Legendary blues singer confirms Chch concert

News Release

15 February, 2007

Legendary blues singer confirms Christchurch concert

Best-selling American blues singer and multi-Grammy award winner Bonnie Raitt will headline the New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival in Christchurch in April.

Bonnie Raitt has become an institution in American music, releasing 18 albums over the 30-year span of her musical career. She has won nine Grammy Awards and her 1991 Luck of the Draw album, featuring the hit single Something to Talk About, went seven-times platinum.

Bonnie Raitt’s Christchurch concert on April 13 _ part of her international Souls Alike tour _ marks the start of the New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival and represents a major coup for festival organizers.

Festival marketing manager Marianne Hargreaves is ecstatic a musician of Bonnie Raitt’s calibre is going to perform as part of the festival.

“She’s legendary and it’s great we’re giving New Zealand fans a chance to see her perform live. We couldn’t ask for a better way to start the festival. This truly is going to be a festival to remember,” Marianne Hargreaves says.

The festival runs for nine days and features a fantastic line up of international performers as well as some of New Zealand’s best musicians.

Julia Deans, lead singer in Fur Patrol, will make a foray into jazz and blues with songs full of harmony and intrigue, and explosively gorgeous vocals in a special concert of jazz standards and her own compositions.

Jazz virtuoso James Morrison plays trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, alto saxophone and piano with the New Zealand Army in a performance not to be missed on 17 April.

Dave Dobbyn too makes an entry onto the jazz scene, playing for the first time with Tom Rainey and Trio.

The cabaret series features an assortment of international performers include Bob Malone (USA), Jan Preston (Australia), Michelle Nicolle Quartet (Australia), Roy Phillips (UK/NZ), Whirimako Black (NZ), Mary Coughlan (Ireland), Pacific Underground (NZ), and Paul Ubana Jones (UK/NZ).

The Lichfield Lanes will come alive with the sounds of jazz and blues and the boogie woogie during a weekend of free outdoor jazz.

“We’ve worked really hard to put together a festival that has an eclectic programme which will appeal to jazz and blues fans alike,” Marianne Hargreaves says.

A full Festival programme will be published in The Press on February 22. Details can also be found online at www.jazzfestivalnz.com.

About the Festival

The Christchurch International Jazz Festival, now named The New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival, began in 1998 as a biennial event and is now presented annually.

The largest jazz festival in New Zealand, the event comprises more than 100 national and international jazz artists performing at a variety of venues in the Christchurch region.

The Festival is core funded by the Christchurch City Council and receives donations from a range of other in-kind, contra and financial supporters.

ENDS

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