This coming Sunday there is a special event happening in Christchurch city with The Piano Centre for Music and the Arts opening its doors in Armagh Street. The new facility looks great and it houses some brilliant performance spaces, teaching suites and rehearsal rooms. Here's the calendar of upcoming events. It will be the main venue for the upcoming WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival.
The reopening is to feature a legend of New Zealand and Christchurch jazz, Mr Doug Caldwell. At 88 years of age & 70+ years of playing and exploring jazz piano, he's a true master of the craft. As a fixture of the local music scene for so long, it's fitting that he should be the one featured to reopen this new music centre, performing in the 340-seat Concert Hall on Sunday afternoon. Read Charlie Gates' article in The Press: Christchurch jazz legend Doug Caldwell first to play new Piano music centre.
The home for music and arts in Canterbury, The Piano is taking shape. Heres a sneak peak!https://t.co/iUnTaTub9E pic.twitter.com/n2CwLsIFp9
— ChCh City Council (@ChristchurchCC) July 28, 2016
It's not often recognised but New Zealand and Australia has a jazz history that runs as deep & as filled with quality that it rivals the American traditions. There are some truly great jazz musicians from our region and they deserve celebration, from the Australian greats; Graeme Bell, Don Burrows and James Morrison - all masters of their particular eras, to Kiwis Mike Nock, Roger Manins and Christchurch's own Doug Caldwell.
Christchurch City Libraries holds a swathe of resources around the topic of New Zealand jazz. There are booklists on the subject, including sheet music from jazz composers from across NZ - a Kiwi version of the ever-present jazz "Real Book". There's also listening lists featuring contemporary artists as well as the more traditional, vocal & instrumental, PLUS a host of resources available for in-library use through our Aotearoa New Zealand Collection (ANZC)
I myself am a keen fan of jazz having studied and played in Tasmania before relocating to Christchurch and connecting with some of the local talent here, with whom I continue my explorations, utilising many of these resources to enrich my experiences and hopefully champion what I know to be a strong seam of cultural history worth celebrating and sharing.
Get along to see the concert & then get busy with your library card & see what else we've got - it's a lot!
#ChooseJazz
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