New Zealand Jazz Life

Drawing on 39 interviews with leading New Zealand jazz musicians, New Zealand Jazz Life is a ground-breaking survey of the vibrant local scene. In best jazz style, eight solos – first-person portraits of major musicians – alternate with ensemble passages that enlarge on the key themes:

• discovering jazz
• learning to play
• starting a career
• living and working as a musician overseas
• what it means to play black American music in New Zealand
• the emergence of a New Zealand sound
• the state of jazz in contemporary New Zealand
• what jazz in New Zealand needs to go forward

New Zealand Jazz Life is essential and inspiring reading for musicians and fans, and a fascinating insight into the opportunities and predicaments encountered by practitioners of any art form in New Zealand.

Norman Meehan is a composer, pianist, writer and teacher. His many releases include five collaborations with the vocalist Hannah Griffin and Bill Manhire and other poets. He is the author of Time Will Tell: Conversations with Paul Bley and Serious Fun: The Life and Music of Mike Nock.

Tony Whincup (1944–2015) was a leading New Zealand photographer whose long-term relationship with Kiribati and its people led to several award-winning books.