Seashore Jazz

By John Harlow.

The 2nd National Jazz Festival, held at Tauranga last month, proved to be a swinging success. It attracted jazz musicians and fans from all over the country; and gave jazz critics chance to do some stocktaking of New Zealand's jazz talent and tastes.

Between them the 100 musicians on stage presented almost every form of jazz: from dixie through to modern.

If the response of the Tauranga audience gave any indication of the average New Zealander's taste in jazz, it would appear that dixie and trad are the most popular forms in New Zealand. They seem to have a mass appeal that gives them a wider range of popularity than that enjoyed by the more progressive and complicated forms of jazz. The most popular exponents of dixie and trad were the Bridge City Jazzmen, the Windy City Sextet and Ernie Rouse's sevenpiece band from Napier.

Although jazz is often regarded as being the exclusive realm of small groups, the Tauranga 17piece Swing Band was on stage with some big band jazz. It showed its ability to play good music with a polished technique: and under the baton of conductor Stanley Farnsworth it has a promising future.

The overall standard of modern and progressive jazz was high. It is not easy to single out groups for individual mention, but possibly one of the best groups on stage was the Bruce Morley Sextet, with quest trombonist Merv Thomas.

A highlight of the festival was vocalist Barbie Colquhoun from Levin. Accompanied by husband Neil Colquhoun on piano and Trevor Tasker on drums, she displayed a tremendous vocal range as she sang her way through a variety of jazz and blues standards. It is a pity that there aren't a few more jazz vocalists in New Zealand.

A disappointing feature of the festival was the lack of Bosa Nova. So far it seems to have made little impact on the New Zealand jazz scene. Barbie Colquhoun and the Tauranga Swing Band gave a particularly line rendition of "One Note Samba," but apart from this there was practically no Bosa Nova at any one of the three sessions.

The Tauranga soundshell was an ideal place to hold a jazz festival. It is set in a sea-shore domain, has plenty of good seating (and sunbathing) accommodation, and if the weather holds good (as it did this year) it lends itself to relaxed and informal jazz.

The audience ranged from bearded beatniks to Chinese seamen, and included a surprisingly large number of locals, especially family groups.

All in all the festival was a great success. It served to bring together musicians, entertain lovers of good lively music, and educate curious outsiders.