I had been planning the third part of my look at the Jazz Festival, but we'll put that on hold for the moment since the trickle of local album releases has suddenly turned into a veritable flood. At least in Tauranga terms.

I'm still buzzing over the gypsy jazz of the debut Bonjour Swing CD Flame: Marion Arts fantastic singing (and songs); Robbie Laven's spectacular acoustic guitar; and Oscar Laven's trumpet playing – is there any blown instrument that he can't play? I'd recommend you check it out at

www.fragilecolours.com, though it's possible that the band will be briefly out of action while Marion recovers from a bizarre incident in which she was head-butted in the face by a flying goat named Priscilla. Whether the injury was connected to her ukulele classes is unconfirmed.

But, as I mentioned, there seems to be a lot of new music about.

Mount Maunganui band The Deeds, who have created quite a buzz over the past year, launched their first album recently at the Mauao Performing Arts Centre, where drummer Nick Ririnui is a tutor.

Indefatigable artist Dave Roy has just released his latest CD, At A Certain Moment, again backed by an eclectic selection of Bay musicians, this time including Brilleaux drummer Ian 'Beano” Gilpin, Bonjour Swing's Oscar Laven on bassoon, and a 4-piece ukulele group.

And I just got an album from Te Puke alt country outfit Redwood Trail, a second collection of songs by singer Brad Taylor. On a cursory listening last night it was even better than Brad's debut from a couple of years back which I liked very much. I don't know much about these guys so will try and bring you some sort of profile in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, this week sees the release of a career-spanning compilation from John Michaelz. Having known John for many years I thought I'd pass this on to some fresh ears: see the review below from the very knowledgeable Mr Moon.

John is also planning a CD launch with his current band, The Usual, (who feature on two of the album's new songs) at No 1 The Strand on Friday 6 July. It's a great album – it should be a fun night!

In the meantime, you can get So Far, So Good… hot off the press from j.michaelz@hotmail.com