Kerikeri Summer Jazz Festival returns

There will be a taste of Cuba with Havana Groove at the Kerikeri Summer Jazz Festival on February 25.

Cool jazz on a sunny day - the second annual Kerikeri Summer Jazz Festival is back with a great line-up later this month.

The Kerikeri Jazz Club and Our Kerikeri Community Charitable Trust have teamed up with Craigs Investment Partners to present the Summer Jazz Festival on Sunday, February 25.

Tickets are now on sale for this fantastic line-up of national and international music performances, which promise to be a treat for eyes and ears on a summer’s day in the beautiful park-like surroundings of the Bay of Islands Golf Club in Kerikeri.

From Australia there will be a world-class performance by Dave MacRae and Northland-born Joy Yates who have worked with a great number of international artists from the UK and USA, including Chet Baker, Buddy Rich Band, Clark Terry, Ronnie Scott and also Van Morrison, Gladys Knight, Cilla Black, Chaka Khan, Tina Turner and George Michael.

Requested back this year is The Basin City Big Band 20-piece orchestra, who will perform classic big band jazz from the 50s to the 90s and beyond’ including the music of Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and more.

Evan Silva and the Collaborators perform with great style, smooth music to groove to, just right for a summer’s afternoon. This band includes some of the best musicians you will hear in this country.

Northland-born singer and performance teacher Joy Yates will perform at the Kerikeri Summer Jazz Festival later this month

Also appearing is a taste of Cuba with Havana Groove, featuring international musicians from across the world giving us the Latin sounds and rhythms of South America.

Local Jazz band Thelonious Punk will round off the late afternoon with an eclectic mix of jazz.

Tickets are available from Eventfinda and The Sound Lounge in Kerikeri or www.eventfinda.co.nz/2024/craigs-investment-partners-kerikeri-summer-jazz-festival/kerikeri.

■ Northland-born Jazz Singer and performance teacher extraordinaire, Joy Yates’ career spans five decades and several continents garnering broad international credentials in concerts, recording, overseas television shows and jazz vocal performance education. She has shared the stage and studio with well known artists such as: Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Ronnie Scott, also Van Morrison, Randy Crawford, Cliff Richard and Cat Stevens.

Since returning to Australia she has been channelling this life experience back into nurturing young performers in the ‘Sing for Joy’ school, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, also the Australian Institute of Music and the Global Vocal Focal workshops.