Starfish Cafe

Yesterday we played at the Starfish Cafe, home of Sara Harris, our vocalist. We managed to squeeze our sextet into a corner of the cafe and enjoyed 3 hours of playing in surprisingly nice acoustics. Great pizza followed our performance, kudos to Simon, Sara's husband and his secret pizza base recipe, I suspect. Luka Grbavac from Hold the Phones, joined us for two numbers, Chucho and Killer Joe.

Jazz Inspired at the Starfish Cafe this Sunday

Whangamata Jazz Art and Blues Festival

This was a great weekend. The band played at the Corvette Cafe in the centre of Whangamata for 3 days. Good audiences and great food supplied to keep us going! Guest bass player Stuart Lawerence excelled and laid a smooth rhythmic foundation to the music, thanks Stu. A highlight from Sunday mornings performance was chromatic harpist Haggis from Auckland joining us for two numbers.

Up Coming Public Performances

Jazz Inspired will be performing at Salut in Whangarei on November 7th at 2pm and at the Whangamata Jazz, Art and Blues Festival on the 19th, 20th and 21st of November

Northern Jazz Festival

Last weekend we played at the Northern Jazz Festival in Dargaville, Northland. The band performed 5 sets over two days and was well received. A highlight of the weekend was the debut performances of "Hold the Phones" comprising students from my Y11 music class at Tauraroa Area School.

Hold the Phones was lead by Luka Grbavac and their enthusiasm and musical skills were appreciated by audiences.

Jazz at the Centre

Last Friday Jazz Inspired performed a two hour concert at the Centre in Kerikeri to a very appreciative audience. Audio from the gig can be heard on the player in the left sidebar. Thanks to Tony Harrison of the Music Workshop for providing the sound. Pics to follow.....ha! no one took a camera so instead here is a picture of Sara, Derek (right) and Phil (back left) at the first of our series of Jazz in Churches performances.

Bay of Islands Jazz and Blues Festival 2010

Jazz Inspired appeared at four venues at Pahia last weekend. Appearing for the first time at the festival with us was Sara Harris on vocals. Our music went down well with the audiences with many favourable comments recieved by band members.


 Band at Hotel Pahia, great acoustics.

Our master of rhythm, Phil Cullen.

 Sara at the Duke Hotel, Russell on Friday night

 Band at Bay of Islands Comfort Inn on Sunday

Matt Watson from Lounge Sweet plays a guest solo on Al's Mist.

 Sara at Hotel Pahia.

Up Coming Gig

Following a successful appearance at the Butterfactory last weekend Jazz Inspired's next gig is on the 25th of July at the Thirty3 Event & Conference Centre, 33 Porowini Ave, Whangarei. This gig is the next in the series of free concerts sponsored by the Northern Jazz Society as part of their Jazz in Churches Project. It will feature guest vocalist Sara Harris performing a range of swing standards as well as Jazz Inspired playing a blend  of contemporary to traditional jazz. The concert starts at 6:00pm and food and beverages will be available.

Jazz at the Centre

Fresh from the Bay of Islands Jazz and Blues Festival Jazz Inspired will be appearing at the Centre at KeriKeri on Friday 27th August for a 2 hour concert performance with guest vocalist Sara Harris.

At the Centre Jazz Inspired will be performing bebop and swing-style arrangements ranging from recent compositions by New York Saxophonist Eric Alexander to classic charts by Fats Navarro, Al Grey, Neil Hefti, Lee Morgan and Sonny Stitt. The band is delighted to also present guest vocalist Sara Harris who will sing popular swing standards such as Can't Help Lovin' that Man, Summertime, I got rhythm, LOVE and many more.

For further infomation download the poster below or go to centre at kerikeri

Evening of Jazz at Butter Factory

Jazz Inspired will be playing at an evening of jazz to help raise money for Amnesty International hosted at the Butter Factory Whangarei. We will be sharing the bill with the trio About Time and Lounge Sweet. Download poster below.

Jazz In Churches Project

The Northern Jazz Society has won funding to hire Jazz Inspired to play for its Jazz in Churches project which will involve Saturday night performances in 3 different churches in Whangarei in June, July and August. These will be the first gigs with Jazz Inspired for our newest bass player, John Drake from Kerikeri.

STOP-PRESS: First concert will be on the 26th of June at St Andrews Church, Hunt Street, Whangarei.

Cape KariKari Saturday 10th April

Jazz Inspired provided the background music for a wedding at a spectacular location in northland, a vineyard at KariKari Estate . The band played for about 2 hours while guests mingled on the front lawn overlooking the north coast of Cape Karikari. Pictures to come.

If you are interested in hiring the band for your wedding email me at jazz inspired

Project Promise and Glenbervie Wedding

Jazz Inspired provided background music for about 400 guests as they mingled during dinner and dessert. The event was in a large auditorium seating approximately 400 hundred guests. Project Promise was sent off to a flying start with many generous donations made.



The photo above is from our gig the next afternoon at a birthday party at the Blaxlands house in Glenbervie. The band enjoyed several hours of playing and a nice lunch and dessert in very pleasant surroundings.

Jazz Inspired plays for Project Promise

On Friday 19th March, Jazz Inspired is playing for a special dinner to raise money for a new cancer treatment centre for northland. The band will be a quintet for the night and feature a new lineup with Don and Derek on horns, our new member Stu Lawerence on bass, Brian Phillips on guitar and Phil on drums as usual.