Riwai Hina, Whanganui Jazz Orchestra musical director, on trombone. Photo / Paul Brooks
The Whanganui Jazz Orchestra joined the host of musicians celebrating jazz in Whanganui over the weekend.
Formerly known as the River City Big Band, the 14-strong (at the moment) orchestra played at Cooper's on Sunday afternoon to a packed venue and appreciative crowd, which included such jazz luminaries as Erna Ferry and Rodger Fox, as well as other musicians dropping by for a listen.
Fronting the band as musical director and filling in as trombone player is Riwai Hina, back in his home town and determined to make the Whanganui Jazz Orchestra the best it can be.
"I was born in Whanganui and grew up in Castlecliff," he says.
He went to Aranui School, Rutherford Intermediate and Boys' College. While his favourite subject was art, his musical interest began at secondary school.
"My music teacher was Gavin Herdman."
Gavin is a well-known Whanganui musician, particularly in brass circles.
"He mentioned in class, one day, 'Does anybody here want to learn an instrument'?"
Riwai and a school friend took him up on his offer and Riwai was introduced to the cornet.
"He put me on to my first brass teacher, Bruce Jellyman. In my first lesson, he taught me how to buzz my lips, and that was it. I was going around school, buzzing my lips.
"A week later, in my second lesson with Bruce, he gave me a mouthpiece.
"In my next lesson, I was given an instrument: an old, tatty, Boosey and Hawkes cornet with clunky valves and no case. We went into the storeroom and he pulled down an old blue tartan sewing machine case with no padding."
Into that went the cornet.
"And I carried that around school: I didn't care, I had my cornet. I took it home and started blowing through it, trying to get something out of it. That was, pretty much, the start of my musical career."
He played cornet for about six years.
"I had a couple of tutors through school, then ended up with my main tutor, the late Kevin Jarrett. He was a great guy and a great friend. I learned everything from him until the end of school."
Kevin Jarrett died in 2015.
It turned out that Riwai had some talent and he joined the Wanganui City Brass Band while he was still at school, and also played in the school brass band and the Boys College stage band.
Riwai says Whanganui used to have a music school partnered with his secondary school. It ended up in Purnell House which was the former Wanganui Technical College hostel.
"I did three years at that music school."
Riwai's musical career took off in the bands of the New Zealand Armed Forces — all three of them, beginning with the Air Force Band, then the Navy Band, and finally, the NZ Army Band.
"I joined the air force as a bandsman when I was about 17."
He was based at Ohakea.
"A lot of the people in the Ohakea band were in the local brass bands, so it didn't feel like a military band at all."
During this time he changed instruments, playing the euphonium for a few years and finally taking up the trombone, the instrument he still favours.
Next stop was the Navy Band where he started as ordinary musician and climbed the ranks to petty officer musician and became their composer/arranger. He was there for nearly 13 years before doing a service change and he joined the Army Band, shifting to the equivalent rank of sergeant.
"I kept my composer/arranger role when I joined the Army Band, so I wrote a lot of their music too. It was really just a change of uniform, from whites to greens. I did nearly 10 years with those guys.
"The best life I've had as a musician was with the military bands."
He has played at Gallipoli on Anzac Day and performed at the Edinburgh Tattoo.
"I've been invited back this year and this will be my fourth trip. It lasts for all of August — 25 shows, one a night and two on the Saturday."
After his army career, Riwai signed on with the Territorials and came home to Whanganui.
"I still write the arrangements and compose the music for the Army Band."
When he was living in Auckland, Riwai joined the Rodger Fox Band and was his trombonist for 10 years.
"That's where my jazz and 'big band' experience came from."
He says he kind of fell into his role with the Whanganui Jazz Orchestra. He returned to Whanganui in February of last year and some of the band members asked him to go along and have a listen to them.
"Eventually I went to rehearsal as a player. Then we went into lockdown and things went flat. About a month later, people in the band started getting itchy and wanted to get back into it."
Covid was a problem, so to keep it small they did sectional rehearsals.
"I started working with the rhythm section, and, eventually, horn players started turning up."
Numbers increased at each practice so they went for a full band rehearsal under the temporary baton of Riwai Hina. Eventually, Roger Brasell, bass player and band manager, asked Riwai to be musical director, taking over from Clyde Dixon.
"I started running it in the way I felt the band needed to be run."
He'd like to see the band do a lot more gigs around Whanganui, for the benefit of the community and the band's musicianship.
"And I want to go out to the jazz festivals ... and the Christchurch Big Band Festival. I'd love to get them down there."
To travel, the band will need funds ... so if there's a potential sponsor out there ... ?
Riwai says he'd like the band to have another trombone player to allow the director to be out front, shaping the band.
The Whanganui Jazz Orchestra's next gig is at the Manawatu Jazz and Blues Fest in a month's time.
'If a ‘swear word’ in our name helps get people to think about our message, that's a win.'