National Jazz Festival: Then and Now - Tauranga Big Band

Tauranga Big Band with special guests.

"I've never led a swing band!" - Stan Farnsworth, top UK flautist and first band leader, Tauranga Swing Musicians' 17-piece Show Band, 1960.

Join us on a trip down memory lane in this special concert celebration.

Tracing its roots back to 1958 and a seven piece called 'Picadors', the Tauranga Big Band has been the centre piece of swing and jazz music in this city for more than 50 years. Today the band is stronger than ever and can call on a repertoire of over 400 charts ranging from the famous Woodchoppers Ball, the opening number in the inaugural 1963 Jazz Festival, to contemporary jazz-fusion.

In Then and Now, the Tauranga Big Band will musically honour and span the fifty years of its being and the vast number of people responsible for its beginnings and continued existence.

A number of past players will sit in with the present Big Band and the program will feature an impressive line-up of past musical directors and soloists including: Errol Christiansen, John Pickworth, John Nicholson, Paul Norman, Leith Milson, James Langabeer, Miles Tremlett, Darren Smith, Tim Atkinson, Trevor Braunius, and Rod Laurenson.

Reserve your seat now for this one-off, memorable and historic concert by our favourite Big Band.

Event listed by SWPR Ltd

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