King Kapisi and Che Fu perform together as Hedlock for the Blues, Roots and Grooves festival in Palmerston North this weekend.
King Kapisi and Che Fu perform together as Hedlock for the Blues, Roots and Grooves festival in Palmerston North this weekend.
Aotearoa New Zealand music royalty hits town this weekend for what will be a special edition of the annual Blues, Roots and Grooves Festival.
King Kapisi and Che Fu - powerhouse frontmen in their own right - join forces as Hedlock to headline a festival that was founded three years ago by well-known Palmerston North musician Rodger Fox CNZM.
Fox died in May this year, aged 71.
For Kapisi, who toured New Zealand with the 25-piece Rodger Fox Big Band last year on the Brotherman Project, there was no question he was coming to perform at the festival.
Such was the respect he had for Fox and his musicianship.
“He was a great man, and I was just happy to have known him for the short time that I did. I loved the guy... it took me a while to figure out he was gone,” he said.
“He was off the richter. He was one of the most amazing people I have ever met - so much energy. In jazz terms, he was what you would call a ‘super cool cat’.
“I’ve met a lot of musicians, but never anyone quite like him. He was a unicorn.”
Fox was a jazz legend who founded the Rodger Fox Big Band in 1973 and toured extensively here and overseas, and played international jazz festivals including Montreux, Monterey and New Orleans.
The trombonist influenced generations of musicians and taught at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. He was honoured in 2022 for his services to music.
Rodger Fox. Photo / Rene Huemer
On tour, Kapisi said he would joke with Fox that he was like Austin Powers, a mythical figure from a different era that would always be cool - and because he kept saying “yeah baby”.
He loved hearing stories of the different musicians Fox had jammed with, like James Brown, and couldn’t believe that he was once married to Mary Yandall, one of the famous Yandall sisters from Samoa.
“I’d always ask him about the 60s and 70s, music and jazz and the people he’d met... I told him ‘I used to watch the Yandall sisters on TV’,” he said.
“He was a goldmine of New Zealand and South Pacific music history.”
Kapisi and Fu are multi-talented musicians who, like Fox, boast New Zealand Order of Merit awards from Queen Elizabeth II for services to music.
Che Fu.
Fox had a philosophy that music brought people together, and it’s that connection that sees long-time friends Fu and Kapisi unite again.
Kapisi said he and Fu were best friends who know each other’s music by heart after doing it for 25 years, so performing together came easy.
They were both looking forward to rocking it this weekend and continuing Fox’s legacy.
“We’re going to be repping for my bro Rodger - 120 percent,” he said.
The Globe Theatre manager Gerry Keating, who helped “dream up” the Blues, Roots and Grooves idea with Fox over a glass of red wine, said it was a chance for all music - not just jazz - to shine.
There was no question of continuing with the festival, although Fox was dearly missed. He had been heavily involved in the planning before he died.
“Replacing Rodger is impossible. Even with dozens of people at the ready, and all in service to him, in honour of his remarkable energy, his complete commitment, his force of nature,” he said.
“His joy in music that so many of us felt when we watched him perform... continuing this mahi means working with existing projects and frameworks, ensuring their continuation with support from audiences, from community, from musicians.
“At the core of all this was the idea of connection - taking music to the people, making music for people.
