"Any rags, any jazz, any boppers today?": Jazz in New Zealand 1920-1955

Abstract

This thesis explores the history of jazz in New Zealand from the 1920s to the mid–1950s, surrounding a central theme examining how New Zealanders acquired and responded to jazz. I describe how jazz, as music, dance, and popular culture, was brought to New Zealand during the period 1920–1955. In particular I uncover and describe the roles that the jazz cultures of the United States of America, Great Britain, and Australia played in influencing the development of jazz in New Zealand. I identify physical media showing New Zealanders’ responses to jazz during this period. Responses to the physical media reflect how New Zealanders interpreted and defined jazz, and how those responses changed across the period. In association with the media, I detail aspects of material culture relating to jazz in New Zealand, and placing jazz within a social context. I propose a model of ‘recontextualisation’, the change in a practice when it is removed from one cultural context and place to another, to explain the relationships between New Zealand and foreign responses to jazz. In particular, I identify the unique ways in which New Zealanders participated in the continuous recreation of their own jazz culture.