Photo: Bigbandleader, CC BY-SA 4.0
Rodger Fox is still happy, but he is a little miffed.
The biggest band in the New Zealand jazz scene for the past 50 years has had its application for government funding for a USA tour next year rejected - twice.
The Rodger Fox Big Band now has until the end of this month to meet the $89,000 shortfall, or the tour is off.
Fox had planned to take the band to the 2024 Jazz Education Conference in New Orleans in January, followed by gigs in Baltimore (with drummer Dennis Chambers), Washington DC and then a recording session at Sears Sound in Manhattan.
The band had raised about two thirds of the $182,000 needed and Fox was hoping Creative New Zealand might be able to pay for the rest.
When CNZ turned down his first application, it asked Fox to apply again.
He claims the assessors wrote a glowing report on his second funding proposal, but "those higher up didn't go with it".
Photo: Rodger Fox Big Band
Fox says the Jazz Education Conference is one of the biggest events of its type, attracting thousands of teachers and performers for four days of concerts and workshops.
"It's just a fantastic opportunity for networking and learning", says Fox, and as well as being a platform for the band, it's a chance for the individual players to enhance their teaching chops, given pretty much every member of the band is also involved in education.
Following New Orleans, Fox plans to take the band to Baltimore for a gig with one of the best soul-jazz drummers in the business, Dennis Chambers (just ask Carlos Santana).
There's also a performance in Washington DC, and finally a recording session at Manhattan's Sears Sound.
It's not the first time Fox has had a glowing report from the assessors, only to fail to get through to the next round.
He was going to be an orchestral trombonist, training with what is now the NZSO, but the vacancy disappeared.
"It was the day when the government of the time in the 60s had huge apprenticeship schemes."
That included one for three years with the national orchestra. Fox passed the audition, then got "unaccepted" because the previous three-year intake of wind instruments had failed to find any work in New Zealand.
Looking for another way to make a living from his trombone in the early 1970s, Fox answered an advertisement in the paper from the Wellington band Quincy Conserve, which was looking for horn players.
"I got the job, and that was the end of my classical career."
Is there is a chance Fox's current set back from Creative New Zealand could become a similar fork in the road?
"That's to be debated. I need to think about that question...it makes it very difficult...it's a major kick in the guts if it doesn't happen."
If the tour doesn't go ahead, Fox says he might pull back from his big band to focus on teaching.
When asked for a response, a spokesperson for Creative New Zealand sent us this statement;
"CNZ does not comment on individual applications. We always receive more applications than we are able to fund. We wish Rodger and the band well".
However, Fox hasn't given up on going to the US just yet. He's hoping he can persuade private benefactors to fill the void.
"I haven't got to 50 years without being positive, put it that way."
King Kapisi was certainly doing his bit to encourage folk to donate when he performed with the band last month at the Wellington Jazz Festival, and he's likely to do the same at their next gig, in Auckland's Bruce Mason Centre on November 12th.
King Kapisi and Roger Fox Photo: Supplied
You can find out more about Fox's efforts to fund-raise for the band's US tour here.
Regardless of whether he's successful, there may never be a better time to see the Rodger Fox Big Band in action.
