05 January 2009 - 0 Comments

Christchurch’s annual jazz and blues festival will be an extra tasty affair in 2009.

A new event designed to appeal to food and music lovers has been added to the week-long New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival. Taste Jazz will be held on Sunday, April 19, and provide people the opportunity to sample gourmet food and wines as they listen to live jazz in the north quadrangle of the Arts Centre.

“We wanted to offer something a bit different this year and felt Taste Jazz was an event that would appeal to many,’’ says festival director Jodi Wright. “In association with the Arts Centre, we’re going to give people a taste of jazz and a taste of some of the best food and wine our region has to offer.’’

The 2009 New Zealand International Jazz and Blues Festival begins on April 13 and will see The Blind Boys of Alabama performing in New Zealand for the first time.

The Blind Boys of Alabama’s latest release, Down In New Orleans, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album. The album, which represents the band’s desire to bring hope to the still-storm-ravaged city of New Orleans has won widespread critical acclaim, with one critic in the Washington Post describing it as: "Inspired and relevant, [Down In New Orleans] borders on the miraculous."

“Their music is stirring, soulful and downright rocking – they’re going to blow audiences off their feet,’’ says Ms Wright.

Also confirmed to perform at the festival are Midge Marsden and Harry Harrison, the Nairobi Trio, Peter Urlich and Band, Jennine Bailey and Emma Pask, who has been described by legendary jazz musician James Morrison as “the greatest gift to Australian jazz vocals in the last decade’’.

Thanks to www.jazzfestivalnz.com for this story.

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