Russ Garcia's 95th birthday celebrations

Russ Garcia gave concerts in Kerikeri and Auckland, not to mention an Easter turn at Tauranga's jazz festival. Photo / Thinkstock

Russ Garcia, that doyen of Hollywood arrangers and composers is, believe it or not, just a few days away from turning 95. And rather than sitting at home in Kerikeri contemplating a birthday cake, the veteran is in celebration mode, giving concerts in Kerikeri and Auckland, not to mention an Easter turn at Tauranga's jazz festival.

With vocals handled by Tim Beveridge alongside American jazz-cabaret artists Shaynee Rainbolt and Terese Genecco, Garcia and his 10-piece band play Kerikeri's Turner Centre tonight and Auckland's Raye Freedman Centre next Friday.

Rainbolt comes from the jazz side of the tracks, "although there's such controversy about what a jazz singer is'', she confides. Whatever the case, you will find some pretty smooth specimens of the genre on her 2008 Charmed Life album, devoted to Garcia's music and backed by the man and his four-trombone band.

Genecco, credited with fronting the longest-running cabaret show on Broadway, discovered Garcia while researching her one-woman show, Drunk Love, a tribute to the late Frances Faye. (Garcia had arranged some of the sizzling charts behind the fiery Faye.)

I can't resist asking both women what makes Garcia's music so special. For Genecco, it is a matter of "tight harmonies and unique rhythmic twists. Where Nelson Riddle might take you right through a line or phrase, Russ will have a hiccough along the way and turn it around on you. Which creates a real sense of humour in his uptempo writing''.

For Rainbolt, it is more an issue of emotion. "The sounds that are coming to me meet the feelings that I'm bringing to the music, and it's a perfect match.''

Genecco says: "This is the man who wrote the book on arranging.''

Both women say how the young musicians in their bands always race to get their copies of Garcia's book signed by the master. "He's the one who put together the four trombones as a signature sound,'' Genecco adds.

"And now I'm a trombone enabler,'' says Rainbolt with a wry laugh, pointing to the slinky image of her draped around a tenor instrument on her CD cover.

Come concert time, what numbers are the women most looking forward to? "I get the most joy from the Garcia songs,'' Rainbolt says, and there will be some creamy treats from her Charmed Life disc.

"Russ is such a consummate artist,'' she says. "He's always aware of the sound he wants. Sometimes there are tricky bits, when the songs were originally instrumentals. Then it's the range that becomes the issue, and navigating what he writes. "It's always an incredible growth process for me.''

Genecco singles out the traditional Frankie and Johnny and St James Infirmary.

"They're both part of my Frances Faye show but I've never had the chance to do them with four trombones,'' she says. "And Russ will also be pumping those trombones into Mel Torme's Swingin' on the Moon.''

Both women are most comfortable working with songs written between the 1920s and 60s and, earlier on, Garcia had dropped me a caustic aside on the harmonic poverty of much of the music he hears today. What Garcia's music offers, apart from classic songs with grown-up chord structures, is the unrivalled sound of acoustic instruments.

"There's nothing like live bodies playing real instruments,'' Rainbolt says. "And once the kids discover this, they'll dig it too.'' Genecco cites the case of a 19-year-old who joined her on a recent New York gig. "Fifty years ago he would have been like a Frank Sinatra or a Bobby Darin ... Now the marvellous thing is that there's a 19-year-old who even knows this music.''