Dr Rodger Fox, Director of the Young Jazz Band-it Competitions
Rodger Fox is New Zealand’s foremost jazz trombonist, big band leader, jazz educator and producer.
- 2003 made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to Music.
- 2005 honoured by Massey University with an Honorary Doctorate of Music.
- Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka - School of Music.
Rodger started his jazz career at a young age with brass bands in the Porirua area, the Mana College Big Band. Later he joined the Quincy Conserve, a band that defined New Zealand music in the early 1970s. This was followed by the 1860 Band and partnerships and performances that continue to this day. A consistent factor over the decades has been the sound of the Rodger Fox Big Bands where the biggest names in New Zealand jazz have all performed with Fox, including Ray Woolf, Tina Cross, Malcolm McNeil and Midge Marsden and many others.
A supreme jazz trombonist, Rodger Fox ONZM, has led a Big Band in New Zealand for forty-one years. Over that time, he has performed in concert with some of the biggest names in the jazz and entertainment world including Eric Marienthal, Kurt Elling, Mike Stern, Louie Bellson, Bill Reichenbach, Chuck Findley, Randy Crawford, Bobby Shew, Lanny Morgan, Bruce Paulson, Diane Schuur, Arturo Sandoval, David Clayton – Thomas, Joe Williams, The Four Tops – Temptations, Gary Grant, Jon Papenbrook, Bill Cunliffe, Holly Hofmann and Kevin Mahogany. He has won five Tui awards for New Zealand Jazz Recordings of the Year and received nine further nominations.