The Afrolites are a six-piece afrobeat funky jazz band or an afrofunk/jazz band depending on how you describe their music.

I found them rehearsing with headphones on in a small room in Welcome Bay just as the sun set, and managed to navigate the banter and laughter.

The group is made up of Nik Jenkins on bass guitar, Julian Perry on keyboards, Ben Smith on guitar, Damien Cooper on guitar, Fabiano Fava on trumpet and Ian Richards on drums.

'Originally we had a great desire to be an afrobeat or afrofunk band. There was a guy called Fela Kuti from Nigeria and it was a whole style that he created. Him and a drummer called Tony Allen,” says Ian.

'They fused jazz, funk and African rhythms to create their own sound.

'You need more people than we have to do that style,” says Nik.

'Eventually we moved away from that more towards the jazz side of things.”

There are still strong hints of afrofunk in their music along with the groove heavy jazz-funk sound. The conversation rolls around the group as they describe their own style.

'Our vibe has transmuted over the years into a psychedelic jam monster dripping with cinematic flavour,” says Ian.

'We have a love of the 70s cinematic themes like the classic TV cop shows that were around. Streets of San Francisco and Dirty Harry. Clint Eastwood is a jazz musician, and liked that element of jazz dissonance to be in his sound tracks. It creates tension and it's kind of what happens with our stuff as well.”

'Yeah we have a lot of tension,” quips Nik. Laughter breaks out.

'A tension deficit?” asks Ben. More laughter.

Fabiano Fava on trumpet

The group started playing in 2014 with Fabiano joining them about a year ago.

Their next stop is the 2020 Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival, where they say they will be playing in the late afternoons on the Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival at Bloom in the Bay. They've been regulars on the festival scene.

'We had a lot of gigs before Covid and they all died out during lockdown including the 2020 Jazz festival. We played the Garden & Art Festival a few years ago and are really looking forward to it this time around.”

Julian and Fabiano are both self-employed painter-decorators; Ben is a photographer and runs Pikitia, a company that sells postcards and souvenirs; Damien is a self-employed architectural designer; Nik is an occupational therapist working in community mental health for older people at Tauranga Hospital; and Ian works at Music Planet.

At the Garden & Art Festival, The Afrolites plan to play original instrumental music.

'It's pretty much a groove-based musical journey,” says Ian.

The group have three albums on Spotify and Bandcamp.

'We like to get people dancing. Always keen to start a dance party. That's a lot of fun for us.”

'And we like to tell a story as well, with that cinematic style,” says Ben.

The Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival runs from November 19-22. Access to Bloom in the Bay is free with a festival pass.

Get your tickets now from the 2020 Garden & Art Trail sponsor Palmers Bethlehem, or on-line at eventfinda.co.nz or gardenandartfestival.co.nz. Tickets also available at Tauranga i-SITE, Decor Garden World, Pacifica Home and Garden Store, Te Puke Florists and Katikati Information Centre.