With the recent success of the CBHS music department at Jazz competitions in the South Island, it was decided in September 2015 that we take the boys on a tour to the North Island culminating with competing at the National Youth Jazz Competition in Tauranga over Easter weekend. 

The Big Band, Funk Band and Dixie Band members left Christchurch on Saturday 19 March and returned home on Sunday 27 March after a very busy and highly successful tour. 

The timing of the tour made for some very intense preparations for the students as we only had about 6 weeks of lead time to rehearse and perfect our programmes before going on tour. The boys gave up many, many early mornings, afternoons and even weekends to dedicate to rehearsal.

The bands first spent three days being hosted by the students of St. Kentigern College in Auckland. St. Kentigern College is a prestigious private school located in Pakuranga. The facilities provided were superb to the point that it left a few jaws scraping along the ground from some of our lads! We performed a cabaret with the Jazz groups from St. Kentigern College on the Saturday evening which was extremely well received and we were honoured to have our very own Mr Wayne Waller (Year 13 Dean) give up his time and fly up to watch and support us. This was followed in the next couple of days by workshops and masterclasses where the boys had their skills honed in improvisation and big band playing by expert tutors based in Auckland. The Dixie and Funk bands also put on a lunch time concert in the senior quad at St. Kentigern College on the Monday which was very well received.

We departed for Whakatane on Tuesday 22nd where we were billeted for two nights by friends and family of students of Trident High School. Our Funk and Dixie bands combined with the Trident High School Combo to put on a lunchtime concert in downtown Whakatane, which had the locals captivated. The Wednesday evening consisted of a full concert of both CBHS and Trident High School students performing their complete repertoire. A sizeable crowd of about 200 showed up to listen and they certainly got their monies worth! Both schools played exceptionally well and received marvellous applause and excellent comments from the audience. A good many friendships were struck between the students (and staff) of the two schools and we look forward to maintaining close ties with Trident High School in the future.

We left for Tauranga on the Thursday where the business end of the tour would take place. The National Youth Jazz Competition is a part of the National Jazz Festival and has been in existence for approximately 30 years. There are two categories; Big Band (9-20 players) and Combo (3-8 players). CBHS had our Funk and Dixie bands entered in the Combo section and our Jazz Band in the Big Band section.

There were 17 combos entered and they all performed on Good Friday while the Big Bands played on Easter Saturday. All three of our groups played extremely well and received great feedback on their performances. The results were announced late Saturday afternoon and CBHS featured heavily. The Big Band and the Dixie Band both won Gold Awards, and the Funk Band was awarded Silver.The Dixie Band also won the 'Most Innovative Band', which is great validation for Mike Fairhurst and his boys for all the work they have put into their craft. On an individual level, Dean Gibson won 'Best Big Band Drummer' which really capped off a fantastic week of top level drumming from him.

An afternoon at Rainbow's End before getting on our return flight awaited the boys on Sunday. This was a great way to relax and unwind after such an intense and hugely successful tour.

A big thank you must go out to all our supporters whom regularly checked our Facebook page for updates and videos and left messages of congratulations and support throughout the week. We even had three sets of parents make their way up to Tauranga to support the boys in person! Without your continued support and encouragement the boys would not have these types of opportunities. To see some more snaps from the tour, check out this dropbox link!

Altiora Peto

Steve Chapman 
Head of Music