Jazz in Concert with the Queenstown Jazz Orchestra

Queenstown Jazz Orchestra

A full 16 piece authentic ‘big band’ line-up, featuring the region’s top jazz musicians and vocalists, presenting big-band classics from Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Buddy Rich, with vocals made famous by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Michael Bublé, to Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughn.

Guest Vocalist – James Tait-Jamieson

James Tait-Jamieson is a sax player and singer from Palmerston North. After falling in love with jazz in his teens he went on to study at the New Zealand School of Music and then on to the graduate program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Living in “The Entertainment Capital of the World”, James had the opportunity to perform regularly on the Las Vegas Strip and beyond, honing his craft in front of audiences at Caesar’s Palace, The Bellagio, Wynn Las Vegas and Four Seasons at the Mandalay Bay but to name a few. After graduating from UNLV and moving home to New Zealand he quickly started working with Wellington lounge band Shaken Not Stirred and did a year-long stint as saxophonist in The Bobptet at the Lido Café with Roger Sellers and Paul Dyne (New Zealand’s longest running jazz gig).

In 2007 James debuted his musical review show Sons of Sinatra with internationally renowned trombonist and bandleader Rodger Fox. The show has featured regularly at jazz festivals and concert venues all over New Zealand since then. In 2010 he joined legendary Wellington musical comedy trio Hot Club Sandwich and started teaching Contemporary Performance Music at UCOL in Palmerston North. In 2015 James joined the Rodger Fox Big band on alto sax.

Highlights over the past few years have been two month-long Arts On Tour New Zealand tours and two trips to Norfolk Island with Andrew
London, two trips to Fiji to perform with blues singer Mahia Blackmore’s Paradise Band and a performance at the 2017 Monterey Jazz Festival in California with the Rodger Fox Big band.

James is currently residing in Mount Cook, Wellington where he performs regularly with his own groups as well as The Andrew London Trio, The Wellington Heads, and the C26 salsa band. He is working on his first recording under his own name - a Michael Bublé-style jazz vocal album with big band and strings.

Come join us for this rare concert performance in the Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall!

Doors open at 7.00pm.

Cash bar by Wet Jacket Wines. R18.

Supported by the Queenstown Lakes District Council. Thank you!