1. Rodger Fox founded his jazz band in 1973 and toured extensively in New Zealand and overseas, playing at international jazz festivals including Montreux and Monterey.
18 Facts About Rodger Fox
1. 2.
Rodger Fox was a jazz educator and taught at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington.
3.
Rodger Fox initially played the trumpet, changing to the trombone when that instrument was needed in the Mana College band.
4.
Rodger Fox played in the local brass band, the Wellington Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra in 1969 and 1970.
5.
Rodger Fox passed the Royal College of Music trombone and theory exam in 1970.
6.
Rodger Fox's brother played the trombone and his sisters the clarinet and saxophone.
7.
On leaving school Rodger Fox worked for Chappells Music Publishing and in the Golden Horn Music shop.
8.
Rodger Fox was intending to pursue a career in classical music; he was offered a place as an orchestral trainee with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra but brass players were not accepted onto the scheme that year as brass and woodwind players were not finding employment.
9.
At the time Rodger Fox found that older musicians were not affording younger players the opportunities to play which spurred him to start his own band.
10.
Rodger Fox maintained that New Zealand does not have its own local jazz style and that jazz is an American music.
11.
Rodger Fox toured New Zealand in 2023 to mark 50 years since the founding of the Big Band.
12.
Rodger Fox's band provided work opportunities for jazz musicians and he regarded the band as a training ground for young players.
13.
Rodger Fox advocated for better funding of jazz performance and for a jazz orchestra.
14.
Rodger Fox maintained that while the country has a national orchestra, a ballet company and regional orchestras there is no national big band to provide opportunities and employment for younger players.
15.
Rodger Fox became a senior lecturer at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington.
16.
Rodger Fox died in Palmerston North on 27 May 2024, at the age of 71.
17.
Rodger Fox won the Aotearoa Music Award for New Zealand jazz recording of the year on four occasions: in 1983,2001,2004 and 2012.
18.
Rodger Fox was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Massey University in 2005.