For some reason, many musical things happen on Wednesdays and Sundays.

This week I'm going to have a brief trawl through some music styles that have regular jam nights or club nights, covering four of the basic aural food groups – folk, jazz, blues and country.
The second Sunday of every month is the Tauranga Jazz Club, which gets together in the Erinlea Room at the RSA in Greerton (formerly Fahys). Like most such nights these are open to members and non-members alike, very reasonably priced, with members getting a small discount. They start at 5.00pm and usually feature two bands. Next one is on 13 September and has local act BBC, followed by Rotorua's Tim Williams Trio.
The BBC are a mainstream five piece combo led by Rob Smith, and comprising John Keatly on Tuba, Graeme Hardaker on drums, Barry Smith on Guitar, and Dave Cown on trumpet. Rob himself is a long-time stalwart on the Tauranga jazz scene (having briefly flirted with rock music in the sixties) and his bold tenor sax and singing are really worth catching.
Tim Williams is something of a wonder and a must-see for lovers of the Stephane Grapelli style of violin playing, as practiced by the famous French ‘Hot Club' band.
Tim is one of New Zealand's leading exponents of this music and has appeared at festivals throughout the country; earlier this year he was a special guest for the opening night Gypsy Swing concert of Tauranga's Easter Jazz Festival. At Greerton he will be accompanied by guitar wiz Trevor Braunias and bassman Wayne Melville.
The Tauranga Acoustic Club, formerly the Folk Club, get together twice a month now, upstairs at Merhaba, a restaurant on The Strand. These are basically open mic sessions where anyone can perform and they happen on the second Sunday afternoon at 2pm and fourth Wednesday night at 8pm of every month. The club also brings regular acts to Tauranga, though the negligible turnout at folkie Marcus Turner's recent gig would suggest their mailing list or motivational pull is a little lacking.
Blues lovers, meanwhile, have the second Wednesday of every month at Drivers Bar in the 11th Ave Plaza to look forward to. It is basically an open mic night with bar owner Chris Gunn and bunch of musical stalwarts acting as a house band and filling gaps where required.
These are a recent addition to the Tauranga musical calendar so the verdict is still out on whether they will become a regular feature. I suspect it will depend on whether they attract some of the many specialist blues players in town – so remaining a true blues jam. It has certainly been timed well to fit in between other blues nights in the region: the Bay of Plenty Blues Club in Rotorua is on the first Wednesday of the month at the Belgian Bar and the recently reformed Hamilton Blues Society gets together for a jam at Biddy Mulligans on the second Thursday of each month.
Talking of the BOP Blues Club in Rotorua, it has in the past few years become pretty much the most successful blues club in the country, consistently attracting over 100 people for each jam night and holding regular concert events and workshops; this month a slide workshop with Mike Garner and a singer/songwriter workshop with Paul Ubana Jones. Normal jam nights have actually become so popular that they also hold ‘Have a Go' nights for ‘newbies and nervous nellies' to try out the stage.
Also every Wednesday night is a country music jam. I haven't had a chance to get to one of these yet but given country music's popularity and history in Tauranga they are proving very popular. They take place down at the Crown and Badger on The Strand and are hosted by indefatigable Blarney Boy Andy Craw, who knows a country song or three. Everyone is welcome to go and anyone is welcome to play or sing.
In addition to that there are jam nights and open mic nights that seem to come and go at various pubs all over the place – some are very well established. Have a look at a local gig guide for more details.
watusi@thesun.co.nz