This is great news Auckland.  The inaugural Auckland Jazz Festival opens on the 17th October, followed by 9 days of gigs across town.  Put together by Ben McNicoll and the CJC (Creative Jazz Club) team, which guarantees the excellence and diversity in programming.  A number of bars have enthusiastically come onboard and Jazz lovers should reward their commitment.  Because there are smaller venues or bars in the mix there will be some gigs with no cover charge, while others will charge a modest entry fee.  For pricing, bookings and programming visit the Auckland Jazz Festival website (below).  The headline gigs will be held at the CJC with the Mike Nock Trio (Australia) appearing on Tuesday 21st October, followed by the Benny Lackner Trio (Germany/USA) 22nd October and Francisco Torres/Roger Fox (USA/New Zealand) on the 23rd.   

It would be crazy to miss any of these three gigs, in fact hire a babysitter or cat minder and cancel anything that gets in the way.  I know that I will endeavour to catch as many gigs as I can.  If this is well supported it will likely become a feature of the Auckland City arts calendar.  The gigs vary in style with each unique in some way.  Opening the festival at the ‘Portland Public House’ Kingsland is Wellington’s, fabulously wild anarchic band ‘The Troubles” (who I can’t wait to see again).  There are also offerings from the early swing era, groove funk, experimental improv and more besides.

An Auckland Jazz Festival of this sort is long overdue and sensibly it’s run along the lines of a fringe festival.  There are no big sponsors calling the shots, which means that the choice of artists is in the hands of the organisers.  In the absence of any taint of commercialism you can expect edge, cool and excellence.  Think of it as a crowd sourced festival in which you have a vital part to play.  I have attended Jazz festivals run along these lines before and I prefer them, as they offer intimacy and a listening experience which you just can’t find in the larger venues.  The Montreal ‘L’Off’ festival immediately comes to mind.  It is important that we show our support by attending as many gigs as we can and don’t forget to visit the web site and ‘like’ the various gigs on offer (you know the drill, it is an important indicator of support).  The organisers and venue’s have put time and money into this and all we need to do is attend and enjoy ourselves.  Let’s show them that we appreciate it and put to bed the tired old myth that Auckland never gets behind the arts – see you all there.

What: www.aucklandjazzfestival.co.nz   (Live link)

Where: At a number of prime small venues about Auckland including, CJC (Creative Jazz Club), 1885 Britomart, The Portland Public House, Tom Tom, The Golden Dawn, Hallertau