Food & Wine Fest. - All-Black Blows Blues Harp - Snow On The Rimutakas!
For all of its nine years, the Martinborough Food & Wine Festival has been a highlight of New Zealand's entertainment calendar. Tickets are restricted and hotly sought after. Fans jam the phone lines on the day they come up for sale, and they're sold out within a couple of hours.
Situated in picturesque countryside amongst 12 of NZ's finest wineries, this is the home of some wonderful Pinot Noir. This year, though, tasting the delectable grape at room temperature became a difficult task. Though summer was just ten days away, the temperature dropped to 5C at times, and one wag was overhead telling a friend over the cell phone "it rains, then stops, then hails, then rains again ..."
The 10,500 strong crowd showed that indomitable Kiwi spirit and partied on, none the less. Amongst the acts were several of NZ's best blues musicians.
Kokomo, The Windy City Strugglers and Hammond Gamble were there. The Roger Fox Big Band had feature vocalist, Jerome Hendrix .
Over at Alana Estate, though, the blues was dominant amongst the whites and reds. The Midge Marsden Band was pumping, with Bullfrog Rata, as usual, stealing the show. His vocals and driving guitar provide infectious blues grooves. Guesting on harmonica was former All Black, Josh Kronfeld. 3000 fans came to hear him blow, and the Dominion reported him modestly saying he was a little out of practice and "I think they're all drunk enough not to know what I sound like.
Also on this bill were local a Elvis impersonator, by all accounts a local policeman! - and Wellington band Red Dog Saloon Band. The band is led by Pip Payne, on vocals and guitar. On this outing he also had the assistance of bassist Sid Limbert, veteran of the Marsden band and currently with the Warratahs. Sitting in on harp for part of the show was Wellington's Terry Casey - one of NZ's best harp players. With Pip fronting the band on acoustic guitar and Sid's pumping bass, Red Dog Saloon played an attractive mixture of blues covers, all with original arrangements. The highlight of the Festival, for me. That and the Margrain 1999 Pinot Noir ...
Next year's festival is on 18 Nov, 2001.
photo of Josh Kronfeld by Hanna Howard, The Dominion
