Saturday evenings 7- 9 pm,
23rd July to 24th September 2016.
St Ninian’s Hall, 17 St Georges Rd, Avondale
Tickets: $22.50 or $19 (concession) from Eventfinda
Forget about sitting at home and setting Spotify to 1940s jazz radio, come to Avondale and experience the real deal.
This winter an old 1860 solid Kauri Church in the heart of Avondale will swing, jive and bop with contemporary renditions of classic Jazz from its early days to the Bebop era in the 1940s.
On Jazz’n’Joe evenings St Ninian’s will be transformed into an intimate Jazz nightclub, with tables, low lighting and a quality band. The only difference, no alcohol. Jazz’n’Joe is deliberately going alcohol free, instead serving ‘Joe’, coffee by another name from experienced local barista Aarti of ‘Coffee MAKS’.
Over the ten Saturday evenings seventeen musicians will perform period classics in different combinations of vibes, wind, brass, bass, piano, drums and vocals. The musicians may or may not have performed the repertoire together, but all know same songs.
Jazz’n’Joe Musicians include:
Mike Booth (Trumpet), Peter Woods (Vibes), Lyndsay Meech (Trumpet/Flugelhorn/Vocals), Mark Houghton (Saxophone), Craig Walters (Saxophone), Maria OíFlaherty (Vocals), Julie Mason (Vocals), Ben Fernadez (Piano), Ross Hurley (Trombone), Asher Tauppan-Lattie (Clarinet), Jason Orme (Drums), Owen Kneebone (Drums), Glen Frewin (Bass), Joel Griffin (Bass), Craig Williams (Bass), Kim Paterson (Trumpet/Drums) and Aaron Codell (Bass).
Collectively these musicians have an impressive CV. They’ve performed at significant international events like the Cannes International Film Festival, at embassies and corporate functions including a party for President Bill Clinton in Mumbai, India. Some of the musicians have played with city and state symphony orchestras like the Berlin Symphonica and the Bavarian State Opera. Many of them have featured in Auckland’s local festivals including the Mission Bay Jazz Festival, Feb 2006 and the Devonport Wine and Music Festival.
Organisers Ron Coleman and Dennis Brimble conceived of Jazz’n’Joe as a response to the winter quiet period, when work tapers off and talented professional Jazz musicians get together and play for fun. From there came the further idea of setting it in musical periods and styles.
Ron Coleman, an Avondale resident and pianist who has worked as a Jazz musician for decades, performing around the world and on cruise ships explains they chose to focus on the earlier styles of Jazz, up to 1945 because: “these are more easily recognisable and fun for audiences. Back in the 1940s if you were to turn on a radio you would have heard all the pieces being played at Jazz’n’Joe with many familiar songs of the era”.
Musician, sound engineer and Avondale local Dennis Brimble has been tutoring students using St Ninian’s a restored church that is now a community hall for a number of years. The acoustic of the hall is beautiful – warm and clean – and he’s thought of holding concerts there for a long time so the choice to use St Ninian’s for Jazz’n’Joe was obvious:
“This beautiful historic building is the oldest in the district and the size of St Ninian’s ensures a cozy intimate experience for audience and musicians alike much like the performance venues of old. This is a great blank canvas for us to work with, a different layout and with some effective mood lighting it will easily transform into something even more special.”
How to get there:
St Ninian’s Hall, 17 St Georges Rd, Avondale is just off Great North Rd, close to the motorway and is within easy walking distance of the bus services and the Avondale train station.
Jazz’n’Joe has been supported by the Whau Local Board as well as local Avondale businessman and Jazz enthusiast Duncan MacDonald (who’s father was instrumental in recording the first Auckland Town Hall Jazz concerts).
For more information and updates check out the Jazz’n’Joe Facebook page
