Rupert Winter has always felt like he had one job to do - “bring music to life”.
Which is exactly what he has been doing for 90 years as a local jazz legend, which was celebrated last week with friends and family.
Rupert was the principal founder and life member of the Nelson Jazz Club and Nelson Jazz Festival as well as being the band leader and drummer for the much-loved Bourbon Street Beat.
It was more than 30 years ago that Rupert returned to Nelson from playing the jazz clubs of Sydney and wanted to bring some of that same energy to the top of the South Island.
So in 1990, he helped found the Nelson Jazz Club and, along with his wife Gabrielle, started the annual Nelson Jazz Festival.
Daughter Jane Baken grew up surrounded by the beautiful syncopation of a family in love with jazz.
“He poured his heart and soul into the jazz club,” she says. “Christmas day was really his only day off. On Boxing day, it was full steam ahead for the festival which in those days ran from Boxing Day through to New Year’s Day.”
Rupert seemed always destined for a life in entertainment. Growing up in Dunedin, his father Tom was believed to have started the first ever nightclub in New Zealand, while also owning a circus in the 1920s which toured New Zealand and Australia.
Regarded as one of the best drummers around, Rupert learned to play in nightclubs during the day and recorded with a live studio orchestra for radio on Sundays. His career highlight was playing with jazz legend Louis Armstrong’s band.
“If you can’t feel it, you can’t play it,” Rupert says. “It’s one job to play the notes but it’s another to bring the music to life.”
After returning from Sydney, he aspired to create great music for Nelson audiences as well a thriving hub for local and national musicians.
In the beginning, the jazz club would fly in musicians like Harry Harrison, the Nairobi Trio and Fiona Pears from all over New Zealand on Air Nelson, which would sponsor the flights each week.
Rupert’s own Bourbon Street Beat band became a household name around town, opening WOW, playing countless concerts as well as weddings around the region.
They were even invited to New Orleans by Harry Connick Senior but funding issues made it impossible to go. They did, however, make it to the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival accompanying the then Nelson Mayor Paul Matheson on his trip to sign the sister city agreement between Nelson and Eureka, California.
Jane was eight when the Nelson Jazz Festival began and has been singing since she was seventeen. Since then, she has followed in her family footsteps and working as a talent booker for major cruise lines, setting up SOUNDSTAGE performing arts school in Nelson and now she works in music management for Studiobox.
“I’d love to see the festival return to full flourish. It was such a highlight to the year for local businesses and musicians alike.”
Jane says the club and festival were always her dad’s dream and are now his legacy.
“Dad is a very important player in the history and fabric of music in Nelson.”
