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Okay. Dodging rain from all directions, the Jazz Festival is done.
It was a close-run thing in these climate-challenged times but, despite rain last week and rain this week, it cleared for a magical musical weekend.
And it was magical, down at the Historic Village on Good Friday and at the fantastic Baycourt concerts and in a swinging CBD during the weekend and at manifold other places music was created.
So a big hats off to the people who made it possible, from festival director Marc Anderson to the many hundreds of volunteers, techs, ushers at Baycourt – everyone! It was actually at a Baycourt concert that I remembered why I like such events so much – it’s because everybody wins.
There are many different world views when it comes to ventures involving money. There’s the Trumpian zero-sum game approach which believes if someone wins, someone must lose. But what I saw at Baycourt is that everybody can win.
There’s a band being paid a fee that makes them happy; there’s an audience happy to get their money’s worth; there’s the venue and dozens of workers, all paid and flourishing because of the patronage; and there are the promoters of the event, making money so they can continue in the future. And so on and so on... Everybody wins. That’s why I love festivals like this.
Moving on, this is a ‘Random things on the radar’ column.
First outing
First a gig. Hardcore stuff. On April 18 Auckland band Torana will visit The Jam Factory with their amalgam of seventies punk and eighties grunge, bringing along Dead Murder Brides, a covers ensemble featuring members of Auckland bands Dead Contract, Murdur Wun & The Bridesmaids.
But the reason I’m into this gig is it’s the first outing for Tauranga band Resting Cat Face. That name almost definitely means nothing to you: it’s a new band from the ridiculously creative Michael Baxter, one of those people who every time you turn around seems to have written a bunch of new songs or created wild new artwork.
Michael Baxter. Photo / Baz Mantis.
His recent bands include power-poppers The Knids and punk-leaning Billy Two. Now, cobbled together from the rough-hewn embers of Tauranga punk legends The Metrognomes, Liberated Squid and more, there’s Resting Cat Face. What do they sound like? Who knows? I would guess fast, furious and fun.
Meanwhile, local punkier-than-punk trio Hoick has launched their self-titled debut album. I’ll return to it when my mangled brain recovers from being shredded by the opening song Chargey Chargey. They are on the road across the North Island in April and May.
Michael Baxter. Photo / Supplied
Got any memories?
Now, at the risk of scaling new heights in lazy journalism, I have a couple of stories coming up that you might be able to help with. One about Murray Maunder, the guy who once filmed every jazz festival concert and is now adventuring in Australia. The other is about multi-talented BAFTA-winner Jeff Murphy for whom the Colourfield in Welcome Bay is releasing a posthumous album.
Got any memories or stories about them? If so, drop me a line at: watusi@thesun.co.nz
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