“To be able to host that show is something we are pretty proud of,” Anderson said.
There was little doubt the National Jazz Festival had come a long way in its 60 years.
Anderson offered a simple response when asked how he felt about the festival’s future: “We think it’s going to be good.”
To view the full programme, visit the National Jazz Festival website.
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