For decades, thousands of boogie-lovers and boppers have been coming to Tauranga's National Jazz Festival to experience some of the best jazz from Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.

Run by the Tauranga Jazz Society, the festival has had a fascinating history and the Tauranga community has played a key part in keeping jazz alive.

Jazz Festival stalwart Alec MacLean of Raetihi, with daughter Vida, loads saxophone and other equipment into van in 1967. Supplied by Tauranga City Libraries reference 15607.

Beats get off the ground

The first festival in 1963 was organised by jazz enthusiasts from Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga, with the ‘odd few stray pioneers from Wellington and Taranaki,' according to a newspaper article by Michael Foster published that year.

It was thought to be the first outdoor jazz festival to ever take place in New Zealand and 40 musicians, including some of the country's top jazzmen, accepted invitations.

The musicians played a variety of tunes for all moods. Early, trad, blues, progressive and dixie drifted through the Memorial Park Sound Shell and beyond, drawing a crowd of 1000.

Visitors were impressed with Tauranga and mentioned how welcome they'd felt.

'The hospitality astounded them, and the food nearly stopped them,” wrote Michael Foster.

One visitor proclaimed he was 'gassed man! Really gassed!” – which translates to very excited in today's terms.

Mayor Bob Owens, pictured with Les Wilson, was a patron of The National Jazz Festival until 1997. Supplied by Tauranga City Libraries image pn-4004.

Youth competition joins festival line-up

In the 1970s the festival was taken up a notch, with tickets being sold for the first time and three sponsors gained – Benson Hedges, New Zealand Breweries and Yamaha.

Nurturing young musicians has always been important to organisers – Grammy-winner Alan Broadbent started attending the festival when he was just 16 years old.

In 1978 the first National Youth Jazz Competition was held, attracting young big band musicians from Wellington, Tauranga and Dargaville.

It was here that most New Zealand jazz musicians got their start, including the likes of Hollie Smith and New Zealand's leading jazz man, Nathan Haines.

Nathan Haines and his band from Northcote College win the Best Big Band trophy in 1987. Supplied by Tauranga City Libraries image 12-538.

Nathan went to his first National Youth Jazz Competition when he was 13 in 1985.

'I'd been playing with my dad since I was very young, and my heroes were Charlie Parker, Wayne Shorter and Jaco (I was a huge Weather Report fan at the age of 13).

'All I wanted to do was play jazz - not straight-ahead jazz but jazz with synthesisers and big drum sounds!” he says.

Nathan says the Tauranga National Jazz Festival played an important part in growing up.

'It was a cool vibe, a cool hang, it was like another world. I discovered… stuff away from my strict home life,” he says cheekily.

An organiser counts money in the 1980s. Supplied by Tauranga City Libraries image 14-0173.

The Roger Fox Big Band playing at Baycourt in the 1999 Jazz Festival. Supplied by Tauranga City Libraries image 12-464.

Nineties bring new status

In 1990 the festival was granted national status, but it started to struggle financially, likely due to the global recession.

Sponsors were hard to come by during this time and the musicians are known to have kept the festival alive.

The new millennium brought an exciting new events strategy to the city and The National Jazz Festival was recognised as a flagship event. It was the start of a partnership with Tauranga City Council that has spanned two decades and still remains strong today.

Downtown Carnival in Tauranga's City Centre. Photo credit: Erin Cave.

An Easter tradition

These days the festival is a city-wide affair, sprawling from Mount Maunganui to The Historic Village, with its heart beating strongly at Baycourt and the streets of Tauranga's city centre.

With 20,000 expected to experience sunset cruises, cafes, carnivals and more this Easter weekend, the festival has come a long way.

Festival Director Marc Anderson says the festival is key to Tauranga's identity and has played an important role in keeping jazz relevant in New Zealand.

'Easter and jazz are now synonymous in Tauranga,” he says.

'We're constantly evolving, and our new acts, like this year's Black Comet and Allana Goldsmith, means every year we're attracting new audiences and keeping the jazz alive.”

Despite the festival coming a long way over its 60 years, one thing remains the same – the manaakitanga visitors experience.

The community have always been key since the festival's early days at Memorial Park,” Marc says.

'We'll no doubt see this continue for years to come.”

The full programme can be found at jazz.org.nz.

Further information on the history can be found at www.paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/16314