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Rodger Fox - synonymous with big band jazz in New Zealand - has died. He was 71. The jazz legend founded the Rodger Fox Big Band in 1973 and toured extensively here and overseas, playing at international jazz festivals including Montreux, Monterey and New Orleans.

The Christchurch-born musician also taught at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. Fox was only 18 when he began playing with a dance band in the Wellington/Porirua area. "I was sort of like, eight years old scratching around this violin and being taught by the nuns and Gore," he told RNZ in 2015.



"But I perfected hiccups. So it was great. So every time I went to the lesson, I would have these massive hiccuping fits and not scratch a note in vain.

"After about three months the dear old nuns sort of summoned my parents and said, 'I don't think Roger really wants to learn violin, you know?'" Rodger Fox performing in 2017. Photo: Supplied He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2022. He told RNZ that year that two of the biggest highlights were playing at Europe's legendary Montreux Jazz Festival in 1980 - the first-ever NZ band invited to play at an international jazz festival - and hosting American jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker's visit to New Zealand to celebrate the Rodger Fox Big Band's 30th anniversary.

David Bremner has been the principal trombonist in the New Zealand symphony orchestra for more than 20 years. He told RNZ's Morning Report programme today it was an "incredi.

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