Wellington Jazz Among the Discourses

1 OUTSIDE IN: WELLINGTON JAZZ AMONG THE DISCOURSES BY NICHOLAS PETER TIPPING A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington 2016 2 Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. 5 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction: Conundrums, questions, contexts ..................................................................... 9 Sounds like home: New Zealand Music ............................................................................... 15 ‘Jazz’ and ‘jazz’...................................................................................................................... 17 Performer as Researcher ...................................................................................................... 20 Discourses ............................................................................................................................ 29 Conundrums ......................................................................................................................... 34 Part 1: The Wellington scene .................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 1: Frames within frames: city, scene, community ................................................... 37 Scene and Community ......................................................................................................... 37 The Wellington community .................................................................................................. 41 The Wellington environment ............................................................................................... 43 Policy .................................................................................................................................... 44 Local urban identity .............................................................................................................. 46 Arts Events and Organisations ............................................................................................. 47 Nightlife and Entertainment ................................................................................................ 49 Music Scene .......................................................................................................................... 50 Wellington Jazz Networks .................................................................................................... 52 Networks and Versatility ...................................................................................................... 54 Big-J and Little-j in Wellington ............................................................................................. 57 3 Chapter 2: Baby, it’s cold outside: music funding and national identity .............................. 62 Funding Bodies ..................................................................................................................... 64 New Zealand On Air ............................................................................................................. 65 New Zealand Music Commission (NZMC) ............................................................................ 66 Te Māngai Pāho .................................................................................................................... 67 Creative New Zealand (CNZ) ................................................................................................ 68 National Identity and the Funding Environment ................................................................. 69 Classical Music Funding: status symbol ............................................................................... 72 Popular Music Funding: supporting “our” music ................................................................. 75 Is New Zealand music a “thing”? .......................................................................................... 77 Jazz Funding in New Zealand ................................................................................................ 83 Summary: Jazz, the ‘other’ ................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 3: This is how you do it: the jazz school ................................................................... 90 Three Schools: a brief history of NZSM jazz ......................................................................... 91 Influence ............................................................................................................................... 93 NZSM Curriculum ................................................................................................................. 96 The individual voice ............................................................................................................ 100 Context ............................................................................................................................... 101 Pragmatism ........................................................................................................................ 102 Power Dynamics ................................................................................................................. 104 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 107 Interlude: Faubus at the Southern Cross .............................................................................. 110 Part 2: New Contexts, New Meaning .................................................................................. 116 Chapter 4: You got to know to understand: the problem of authentic jazz performance. 117 Authenticity ........................................................................................................................ 119 Outward Authenticity ......................................................................................................... 125 4 Inward Authenticity ............................................................................................................ 127 Authenticity and African-Americanness ............................................................................ 129 Jazz: American or African-American?................................................................................. 132 American / non-American jazz ........................................................................................... 133 Identity ............................................................................................................................... 135 Creating New Authenticities .............................................................................................. 137 Bringing it Home: my jazz identity ..................................................................................... 140 Tradition and Myth ............................................................................................................ 143 Summary: Authenticity, Identity and Tradition in Wellington Jazz ................................... 146 Chapter 5: The song is you: the unique meaning of Wellington jazz .................................. 149 New Contexts ..................................................................................................................... 150 New meanings .................................................................................................................... 156 Doubleness: the Richter City Rebels .................................................................................. 158 Local sounds: the Wellington Jazz Festival ........................................................................ 163 A Distinctive Approach? New Directions in Melbourne .................................................... 172 A New Zealand approach? ................................................................................................. 174 Identity in the Wellington Scene ........................................................................................ 178 Chapter 6: Conclusion: A happening scene ........................................................................ 180 Afterword ............................................................................................................................... 191 Sources ................................................................................................................................... 193 5 List of Figures Figure 1 (p.36): James Illingworth (keyboard) and Rick Cranson (drums), with the author (obscured, bass) at Sandwiches bar, April 29, 2009 Figure 2 (p.60) Wellington Jazz Venues, as at April 2015 Figure 3 (p.61): Soldiers of the Pharaoh, February 2014 Figure 4 (p.75): New Zealand popular music funding structure Figure 5 (p.116): The Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band of Wellington, pictured in c.2014 Figure 6 (p.183): Wellington jazz gigs in the last week of September 2014 6 Abstract The

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