Auckland Jazz and Blues Club

Welcome to the home of jazz in Auckland

Birkenhead RSA, Recreation Drive, Birkenhead.

Please see EVENTS section for weekly concert details.

($10 members/$25 non-members - cash only)


The club was formed around 1992 to further the interests of jazz & blues music in Auckland.

The club has a membership of around 250 and has regular club nights every Tuesday evening at the Birkenhead RSA.

Concerts start at 7.30pm and finish at 9.30pm with a break at half time. Meals are available before the concert. Full bar service.

Ample off-street parking. Come early to secure your seating.

Each night features a different local or out of town band.. Sometimes an International star makes an appearance.

Back to All Events

The Piano Women

  • Pt Chevalier RSA 1136 Great North Road Auckland, Auckland, 1022 New Zealand (map)

Featuring Julie Mason, Caitlin Smith, Linn Lorkin and Jane Horder
 
The chick singers’ revenge!   An ability to play the piano gives a female singer a rare advantage in a world where many a male pianist would rather be just getting down with his band-mates than having to accompany some chick singer. Here, second time around, is the concert we call "Piano Women"  featuring four fine examples of women’s independence. There were three women last time so it's growing in leaps and bounds. And the males are down to one, redoubtable bassist Aaron Coddel, who will no doubt hold his own. 
 
  JULIE MASON  
 
One of NZ's foremost women in jazz, Julie has performed all over the globe, including Paris, London, Berlin, The USA, Australia and the South Pacific. She has been a finalist in the Jazz Album of the Year Awards, and recently released her 6th album "Layers of Disguise". She has also sung and played in concert with The Auckland Philharmonia, and The Julie Mason Quintet was the featured group for Bill Clinton (as President USA) and the APEC World Leaders Dinner.
 
CAITLIN SMITH
 One of New Zealand's most accomplished singers, Caitlin always shines with her outstanding versions of jazz standards and her ability to appropriate songs from other genres and turn them into earthy jazz vehicles. But in this concert Caitlin will be performing a special program of originals at the piano in "story-singer" or "song-poet" mode, deriving inspiration from the songwriters she calls her spiritual parents, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Seated at the piano, this is Caitlin in an intimate setting, her exuberant style, poetic lyrics and amazing vocal abilities firmly anchored in her own accompaniment.
 
 
LINN LORKIN
 
Singer-songwriter Linn Lorkin played piano in funk bands on the Auckland club scene in the 70s and went on to play at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London in 1976.   Her performing and creative life found fulfilment in her subsequent eight years in New York where she played in piano bars and began writing her own songs. She has been very active in various cabaret-ish combos in NZ and her solo jazz musical  “Hey, Piano Bar Lady!” won Best Cabaret in New York’s United Solo Festival in 2013 and was featured at Auckland Writers Festival 2018.
 
                                          
JANE HORDER
 
Consummate singer and performer Jane Horden sings in Auckland swing band ‘Prima Swing Riot’ and has performed in numerous musical both in NZ and Australia including Miss Saigon, Jesus Christ Superstar and Sweeney Todd.  She won a NAPTA award for best Female Actor in a musical for her performance in Nunsense in 2088. During the day Jane is the Director of Vocal Studies at Takapuna Grammar School conducting four choirs, a jazz vocal group and teaching musical theatre and singing.
 
With Aaron Coddel on bass

Door Charge:
Members and students with ID $5.00
Non Members $15.00

Earlier Event: June 12
Queen City Big Band
Later Event: June 26
Jari Perkiömäki