As promised, this week we'll look at jazz bands playing at the Jazz Festival.

There are - and I don't think I need to emphasise this too much - a lot of them. After all, this is the National Jazz Festival and, looking at the concert series, there isn't a single show I wouldn't recommend.

Let's start at the very beginning.

I'm pleased to see that once again the festival is going big for the opening Thursday night. This is traditionally a time for locals as the out-of-town contingent has yet to arrive.

For some reason last year, organisers decided to have no concerts on Thursday despite two sell-outs the previous year.

A couple of real winners open the festival this time.

First up is Tauranga's own Caitriona Fallon, a relocated Irish singer who is simply wonderful.

She's done a bunch of stuff including a five-year world tour with the Riverdance phenomenon, which started in 1996, advancing from choir member to lead vocalist in the process.

That's not exactly jazz, but her band Cookie and the Vaudevilles were, and played at such swish places as the Cork and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals and the Carnegie Arts Centre.

This festival she's on at 6pm in Baycourt's Exhibition Hall (previously known as the X-Space and renamed this year as the Blink Jazz Lounge).

Caitriona's band

Caitriona will be backed by husband Marc Anderson on drums, Wayne Melville on bass, guitarist Aaron Wright and Leon Gray on piano. There's a song from her previous, sold out Totara Street concert on her Facebook page, where she's accompanied solely by Leon on an Adele number. It's worth checking out.

For this show she plans to showcase some never-heard-before originals and songs from Caro Emerald, Diana Krall, Madeleine Peroux and Norah Jones.

Also on Thursday, across Baycourt at 8pm in the Addison Theatre, is a tribute to Joni Mitchell. This show comes straight from the Wellington Jazz Festival and is fronted by Lisa Tomlins - a terrific singer who first came to prominence with swing cats Shaken Not Stirred (sadly absent this year).

She has a crack band, including Daniel Hayles on piano, Tauranga bass wiz Rory McCarthy – now playing with Rodger Fox – and guitarist Tyson Smith. There's also drums and sax and a bunch of backing singers.

The show concentrates on Joni Mitchell's live 1980 album ‘Shadows and Light' - a culmination of her late 70s jazz crossover period that yielded the albums Heijera, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus, and featured such luminaries as Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny.

Given how unwell Joni Mitchell has been, this seems the perfect time for a tribute show.

On Friday, Rodger Fox is in the Addison Theatre with a couple of hot Americans - bassist Dewayne Pate and sax player Dave Wilson - along with the NZSM Big Band.

Rodger rarely disappoints, and since Dewayne plays with the legendary Tower Of Power, the funk will no doubt be ferocious.

I'm also giving a shout out for Saturday afternoon's The Birth Of Jazz concert in the Blink Jazz Lounge, featuring three of Tauranga's iconic trad jazz outfits: The Woody Woodhouse Connection, Bay Dixie and The BBC.

These bands contain some of the town's most acclaimed jazz musicians - some of them the very people who started the festival in the first place.

Many are still outstanding players and the more I see them the more they inspire me with their knowledge, skill and genuine undimmed love of music.

Of course, the big feature is that night at 8pm in the Addison Theatre.

James Morrison is world famous and in Australia, he's musical royalty.

A multi-instrumentalist, but firstly a trumpeter, he's played every major jazz venue in the world, received numerous awards, made a slew of best-selling albums and will be as good as they get.

This is a serious coup for the Jazz Festival and a rare treat for Tauranga.

Okay, I'm out of space. Next week I'll look at the downtown line-up. And it's good, too.