Waiheke gets jazzed up for a weekend of music

At Easter the Waiheke Island of Jazz festival celebrates its 10th year. GRAHAM REID surveys the past and this year's acts.

From small beginnings big things come, as they say. But this year's 10th Waiheke Island of Jazz festival began smaller than most when, in 1992, American-born pianist David Paquette decided to play a concert in the Artworks Woodshed Theatre on Waiheke, then his newly adopted home.

One man, a piano, some advertisements and posters - and about 200 people who constituted an audience in a converted Mitre 10 store. Small beginnings.

Because of Paquette's ambition for the festival and its increasing popularity, this year it opens with a Thursday-night launch party on April 12, followed by three full days and nights of music.

The festival now boasts three marquees, seating for 12,000 (up from 7500 last year), and 15 international concerts with 38 musicians arriving from Belgium, Paris, New Orleans, New York and Australia.

There are also two dozen local artists playing in cafes, courtyards, restaurants and vineyards across the island, transport provided between the venues, and extensive catering services.

The old harbourmaster building on the foreshore of Matiatia has had a lick of paint and been draped in red cloth to be converted into a late-night buffet and band venue called Scarlet's.

The name is in honour of Vivien Leigh - Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind - who, legend has it, spent a very private weekend on Waiheke in the late 30s with the then Mayor of Auckland, Ernie Davis.

Festival organiser Paquette delights in the story. True or not, it has provided the perfect excuse to dolly up another venue for the crowds expected to flock to a place he describes as "paradise just 30 minutes from downtown Auckland."

Paquette is honest about the line-ups he has pulled together over the years. They have mostly been his mates from New Orleans where he learned from the likes of piano legend Roosevelt Sykes.

The distinctive New Orleans piano style he has played has been his passport to performing across the world, from Bulgaria to Mauritius, for 30 years. While on the circuit he would run into old friends from New Orleans, such as singers Lillian Boutte and Charmaine Neville, both of whom are returning for performances this year after appearances at Waiheke in the past.

"Because of my love of New Orleans music there's a large component of that in the festival, but I'm trying to expand this year by having people such as the European gypsy jazz group Waso and pianist Butch Thompson who was leader of the house band on the popular American radio series A Prairie Home Companion for 12 years until 1986.

"Some of the local musicians play some pretty far-out stuff and so there's something for everyone. But with the overseas artists there's a special flavour and it involves that key word: entertainment.

"Louis Armstrong was the greatest combiner of entertainment and pure, wonderful talent that I ever saw in my life. I believe that 80 per cent of the audience doesn't fully understand jazz. The people who come here are like those who go to the Devonport Wine and Food Festival - they want to enjoy themselves and that's what I like about them.

"But they also want to see real talent, like Ingrid Lucia last year who got up and did her Betty Boop act - but she was singing like Billie Holiday. So the festival is a combination of art and entertainment."

This year's line-up includes the 15-piece Paris Swing Orchestra which subdivides into two other performing units: the Formule 4 which specialises in close harmony quartet singing in the manner of the Mills Brothers, and the Marc Richard Quartet who also exist independent of the band and are considered among France's leading exponents of New Orleans jazz.

Of the other internationals performing, French trumpeter Patrick Artero has played with many European big bands and recorded with the late saxophonist Stan Getz, and pianist David Torkanowsky is musical director for jazz chanteuse Dianne Reeves.

The Anzus All Stars brings together San Franciscan trombonist Tom Baker who played with Cab Calloway and Anita O'Day (among many) with the improbably named Sydneyside violinist George Washingmachine and others. That's entertainment.

One of last year's highlights, Charmaine Neville - daughter of Neville Brothers' saxophonist Charles - will also make her high-kicking return. A physically vigorous stage presence whose energy belies the fact she has seven children, Neville last year made very clear before she played that she wasn't a jazz singer.

"I wish I were, but I'm not. I sing jazz songs but people like Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson ... those people are jazz singers. I can interpret what they are doing, but I think it would be sacrilegious saying I was a jazz singer. I'm an entertainer and that's it."

It's a description which seems to fit with the ethic of a festival that brings together art and enjoyment in a gorgeous setting, lets adults stay up late and, this year, allows them to get back to the city courtesy of a 2 am boat which Fullers are putting on for the first time.

* For details of the Easter weekend of jazz on Waiheke check the website Waiheke Jazz