A Cotton Club jam for the jazzman

By GRAHAM REID

Down the decades, jazz in New Zealand has had to rely on well-intentioned and hard-working promoters, and it's mostly been a labour of love. The standard joke is, if you want to make a million dollars out of jazz, start with two million.

Trombonist Rodger Fox, the late Tommy Adderley and friends, and Pat Shaw of the Cotton Club have been the mainstays of bringing international artists to New Zealand and providing high-profile, well-advertised concerts for locals to play.

In its heyday - from the mid 80s for over a decade - Shaw's Cotton Club was based at the Mandalay Ballroom in Newmarket and its regular Sunday night concerts attracted capacity crowds for performers such as Sammy Price, Benny Golson, Ellis Marsalis and Grammy-winning former Aucklander Alan Broadbent.

The club's tea dances were equally popular and over the years MC Merv Thomas was called on to introduce the best of local, expat and international jazz and blues musicians.

The Cotton Club produced regular newsletters and artistic posters, and Shaw insisted on the best sound system he could have, to accord the musicians the respect they deserved as creative artists.

As the Cotton Club grew, it was sometimes necessary for it to use other venues.

What few Cotton Club patrons knew was that in addition to planning and promoting concerts, and regularly ringing those on his mailing list to see if they wanted tickets for forthcoming shows, Shaw also worked an arduous day job (at Reidrubber's industrial plant in Penrose) and was a family man with two children. He held three fulltime jobs, in fact.

Next month Pat Shaw and his twin brother, Michael, who was there for the first Cotton Club promotions before departing for Melbourne and a career as a restaurateur, celebrate their 50th birthday.

And so the Cotton Club will present a birthday special with Jeepers Creepers! A Salute to Satchmo and the music of Louis Armstrong played by the Lindsay Meech All Stars, musicians there at the start of the club.

To acknowledge the history of the Cotton Club, there will also be an audiovisual retrospective presentation of past local and international acts who played for Shaw, compiled by MC Thomas. The aftermatch function from 10pm will be at the Auckland Club in Shortland St with music by the Ross Mullins Band.

This celebration doesn't come without sadness, however. Pat Shaw is unwell, but brother Michael expects him to make it along for this salute.

Perhaps the man who quietly went about his business bringing this music to audiences but happily went unnoticed while the attention was on the stars will hear the applause for his previously unsung efforts.

* Jeepers Creepers! A Salute to Satchmo with the Lindsay Meech All Stars, Auckland Grammar School Centennial Theatre, Epsom, February 15, 7.30 pm.