Mike Nock is one of New Zealand's greatest jazz musicians. Photo: Karen Steains Photography
Mike Nock is undoubtedly one of Aotearoa's greatest jazz musicians - the Christchurch native has toured the world, diving deep into the American heartlands of jazz and playing alongside legends of the genre. For the past 30 years, he's spent much of his time in Sydney, sharing his knowledge with the next generation of jazz composers and players.
Nock is 84 years old, but he's showing no signs of slowing down.
In October, he will be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the 2024 APRA Silver Scroll Awards in Wellington. Nock says the upcoming honour has kept him busy.
"When you're hot, you're hot!
"It's funny how things work out, it's been a busy period, getting this acknowledgement has been really good. This award means so much to me because it's the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, not just the Jazz Hall of Fame, and it's great, because that's what I'm all about."
Nock at primary school (fourth from left) around the time he would've just started learning piano. Photo: Supplied
Nock is originally from Christchurch but spent much of his childhood in Ngāruawāhia, listening to jazz programmes on the radio and learning how to play the piano from his father.
"I gotta say, Radio New Zealand, in those days particularly, that was the source of so much stuff. They used to play jazz, pop, Doris Day, Julie Armstrong, Spike Jonze and the City Slickers, it was a big smorgasbord of music to our ears.
"My aunty decided to loan us her piano, I was about 10 at the time and I heard my dad playing. He played a bit of party type music, he was a good party piano player, he started teaching me the piano... my interest was sparked by that."
Nock remembers hearing the Great Quintet - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Bud Powell - playing on one of the radio programmes.
"I thought, this is the greatest thing I'd ever heard. Turns out they were one of the seminal bands in bebop, world famous, even at the time, and I didn't even know. I thought it was a New Zealand band. I thought, I want to play like that, so I started playing like that."
Just a few weeks into their lessons, Nock's father died suddenly from illness. But soon, another local man would take Nock under his wing and grow his musicality.
"The local pharmacist in Ngāruawāhia was a guy called Bert McNamara, and he took me under his wing because I used to work at this pharmacy. He found out that I liked jazz, so he had me come over to his house and he'd play me records. I was just a kid in short pants, but he had his own broadcast out of Wellington, he was a good pianist, of course I didn't know that, he owned the pharmacy.
"He also had very small hands and he had a little sleeve made for his little fingers, the little cork at the end of it would extend his hands so he could actually stretch his hands more and play bigger stuff. Musicians in those days, you always wanted to have a big reach, so he could reach 10 notes, some people can do it naturally but most can't."
Nock was amused and in awe of McNamara, but soon, it was time to spread his wings. Nock moved around Nelson, Wellington and Auckland, and eventually stowed away on a boat to Sydney, where he won a scholarship from Down Beat magazine to attend Berklee College of Music.
He had little money and was forced to hustle for gigs while studying, but he made a name for himself in the local jazz scene.
Nock with American bassist David Friesen. Photo: Ian Barnes Photography
Seventy years later, his dedication to jazz has taken him all around the world, and he's played with a range of musical luminaries, including Miles Davis, Yusef Lateef, Art Blakey, and Dionne Warwick.
In the 1980s, he returned to Australia to teach at the Sydney Conservatorium, all while continuing a prolific career of composing, recording and touring. Nock has more than 40 albums to his name, and over a hundred on which he's featured as a player. In 2023, he released his latest album Hearing and has a slew of performances already booked into his calendar.
Nock's spirit is infectious; he's energised and passionate, easily convinced to keep going even when he thinks it's time to quit.
"I just enjoy it, I love it, I've always loved it. For me it's like, 'why not?' As long as I have the energy and as long as people want me to play. I've tried to retire many times, I've tried to give up, but I always receive these interesting calls. 'Would you be interested? Are you available to do this show?' Yeah, great, let's do it," he laughs.
Photo: Ian Barnes Photography
The jazz legend has achieved a lot in his career. In 1987, he was awarded Best Jazz Album at the NZ Music Awards. In 2003, he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to jazz, and in 2009, he was inducted into the Australian Jazz Hall of Fame.
In the 1980s, Nock brought jazz to a mainstream television audience, hosting the TVNZ series Nock on Jazz, after producer Rod Pledger caught wind of his work. Nock flew from US to New Zealand (a rarity at the time, he had only travelled by boat before then), and he got the offer to do the show.
"I thought you had to catch a boat to come back to New Zealand, so for 10 years I didn't even come back. Then I found out they had planes, and it's not so bad on a plane, so I started coming back. When people learned about me, I got this offer to do this TV show, and I said, 'great'. It was fantastic."
Photo: Screenshot / Te Ara
There was a growing interest in jazz in New Zealand and Nock wanted to introduce viewers to more. He remembers platforming a band called Art Ensemble on his show - "they were pretty avant garde, even at the time, but me as the kind of person I am, I put them on my show."
The band never forgot this - an upcoming publication of their book even has a chapter specially dedicated to Nock.
"Of all the things I've done in my life, they're still percolating, they're still happening," he says.
Photo: Ian Barnes Photography
Nock recalls that there was more of a jazz scene back in the day then there is now. He remembers a broadcaster called Arthur Peace who hosted a radio show called Turntable Calling on Friday nights on Wellington's 2YD.
"I used to listen to it as a kid. He'd say, 'Any jazz, any blues, any beboppers today?' That was his call sign. He would play the latest music from the US, it wasn't all jazz, but it was comprehensive. There were little groups all over New Zealand that would study this show and get together and talk about it."
Nock still sees himself as the student he was back then - always listening, always improving, and getting better with practice.
"I never made it, maybe that's why I keep doing it. One of these days I'm going to make it! This is just what you do, you just keep trying, you keep hoping it's gonna get better. It's the curse of the perfectionist, I think that's what it is."
For the next generation of jazz musicians, he has some pretty simple advice.
"Practice, play better. That's the thing, you can't really manufacture an interest in it. It's about being committed and trying to do the best, always. People respond to excellence, they might respond to hype short term, but that's all it is, they'll forget it very quickly. But excellence, it makes a lasting impression on people."
