Jazz music students from Marlborough Boys' and Girls' Colleges and the rest of South Island got the chance to work with one of the country's best-known big band leaders yesterday as part of an annual jazz festival.
Big band leader Rodger Fox is one of the judges at this year's Southern Jam Youth Jazz festival being held in Marlborough and also ran a master class to teach students from 15 secondary schools.
Being involved in the four-day festival gave him a chance to give back to the youth, he said.
"If our music is to survive, it has to be at the school level," he said.
The classes were run like any practice session with his band, which gave the students a taste of the commitment and focus needed to become a professional musician, he said.
It was also an opportunity for teachers to pick up new techniques to use during band practices, he said.
Fox is leader of the Rodger Fox Big Band, which has performed at jazz festivals in the United States and Europe and is a three-time winner of the Tui music award for New Zealand Jazz Recording of the Year.
Marlborough Boys' College performance music director Ray Russell said it was a good change for the students to listen to Fox instead of their teachers. "His sort of experience isn't available locally or even in some schools in the main centres," he said.
Fox said the level of talent at the festival and in the schools was high; some would even be good enough to play in his award-winning big band.
"To see this many bands from the South Island shows that jazz is alive and well in the school system," he said.
Popular New Zealand bands such as Fat Freddy's Drop and the Black Seeds often used brass instruments, a sign jazz had become more mainstream, he said.
One of the challenges with secondary school jazz bands was the different skill levels, he said.
As students finished school they would have to be replaced by others who might have only started learning an instrument.
"It's a hard road and a lot of people don't understand what teachers need to go through [to have a good band]," he said.
The festival began on Wednesday with free public performances at venues throughout Marlborough and ends with a gala performance at the Marlborough Civic Theatre, in Blenheim, tomorrow night.
Bands will be performing free concerts today at Fairweathers on Scott St from 6pm to 7.30pm and at the Clubs Marlborough on Alfred St from 8pm to 10.30pm.
LESSONS FROM A LEGEND: Jazz students Sam Jones, Jack Harre and Young Chan Kang, from colleges throughout the South Island, get the chance to work with jazz musician and big band leader Rodger Fox as part of the Southern Jam Youth Jazz festival in Marlborough.
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