Palmy hosts first NZ Blues, Roots & Groove Festival
Rodger Fox could have filled two weeks with concerts, such was the interest from bands and artists
The thrill hasn’t gone for Rodger Fox. In fact, he’s now helping organise two music festivals for Palmerston North a year. The first New Zealand Blues, Roots & Groove Festival is on September 1-4, featuring well-known acts, workshops and free events.
With the Manawatu¯ Jazz Club, Fox has been running the Manawatu¯ Jazz & Blues Festival for 22 years.
He was conscious there wasn’t a dedicated blues festival anywhere in New Zealand and that Globe Theatre manager Gerry Keating is a blues fan.
Then Fox was talking to Mayor Grant Smith who encouraged him to go for it and advised there was not much happening in Palmerston North in late August and early September each year.
Fox put the word out among the blues fraternity and could have filled two weeks with concerts, such was the interest from bands and artists.
There are nine ticketed concerts at the Globe.
The festival opens with the Kevin Downing Lab Band with special guest David Becker from the United States.
For more than three decades, the Grammy and Emmy nominated guitarist, composer, and producer has continued to define himself as one of the most unique voices in jazz and contemporary music.
Kevin Downing is a Palmerston North guitar teacher and the band has been running for 32 years.
Other acts include the Handsome Giants featuring Bullfrog Rata, Laura Collins and the Back Porch Blues Band, and the Wellington Blues Brothers Revue.
Born in Christchurch, Fox moved to Wellington when he was 10.
He lived in Auckland for nearly 20 years, commuting to Wellington to teach at Victoria University’s School of Music.
Now the trombone legend divides his time between his senior lecturer job in Wellington and living in Palmerston North.
Palmy’s attraction is it’s home to his girlfriend
Erna Ferry, a singer and teacher.
Next year the Rodger Fox Big Band will be 50.
Fox says blues, like jazz, is such a wide term and performers can range from a soloist with a harmonica or guitar to a 15-piece ska band.
Even the most unhappy blues songs seem to be happy.
Blues is a precursor to jazz, to rock’n’roll and everything else since.
The songs can tell a story or be nonsensical with a great rhythm that makes people want to dance, he says.
Fox says if music lovers want events to come to Palmerston North they need to support them.
Asked how he fits everything in, the 69-year-old says there are 24 hours in a day. His mother Betty worked on six hours of sleep a night and Fox says he has her genes. He would get bored if he wasn’t doing something.
This year he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to music.
In 2005, he was honoured by Massey University with an Honorary Doctorate of Music.
There are festival programmes around the city or visit nzblues.nz.