Jazz you like it
With the Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival celebrating its 60th birthday this year, UNO spoke to festival manager Marc Anderson to get a sneak peek at what to expect.
Words Karl Puschmann
It’s hard to believe that the Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival has kept crowds bipping, bopping and swinging for 60 years. Music fashions may come and go but jazz, it seems, is eternal.
Marc Anderson, the festival’s manager, has a theory for jazz’s long-lasting and generational appeal.
“It's such a broad genre that encompasses so many different styles,” he says. “Sixty years ago, jazz was the hip music that all the kids got into. Now, 60 years on, most genres of music can be somehow or another related to jazz. Whether you know the influence or not. It makes jazz still current and relevant.”
It’s a broad church, jazz, and everyone is welcome. With around 40 subgenres nestled under the umbrella term “jazz”, ranging from summery smooth cool all the way through to challenging modal explorations, its wide variety is one of the defining features of the genre. It’s also something taken seriously by the Jazz Fest.
“It's really important for us that we don't pigeonhole the festival into having one type of jazz because there's a lot of interesting music out there,” Marc says. “I love the lineup. It’s a really diverse array of music and I'm excited about the depth of music and talent that we've got this year.”
The Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival is renowned for the quality of its lineups but for its 60th Birthday Bash, they’ve pulled out all the stops. They’re expecting 20,000 people for the Downtown Carnival, which boasts over 40 acts during its two days, not to mention the huge range of shows, concerts and events going on over its 10 days.
Local jazz institution Blue Train is reforming, Laughton Kora’s galactic-jazz ensemble Black Comet is landing and jazz duo Goldsmith Baynes will send chills down your spine with their contemporary fusion of jazz and Maori philosophies. Of course, that’s just a sliver of what’s on the programme.
“The Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival is one of the flagship events in Tauranga and it feels like the community is really behind it,” Marc says. “Everyone's really positive for the festival, which shows because it's a great place to be. If you come along, I guarantee you'll find some magic every single day.”
Then, putting his money where his mouth is, he laughs and adds, “And if you don't, I might buy you a pint!”
The Port of Tauranga 60th National Jazz Festival is running from Saturday, April 1 through to Monday, April 10.
Two Worlds, One Music
Duo Goldsmith Baynes has been turning heads in the jazz world. Their latest album, the acclaimed E Rere Rā, brings a Māori outlook, vision and language to contemporary jazz. UNO caught up with singer-songwriter Allana Goldsmith ahead of their show at the Tauranga Jazz Festival.
How are you feeling about performing at the Tauranga Jazz Festival for its 60th birthday celebrations?
We can't wait to play. I've been going to the festival since I was about 18. It's such a great time. Everybody should get along and check out music they've never heard before. I always say, go with an open mind and be ready to experience something different or something new.
That’s what jazz is all about, right? That search for something new.
That's right. Innovation happens by pushing those boundaries. It's fun and exciting. As a musician,
you never know what you're going to create.
Is that how you found your unique sound with Goldsmith Baynes?
Māori music and jazz music meeting together to form a new space was more than just bringing a bit of Te Reo to songs. It was a complete way of approaching the music. The way it was made was thought about as bringing a Māori approach to jazz.
What was that approach? What brings these two worlds together?
The way that we think about it. I’ll tell Mark I’ll be singing about birds. He will reflect on that and then play what he thinks will match that. The idea is that the musicians will follow the meaning of what we're talking about and bringing to fruition in terms of music.
A lot of jazz is based on explorations into theory, but you approach your songs from feelings or meanings?
A lot of people take a theoretical approach to jazz. Of course, prior to it becoming an academic type of music it was Black, African music. It came from feeling before they ever really thought about it. And theory came prior to that. So it's kind of like taking it back to its roots. I like to think of it like that.
What's great about jazz is how pliable it is. It can be adapted in so many ways or incorporated in so many different expressions.
That’s right. Jazz has been a way for me to write my own music and write my own lyrics and learn my language. It's multifaceted and pretty personal. Me and my friends and musicians think of jazz as an approach to life.