Jazz festival’s live music livens up Queen’s Birthday
The Manawatu¯ International Jazz and Blues 2018 festival spoiled the people of Manawatu¯ with a flurry of live music choice during Queen’s Birthday weekend.
In celebrating its 51st festival for the city, which lasted from May 25 through June 4, the Manawatu¯ Jazz Club provided the public with the opportunity to see some of the most vibrant live acts and gave practitioners of jazz with an opportunity to perform.
Aside the paid-for theatre performances at the Globe and Regent on Broadway, the jazz cafe´ scene brought close to 120 performers to entertain the public in more than 30 bars and cafes all within walking distance of the CBDs of Palmerston North and Feilding.
The cafe´ jazz scene was free to watch, leaving the audience with more money for wine, coffee and cake.
At Flavour Bistro cafe´ on Saturday in Downtown, people warmed the seats with three hours of the Jazz Trio, featuring Nicky Wuts on vibraphone, Gino Sanguinetti on keys and Matiu Whiting on bass.
A long-time member of the Manawatu¯ Jazz Club, Owen Rogers, said the club has been a major stakeholder in the Manawatu¯ music history.
“Jazz cools the mind and takes you away from the worries of life.
“Generally, music is good, but jazz has a life of its own.”
Owen said The Globe theatre played host to notable performers like Hopetoun Brown, Finn Scholes, New Zealand’s “King” of Blues, Midge Marsden, Kevin Downing’s 101 Lab Band, The Big Band Bash featuring the River City Whanganui Big Band, the Burnside High Big Band from Christchurch, the Manawatu¯ Jazz Club Big Band, and the Swamp City Big Band.
The international content of the 2018 festival brought to New Zealand top names in jazz such as Bruce Forman, American blues, jazz and rock guitarist Robben Ford, who was named one of the “100 greatest guitarists of the 20th century” by Musician magazine, as well as Lydia Pense, American rock-souljazz singer who since 1969 has performed with the band Cold Blood.