A group of Blenheim musicians are packing up their instruments and taking their jazz to the world.
Tony and Coral Thiel, Robin Randall, Peter Bargh and Heather and Peter Jameson will be performing the music of renowned jazz composer Cole Porter at the Ritz Carlton in Chile in April. The idea for the trip came when Dell Taylor, ex-pat New Zealand and proprietor of the Akarana Bar and Restaurant in Chile's capital city of Santiago, came to the Boathouse Theatre to see the Cole Porter show put on by the musicians.
She spoke to Tony about doing a show in Chile and it was decided they would play at the Ritz Carlton, before moving across the road to Akarana for supper and a chance for people to "meet the stars". Tony says the audience will include people from all over the world, as Chile's economy and political climate attracts international business. The band's lineup will be very similar to the one used in the Cole Porter show.
Duncan MacKenzie, who joined Jazz at the Boathouse for the original Cole Porter and has been a part of the group ever since, will not be able to travel with them to Chile. There will be a few minor alterations to make the arrangements more sophisticated and they will play the programme for their "farewell" concerts on February 24 and 25 at the Boathouse. They will play 10 concerts in Chile, with a few days off in between to see the sights and explore the country's excellent jazz scene.
Another highlight will be visiting Los Dominicos, where top crafts people have stalls. "It's not what people think of when they think about South America. It's such a vast place.
Chile has its own culture," says Tony. On the way home, they will travel through Argentina and go to Buenos Aires to watch a tango show. The Thiels have played as a duo at Akarana before and were excited about going back with the rest of the band.
Robin and Peter Bargh also play as a duo outside the band, calling themselves the Jazz Men and playing at various events in Marlborough. They met when Peter was an itinerant saxophone teacher at Marlborough Girls' College, where Robin is the head of music. The two started jamming together and decided to make it a regular thing.
Heather met Tony when she was performing in public. He was watching her and she invited him to play something and was blown away by his talent. "He said to me, 'you play like Elton John, but I can fix that'," she says.
She learns piano from him and sings, with the aim of performing international jazz and having her first overseas gig at the Ritz in Chile is a dream come true. "It's nice to work with professional musicians. "You put in the effort and really get the reward.
Tony has taught me so much, I'm so grateful." The performers got together because they knew each other and decided they would like to operate as a group. Jazz at the Boathouse was born with the first performance in July, 2004.
Robin joined the group for the second show and the six musicians have been together ever since. Six performances later, the show has built up a following and the players have added to their repertoire, performing a range of different jazz styles from Latin to be-bop. "It's proving to be very popular.
We usually fill the Boathouse," says Robin. For the last show of 2006, they brought in guest alto saxophone player Libby Johns, a former Marlborough Girls' student who is studying music at university. "We thought it would be nice to add a new dimension and bring in an up and coming musician.
People loved it. We are hoping to carry on bringing someone different each time," says Robin. Peter Jameson does the technical side of the show and some narration between musical numbers.
The Cole Porter show includes a data show projected on to a screen, which he is in charge of. The group will perform their "farewell show" on February 24 at 7.30pm and February 25 at 3pm at the Boathouse Theatre.
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