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I keep thinking about how things have changed. Does that mean I’m getting old?
Take the National Jazz Festival, an event Tauranga is justifiably proud of. Broader musical changes mean it now has a smaller cultural effect on New Zealand.
During the 1990s and early-2000s the jazz festival was pretty much the biggest annual gathering of jazz-minded folk in the country. Bands would explicitly time music releases to coincide. Why? Because it was your best chance to make money from CDs, with your potential music buyers all around you.
So the festival here and the Bay of Islands one in August became the impetus for albums to be made. Bands could record and manufacture an album and make back the costs almost immediately. CDs, of course, were much cheaper to make than vinyl – it meant the Tauranga festival genuinely inspired music to be recorded.
But that was then. Few bands now make money from selling physical music. I was talking to a local band planning to release an album later this year. It’s not an extravagant production. By the time 150 copies arrive on vinyl it’ll have cost more than $10,000. Bands are now paying for you to hear their music.
Most eccentric
These days no one plans a new release for Easter. In fact they avoid it because it’s a busy time so you’ll get less publicity.
But one band completely ignoring this is a new outfit from Tauranga. They’ve just launched one of the most eccentric local projects I can remember.
From the ashes of The Afrolites, guitarist Ben Smith, keyboard player Julian Perry, and drummer Ian Richards have joined new bass player Damien Cooper to become Vogon and have produced a concept album/EP, The Havana Files, four long tracks connected by short “diary entry” segues, all documenting a family holiday in Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis.
Appealing and baffling
What this means in practice is slightly Latin funk-jazz-rock instrumentals with spoken voice-overs and time-relevant samples, immersive and sardonic. It’s both appealing and somewhat baffling. On their Facebook and YouTube pages there are very cool videos, similarly age-drenched and ironic. It’s an act of artistic extravagance that cannot fail to impress.
Vogon. Photo / Supplied
Vogon will play at the Historic Village on Good Friday, April 3.
More new music
Sean Bodley continues to release a string of guitar instrumentals while Katikati’s serial chart-topper We Will Ride Fast has launched a first single, Unfurl Your Weeds, from a planned six for 2026. It features Frances Ellen on backing vocals.
We Will Ride Fast. Photo / Supplied
And it’s hard to even get a handle on how much Shane Davies is pumping out at Whakamārama’s Soundtree Studio. After completing the 16-track album Shane Vol 1, Silence, last year in February he released Shane Vol 2, Into The Void, another 12 new solid retro-rock songs with musicians Nigel Master, Pat Hawkins, Baz Mantis, Jeff Nilson and more.
Since then he’s been busy remastering and has just launched Shane Vol. 3, Life, 10 tracks, some old, some new. They’re on Facebook and YouTube, not Spotify.
Hear Winston’s latest Playlist: