We’re thrilled to be able to announce that CJC has been awarded funding by Creative New Zealand to assist with our 2026 and 2027 seasons.
We are among 34 organisations funded, out of 280 applications, in the Arts Organisations & Groups Fund (up to $50,000).
These funds will help us cover venue hire and administration costs, and the 2 year timeframe gives us some certainty to programme some great artists, and engage to find the right new venue.
Watch this space!
Living legend Herbie Hancock is set to light up stages across Australia and New Zealand in October, in his first visit since 2019, promising an electrifying evening from one of music’s most revered names.
We have 2 double passes to give away to the Auckland show!
Make sure you’re subscribed to the CJC Newsletter, and enter below by noon, Wednesday 2 October, and tell us your favourite Herbie Hancock tune or album.
We'll draw 2 winners on Wednesday afternoon and notify them directly.
Auckland
Tuesday 8 October
Aotea Centre
Congratulations to the winners: Max & Sally.
CJC Creative Jazz Club Aotearoa is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Arts House Trust, for a Winter Series of jazz, weekly at the historic Pah Homestead, in Hillsborough, Tāmaki Makaurau.
The programme begins Wednesday 10 July, at an earlier time of 7.30pm, with Wellington saxophonist (and multi-instrumentalist) Oscar Laven, who’s assembled a killer band of musicians with connections to his city, Jonathan Crayford, Mostyn Cole and Thomas Friggens, to play music from his latest album.
That’s followed a week later, by a scorching double quartet featuring Jeff Henderson and Roger Manins, The Quickdraw Carabiners, featuring double ups on every instrument - two guitars, two basses, two drum sets, and countless cymbals.
Then Ruckus, led by guitarist David Ward, is joined by Callum Passells, brings along a romp through some fun and sometimes humorous compositions.
And we close out the month with Takadimi, tabla maestro Manjit Singh bringing his fusion of Indian classical sounds and jazz back to CJC. Further concerts will be announced in due course.
The Arts House Trust is one of the country’s largest collections of contemporary New Zealand art, with approximately 10,000 works. Based at the Pah Homestead in Hillsborough, Tāmaki Makaurau, they are an independent charitable entity supporting and promoting art and culture nationally through exhibitions, public programmes, art loans, workshops, concerts and events.
Events will take place among the exhibitions, incorporating their Yamaha grand piano, and will be licensed with beer and wine available. As usual, tickets are available from Eventfinda, with cash and eftpos door sales available unless sold out prior.
Pah Homestead is located in Monte Cecilia Park, at 72 Hillsborough Road, and has ample parking available.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Following on from their performance at the Wellington Jazz Festival, Auckland Jazz Orchestra presents a heartfelt tribute to the late New Zealand jazz pianist and composer Phil Broadhurst (1949–2020), in the 2024 Auckland Arts Festival
Comprising ten new arrangements of Broadhurst’s original compositions for 17-piece contemporary jazz big band, and accompanying album, Inverted, available on Rattle Records, the project has been a long time in the making.
Broadhurst sadly passed away in 2020, before completion of this project, but his impact on jazz in Aotearoa cannot be overstated. Through his storied career as a pianist, composer, bandleader, broadcaster and educator, he championed original music and musicians, and was the first jazz musician awarded an MNZM in 2001 for services to music.
We offer these wonderful sounds to his legacy.
2pm, Sunday 17 March 2024
Town Hall Concert Chamber
Tickets $25-49
School age children free with paying adult
More info on Auckland Arts Festival website.
We’re sorry for the recent disruption of of cancelled events. Here’s what’s been going on…
Anthology, and Cotto and the Leigh Sawmill, all closed their doors suddenly 2 weeks ago. We don’t have much more firm information than what is in the public domain - but right now we can’t access the venue, even to get our piano out. We were aware there was an impending change in the ownership of the venue with new investors coming in, and that appears not to have happened as planned, precipitating whatever is happening now.
We’re hoping Anthology pulls through the crunch they’re obviously in… but also, we may have to find another spot. It’s all up in the air.
And this year has been tight for us. Between the weather events and un-ending rain, the cost-of-living crunch, and the uncertainty leading up to the election, things were quieter than normal all year, and we’ve run down our cash reserves a bit trying to avoid raising prices further or having to pay the bands less of what they bring in.
We’re committed to continuing our mission in 2024 and beyond. We will find the right venue, we’re sure. We hope that’s where we are - but if we have to move, we’ll have to move our piano. At least once. Possibly twice.
That means finding about $1000-$2000 on short notice - and right now our cupboard is looking pretty bare. It’s just caught us at the worst time.
So we’re asking for your help! With money. And also bright ideas/contacts. But mostly money.
The influx of memberships we usually get in February/March would be immensely valuable now and help get us through our immediate cashflow crunch. And you were going to renew anyway, right?
And having a committed audience helps us make a good case to any new venues we’re talking with.
This is a little less direct, but still great - you can show support and build awareness by buying and wearing a tee shirt or carrying a tote bag. We make a bit of profit on these, and you get some good looking clothes, or Xmas presents for the whanau.
We’re not a registered charity, so you can’t claim a tax deduction, but if you’d like to support us on top of your membership (and some of you have already asked how), here’s our bank account :
CREATIVE JAZZ CLUB LIMITED
38-9020-0573421-00
Put “piano” somewhere in the reference. Every bit helps, and we will ring-fence that for the piano move/tuning.
Or you can donate via credit card here:
If you know of a great venue we might not have considered, that could work for us, we’d love to know. In an ideal world, we need to accomodate audiences of 60-120 on a Wednesday, and we would love to take our piano with us. Email us at cjc@creativejazzclub.co.nz if you know off anything.
We can’t promise an in-depth response to everything, but we promise we’ll read and consider what comes in.
If this all blows over, the extra support from the community we get now will help us with gear maintenance and perhaps some upgrades. It won’t go to waste!
We’ve got the beginnings of a great programme for next year already locked in. Watch this space, you won’t want to miss it!
And this isn’t the first time we’ve had to move. With your help and the support of the community, we’ll get through this, and we hope you’ll continue to support us and our mission for the next phase.
Nga mihi nui ki a koe!
Roger and Ben
Cecile McLorin Salvant
The Wellington Jazz Festival has just published their full lineup for this years festival running 25-29 October.
Tickets are on sale now for international headliners Cecile McLorin Salvant, Gogo Penguin and the Zela Margossian Quintet. They’re joined by local offerings from Rodger Fox Band with King Kapisi, an Amy Winehouse tribute, and commissioned workls from Jake Baxendale, and Kirsten Te Rito.
Plus there are many more gigs around town, including the ever excellent classic albums series at The Rogue & Vagabond, a Wellington Jazz Collective pop-up venue on Cuba St, and Auckland bands such as Circling Sun, the return of YokoZuna, and Auckland Jazz Orchestra with their tribute to Phil Broadhurst.
Creative Jazz Club is thrilled to be partnering with Oh! Jazz, to show off the best of our New Zealand jazz to subscribers around the world, via their streaming on-demand jazz video service.
We’ll be joining clubs around the globe, in London (606 Club), Tokyo (Body & Soul), Madrid (Cafe Berlin), Sao Paolo (JazzB), and Sydney (Foundry 616) & Melbourne (JazzLab), as well as organisations like our friends at SIMA, and La Fábrica de Arte in Havana, Cuba, all with the same goal of showing off the best of the best their local scene has to offer, and spreading the love of live jazz.
Most of these shows are live streamed as they happen, but if you miss them they’re available on-demand, and there is a huge back catalogue of shows and artists to discover. You can watch anywhere you happen to be, on mobile, with Android and iOS apps, on your computer, or on your TV, with apps for Android TV, and it works with Chromecast.
We’ll be highlighting at least one of our best shows each month, in a full length video concert lovingly mixed and edited by our own Ben McNicoll, starting this Thursday 31 August with the recent show from Michal Martyniuk Trio & Dixon Nacey, which will go live at 8.00pm NZST.
Subscriptions cost AUD$20 per month, or AUD$200 per year, and as a special introductory offer, we can offer our CJC whānau a 50% discount* for your first subscription period. So going for the full year makes a lot of sense!
To get the discounted price for yourself, signup using this link, and use the promo code 1HymkFrx
Full disclosure, we also get a little kickback, so the more of you who sign up, the more help you give us too… just saying.
Bring live jazz to your living room today!
*Terms and conditions:
This discount code is offered by Oh! Jazz, and is available only for new subscriptions in Australian Dollars (NZ & Australia only).
Discount applies to the first subscription period of the monthly or yearly plan you choose. Further charges will be at the standard rate.
Plans can be cancelled at anytime, but there are no refunds for unused time.
Use of the service is according to the Oh! Jazz Terms of use which can be found here.
We love to share the love of jazz around, so for all of May you can bring a friend to CJC for the first time, and they get in for free.
We all know someone who we think would enjoy live jazz if they could be enticed out.
So get on the phone, send a message, slide into their DM’s. However you get in touch: reach out to someone, and invite them down!
*It’s pretty simple really, but because some of you will ask, here are the terms and conditions:
Offer valid at the door of CJC gigs during the month of May 2023. You must tell us it is your friend’s first visit.
Maximum one free ticket per paying patron per event. If there’s 2 of you, and you bring 2 friends, that’s cool too.
It must be the recipient’s first visit to CJC. It could also be your first visit, in which case, one of you will be free.
Submissions for composition proposals for the 2023 Wellington Jazz Festival are open now. Submissions will close at 12pm, Monday 8 May.
In its fifth year, commissions for Aotearoa jazz composers to create new work has become an established highlight of the annual Festival.
This year, the successful composer/s will have their new work premiered as part of Wellington Jazz Festival’s headline programme during the 2023 Festival between 25 – 29 October at Meow in Wellington. Thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand and Todd Corporation for this initiative.
Find out more about this opportunity at the Wellington Jazz Festival website.
There are some great music acts, local and international, in the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival. Check out a few of Ben’s highlight picks below and don’t sleep on getting tickets.
THU 09 MARCH
Bill Withers Social Club (Soul retrospective, with all-star ensemble)
Auckland Town Hall, 7.30pm
SAT 11
Rodger Fox 50th Anniversary - Big Drum Off (Big band feat. Gregg Bissonette, Dennis Chambers & Peter Erskine)
Bruce Mason Centre, 8pm
SUN 12
Tama Waipara: Te Katoa (New waiata)
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 7pm
Judith Hill
SAT 18 - SUN 19
Judith Hill (Soul diva from 20 Feet from Stardom film)
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 8pm
Brian Molley & Krishna Kishoor
SUN 19
Brian Molley Quartet & Krishna Kishor (Scottish jazz saxophonist with Indian percussionist)
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 3pm
SAT 25
Ozi Ozaa (Ghanaian highlife in NZ, also feat. Ben)
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 6pm
SUN 26
Eishan Ensemble (Persian jazz)
Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, 4pm
SUN 26
He Kete Waiata (Whirimako Black with Allana Goldsmith, Leon Wharekura, and Dixon Nacey)
Auckland Town Hall, 7pm
We’re pleased to be back!
To comply with the restrictions at the red traffic light, we all have to abide by the following conditions:
Vaccine passes are required.
Scan in.
Please wear a mask until seated. Please maintain distance while queueing.
We will direct you to a seat. Please stay seated with your group, distanced from other groups.
Drink service at your seat will be available. Please don’t head to the bar.
Please do not attend if you are unwell.
As numbers are limited, we will only be offering online sales. This also assists with contact tracing should it be needed.
If you are attending with a larger group, please let us know ahead of time.
If attending with a group of a few friends arriving separately, let us know when you arrive, and we will do our best to seat you together, but can make no guarantees.
Booths can now be booked for groups of 5-7, by purchasing the Booth ticket type. A minimum of 5 tickets must be purchased in one transaction to qualify.
We look forward to seeing you.
Her voice changed everything. Jennifer Hudson is Aretha Franklin in the new movie, RESPECT – only in cinemas August 19.
Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, RESPECT is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice.
We have 6 double passes to give away, in person at CJC events on 11 & 18 August, and 2 in an online draw (NOW CLOSED).
Winners must pick up their passes from CJC events on 18, or 25 August.
There’s a brand new gig in town, in one of the oldest operating Auckland restaurants.
Tony’s Lord Nelson, with CJC Creative Jazz Club and Link Alliance, brings you live jazz every Friday night, with the Roger Manins Trio.
An acclaimed saxophonist, (and our very on Creative Director, Roger Manins has a deep love for the tradition of the tenor sax. With a rotating band of his favourite rhythm section players, and frequent musical guests, he will be exploring some favourite, and lesser-known, jazz standards.
All served up alongside Lord Nelson’s mouth-watering menu and famous prime steaks.
The band will be performing, every Friday through Winter from 18 June, from 7-10pm, with no cover charge.
RNZ Concert has broadcast Frank Gibson’s NewBop Quintet, recorded live at CJC in October 2020.
Led by the renowned drummer, the concert features Mike Booth, Pete France, Kevin Field and Cam McArthur.
The concert was broadcast on Saturday 13 Feb at 8pm, but you can listen online.
New Management at The Thirsty (Dog) asked us to help out with a new Thursday night series of loud jazz… we’ve titled it Funk & Fusion Fursdays, and it’s FREE ENTRY.
Kicking off October 8 (the first night of Level 1, we hope) with Jungle Fowl, the lineup just keeps up the intensity, with Neutrino Funk Experience, Keith Price Electric Band, Thabani Gapara, and a whole bevy of bands coming up in November.
Come and party like you’ve been locked up in your house for the last few months. And did we mention it’s free?
Thursdays now have live jazz, at the newly lauched Wynyard Grill steakhouse, in where else, Wynyard Quarter at 142 Halsey St.
In a relaxed and intimate setting, the nights feature jazz trios led by Keith Price, Ben McNicoll, Caitlin Smith and other guests like La Luna, Roger Manins & more.
Enjoy the jazz while sampling from the fine food on their bistro menu, or grabbing a drink and some snacks.
Entry is free, there’s Martini specials, and music from 6.30-9.00PM.
Visit the Wynyard Grill on facebook, to see their upcoming events,
To celebrate the 25th anniversary reissue of Nathan Haines’ seminal NZ jazz album Shift Left, Nathan is reuniting the original band for a one-off concert at The Civic, in Auckland, on 24 August.
He’s giving you a chance to win a signed copy of the album on double-LP vinyl or CD, only through CJC!
We’ll also throw in a free pass to Richard Hammond, at CJC on 21 August, featuring Nathan Haines & Kevin Field among a stellar group.
Just tell us:
Name a musician who played on the Shift Left album?
Enter by 5pm, Sunday 18 August, and we’ll announce the winner in the following newsletter.
West Coast jazz visionary Kamasi Washington returns to New Zealand for one very special show at Auckland’s Powerstation on October 10.
Tickets go on sale at 11am Thursday July 18.
My Live Nation members may also secure tickets first during the pre-sale beginning 11am Wednesday July 17 until 11am Thursday July 18.
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: livenation.co.nz.
When Kamasi Washington released his tour de force LP, The Epic, in 2015, it instantly set him on a path as our generation’s torchbearer for progressive, improvisation music that would open the door for young audiences to experience music unlike anything they had heard before. The 172-minute odyssey featuring his 10-piece band, The Next Step, was littered with elements of hip-hop, classical and R&B music, all major influences on the young saxophonist and bandleader, who exceeds any notions of what “jazz” music is. Released to critical acclaim, The Epic won numerous “best of” awards, including the inaugural American Music Prize and the Gilles Peterson Worldwide album of the year. Washington followed that work with collaborations with other influential artists such as Kendrick Lamar, John Legend, Run the Jewels, Ibeyi and the creation of “Harmony of Difference,” a standalone multimedia installation during the prestigious 2017 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
His mass appeal continues to grow drawing vibrant, multi-ethnic and multi-generational crowds with tour stops at the world’s most prominent festivals such as Coachella, Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Bonnaroo and Primavera while also releasing his latest offering in 2018, Heaven and Earth. Since his last visit to New Zealand in early 2018, Washington will be bringing his epic brand of jazz to Kiwi audiences off the back of a huge northern hemisphere run alongside legend Herbie Hancock.
Powerstation, Auckland - Thursday October 10 (18+)
Be in to win a free double pass to see the wonderful French-style chanteuse La Luna & The Gadjos at Anthology, Thursday 1 August.
Just take a look on Facebook, say you’re interested or going in the event, and tell us one player in the band, using the entry form below.
Entries close Sunday 28 July at 6pm. Winner will be announced in next week’s newsletter (29 July), and contacted by email & phone.
If you’re unlucky… you can purchase tickets from Eventfinder or on the door, with a discount for CJC members.
