The Torch Songs Band - Mothers Day

Tickets available at Tauranga Citizens Club cnr Cameron Rd and 13th Ave. $15, 5-8 pm. Everyone is welcome! Full bar and meals available.

he Torch Songs Band is a long standing premium 7-piece jazz and blues fusion concert band located in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, New Zealand.

Torch Songs began in 1997 as a duo playing a smouldering repertoire in the torch songs tradition – vocalist Carol Storey accompanied by pianist Liam Ryan. Over twelve years the band evolved into a fully fledged band with two albums before taking a break when Ryan went to live in the South Island in 2008.

After Ryans’s return North in 2016 the band reunited for a one off gig in early 2017. The legendary magic was still there. Torch Songs are back and playing gigs - and playing better than ever.

The seven piece line-up has many jazz and arts festival headline appearances and three albums to its credit (The Story So Far, Light Moves, Live at the NelsonSchool of Music). In 2002 Ryan and Storey won a joint Tui Award and in 2008 Storey was a finalist in the APRA Silver Scroll Maioha Award s and went on to win Best Traditional Maori Music Award at the inaugural Waiata Maori Music Awards for her te reo album Mokomoko.

Storey’s distinctive and emotive voice sees her singing jazz in English, Te Reo, Spanish and Portugese adding an exotic lustre to the sound of the band. The Torch Songs band creates a night of spellbinding moments - straight-ahead jazz coupled with the flavours of world music and roof raising flights of musicianship.

Carol Storey: vocals/guitar
Liam Ryan: keyboards
Grant Mason: Trumpet
Dave Maybee: guitars
Wayne Melville: bass
Neil Reynolds: drums
Nataalia Liunson - vocals

“…a night of rapturous authentic improvisation…, these guys could take Manhattan!” - BOP Times