Old favourites, new faces for premier jazz & blues festival

February 9, 2011

Old favourites and new faces feature in the line-up for this year’s New Zealand International Jazz and Blues Festival.

An annual event, the Christchurch-based festival brings together the best jazz and blues musicians from around New Zealand and the world for five days and nights of musical magic.

Making his first appearance at the festival is gypsy guitar legend Lulo Reinhardt, with a four-piece band including European musicians. This will be Reinhardt’s first ever concert in New Zealand and a unique chance for music-lovers to see one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world perform.

The festival will also see internationally renowned composer, conductor and arranger, Russell Garcia, sharing the stage with his most recent collaborator, award winning New York jazz vocalist, Shaynee Rainbolt.

A rising star of the jazz scene, Rainbolt will perform both the Garcia Songbook and popular jazz favourites, all arranged and conducted by the master himself for his signature four-trombone band.

Bluesfest, in association with Newstalk ZB, presents Mavis Staples, Aaron Neville and the Blind Boys of Alabama – three legendary pillars of American music – who will join forces for a roof-raising package of gospel and soul in the Town Hall Auditorium on Saturday 30 April. With three headliners sharing the bill, this promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime, soul-shaking, church wreckin’ musical event.

Mavis Staples has been one of the outstanding voices of soul and gospel music for more than five decades. Starting out in Chicago with family band The Staple Singers (founded by Mavis’s father, guitarist and singer Robebuck ‘Pops’ Staples) she was noted in her teens for her intense, impassioned singing style. The Staples Singers became closely associated with the civil rights movement through the group’s friendship with the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and recordings of protest songs by the likes of Bob Dylan.

Aaron Neville is one of pop’s great paradoxes: a tattooed giant with the voice of an angel. The outstanding singer of iconic New Orleans band The Neville Brothers, his delicate and distinctive voice first gained recognition in 1967 with the solo hit ‘Tell It Like It Is’.

The Blind Boys of Alabama are one of the best-known, longest-serving gospel quartets in the world. Their sold-out show at the 2009 New Zealand International Jazz and Blues Festival was a night of energetic, soulful music that delighted and thrilled their Christchurch audience.

Ireland’s leading jazz and blues singer, Mary Coughlan, will also be taking part in the festival. Likened to legends such as Peggy Lee and Marianne Faithfull, Coughlan has more than 12 studio albums to her credit. She will be performing some of her favourite songs including the blues classic I’d Rather Go Blind and the haunting Irish ballad Ancient Rain.

Another festival favourite returning to the stage this year is Jennine Bailey, who is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s top jazz singers. In a tribute to American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald she will be performing such classics as I’ve Got You Under My Skin, the jazzy blues ballad Cry Me a River and popular jazz standard Mack the Knife.

The ever-popular Jazz in the Hall concert series returns again for this year’s festival. Among those who will be performing in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre are Doug Caldwell and Malcolm McNeill, who will be celebrating 50 years of performances together, the Mark Isaacs Trio, and Oval Office, a seven-piece funk band featuring some of New Zealand's finest musical talent.

“We’ve got some exceptionally talented performers taking part in this year’s festival and music-lovers are truly in for a treat,’’ says festival director Jodi Wright.

“My advice to people keen to come to the festival is get your tickets early because some of the concerts will sell out quickly.’’

The New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is on in Christchurch from April 27 to May 1.

For more information log onto www.jazzfestivalnz.com.

Tickets are available through www.ticketek.co.nz

ENDS

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