Last week I had a brief peek at the jazz festival. This time, with the advertising push in full swing, we'll go a little deeper.

But I do have to mention the advertising. It's very impressive. This, again, shows what a good job the new festival director, Arne Hermann, is doing. His experience of big festivals is clearly paying off in the relationships he is building to replace the naming sponsorship that Montana once had. In the past couple of weeks we have seen very classy full page ads in the Listener, a mail-box drop of the programme, and television advertising starting on TV3. All very cool.
The TV3 advertising presumably comes as part of a package which also sees them giving their name to one of the year's big new initiatives, the TV3 Jazz Village.
The Jazz Village, as the Historic Village on 17 Ave will be renamed for Easter, is the most ambitious new venture for the festival in some time. While the usual Downtown Jazz Carnival will still be taking place along The Strand on the Saturday and Sunday, it has been scaled down this year (but only a little). There will be four stages, two along The Strand waterfront, one in Red Square and one on the Aspen Reserve, out back of the Colosseum.
There are a dozen or so bands in a very wide variety of styles playing downtown over the weekend. These range from locals such as Brilleaux, Rory McCartney, and the Self-Righteous Brothers Blues Ensemble to Andy Brown's fantastic organ trio from Auckland and the Dixie sounds of the Lex Pistols.
The Aspen Reserve stage has been designated the 'Maori Jazz Stage”. I must confess this makes me slightly uncomfortable. Although the line-up is top class (Regan Perry, Peri Kohu, Leon Wharekura) I have some misgivings about the concept. Is Maori Jazz different from other types of jazz? Is there a cultural benefit from lumping performers together on a particular stage solely because of their ethnicity?
Dunno. There's a whole column lurking in that thorny question, so all I'll note here is that – as I said – the music looks really good and the stage is 'supported by Te Puni Kokiri”. So perhaps the reasons are as much financial as cultural.
So, on to the TV3 Jazz Village. This is the risky bit of the festival. It runs on Easter Sunday and Monday and features a seriously cool line-up of bands (twenty or so in all), including the Alibis, the Tropical Downbeat Orchestra, Phil Broadhurst, the Darcy Perry Band, Tim Williams Quartet, Kokomo, and Shaken Not Stirred amongst others, all outfits who have previously played at festival concerts. There is a lot more, it only costs $10, and is free for TECT card holders. That's a pretty good deal by any standards.
So why is it risky?
Well, here's my take. People are so used to going downtown for their Easter afternoons of music that, on the Sunday, they'll just do what they always do and haul off to the closest bar on The Strand. Or will they? It'll be interesting to see how well punters take on board the advertising and go to the Village instead. I have heard it suggested that there should be busses running between the two spots. I don't know if there will be or not, but I tend to think that each is a day trip. There's so much on down at the Village that you won't really need to go downtown.
The second problem for the Village is the Monday. This expansion to a whole day of music at the Village carries the possible downside that very frequently Easter Monday is kinda quiet in Tauranga, with out-of-towners heading home and locals recovering from the weekend. However, with the Blind Boys of Alabama playing at the Holy Trinity on the Monday night as well as the Sunday, some visitors may stay. And if the festival is to expand further then the Monday is the logical place for more music. It may take locals a bit of time to catch on, but this is definitely the way to go in the long run.
All that, of course, assumes that the weather gods are smiling. Given the recent flooding at the Village, organisers must be keeping their fingers very tightly crossed.