Okay. As I promised last week – Jazz Festival stuff.

It'll be here in a mere couple of weeks, so I thought as a blues lover I'd start with a couple of international blues visitors. Next week, jazz.

First is award-winning guitarist Jöel Fafard, who hails from British Columbia.

He's been here before, a couple of years ago, playing at the art gallery and he was terrific - a great, rough sandpaper-voiced singer and impressive acoustic guitarist who told many a fine and funny story and who, despite the cultured ambience of the gallery, treated it with the relaxed informality of a pub gig.

His latest album, Cluck Old Hen, is a collection of old Southern classics, breathing new life into grand old numbers such as Can't be Satisfied, Spoonful and Come on in my Kitchen.

Previous albums have been award-winners, including a Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Instrumental Album in 2006 and nominations for both a Juno and a Canadian Folk Music Award. So to hear him play a bunch of blues classics will be a real pleasure.

Isaiah B Brunt

The other bluesman of note coming to the festival is Australian Isaiah B Brunt, who was actually born in Auckland, and who brings his band. He should be fantastic.
Although known for many years as a top production guy who has worked alongside the likes of Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel, Isaiah has carved out a fierce reputation as a blues player.

As far back as 2010 he was named the Sydney Blues Society Performer of the Year, which took him to the International Blues Competition in Memphis.

Other winners of this prestigious award to visit Tauranga include Jan Preston and Ali Penny.

His two latest albums have both been recorded in that famous home of the blues, New Orleans.

You can hear them – and his previous albums – on his website at: www.isaiahbbrunt.com

The latest, A Moment In Time, from 2016, led American Blues Scene Magazine to write: 'As always, these songs include the high level of writing and stories that fans revere, and have come to expect.

'Of course the music itself is not to be dismissed. On the contrary, this music demands to be heard.”

That album pumps with the jumping grooves of New Orleans, while his earlier work is a mixture of raw acoustic blues, Delta, hokum and New Orleans-influenced blues with sprinkles of country blues.

He plays a mighty slide guitar and his style has been likened to the great Lonnie Mack.
He also has a reputation as a captivating storyteller.

Classic Flyers

I'd happily go to the show at The Mount's Classic Flyers on Easter Sunday just to see Isaiah but, as they used to say on overexcited infomercials, wait - there's more.

Though the show is billed as the Blues Hurricane Party, it seems more of a mix of blues and jazz since the other Aussie visitors on the bill are Shirazz, who are definitely a jazz band.

I caught them last year and was blown away. This is early trad jazz (so it has a lot in common with blues) played by a bunch of young virtuosos who are brilliant at breathing new life into an old genre.

There seems to have been a trad revival recently with bands taking a punk guerilla approach to early jazz – think Wellington's Shake 'em on Downers and others.

Shirazz are as good as they get.

The final band on the bill is Tauranga's very own Kokomo, of whom I don't think I need to say much.

They have added Robbie Laven to bolster their horn section and are promising a night of surprises and a full-on dance party set of blues and more.

Go to: www.kokomo.co.nz for a listen.

Just as a warning, ignore the Eventfinda listing for this gig, which I assume someone from the Jazz Festival will correct. It says the concert is at Baycourt at 6.30pm and is free. It is in fact at Classic Flyers Museum starting at 7pm and costs $45.

Get tickets from Ticketek. Find out more about the Jazz Festival at: www.jazz.org.nz