BBC

The BBC (The Bay Blues Company) plays a mixture of Blues and Shuffle with the emphasis being to project a happy ‘foot tapping’ sound. The presentation of the traditional sounds of New Orleans are nowadays few and far between in NZ as many of the big names in NZ jazz pass on. For this reason they concentrate upon performing all the old NO standards at Jazz clubs and festivals and have earned an enviable reputation since their formation at the beginning of 2004.

Rob Smith - Tauranga, Leader/Tenor sax/Vocals: Rob started playing gigs in the late fifties in one of Tauranga’s first ‘pop’ bands ‘The Four Fours’ - In the late sixties Rob formed his own band ‘The Rob Smith Sextet’ which performed Jazz/rock music for over a decade, members over the period included well known NZ Musicians, bassist Peter McGregor, trumpeter Barry Neilson, and for quite a few years Robs drummer was ‘Father Dave Hall’ the founder of the Tauranga Jazz Festival. Rob continued playing a mixture of jazz and rock up until ten years ago when he became the permanent tenor player with the Dr Jaz band. He has performed with many well know American, European, Australian and NZ Jazz musicians and has recorded over 50 jazz tracks with both overseas and NZ musicians.

Herman Otto - Whangarei, Valve Trombone. Herman a native of Germany, has a long history of performing jazz music, firstly in Munich and subsequently here in NZ. He has been an important contributor in many areas of music, being front line support for the NZ tours of several overseas jazz stars - a long term supporter of NZ Jazz clubs and Festivals and is highly regarded for his music teaching skills.

John Keatley - South Auckland: Bass tuba: John is well known round the traps in the Auckland area as a true maestro. He has performed here in NZ with many overseas musicians. John has also travelled overseas and was a huge hit when he travelled to New Orleans to perform at the famed NO Jazz festival. His ability to anchor a rhythm section and to drive a band has to be heard to be believed.

Julian Russell Piano - Julian is the true musical entrepreneur. Widely known and appreciated for his fine keyboard skills. For many years he was the rhythm section anchor for the Dr Jaz band. He has a tremendous sense of humour in his style which always keeps his audience guessing at just what other melodies he can suddenly plant into the current tune The BBC are thrilled to have a musician of his calibre as their keyboards man.

Barry Neilson plays Banjo and also performs on trumpet and guitar.