Neville Churcher

Bassist

Neville Churcher is a bassist located in Christchurch.  As a performer, his primary focus is on jazz but his musical tastes and influences cover many genres.  He is currently a student in the Ara Music Arts programme (formerly known as the CPIT Jazz School) and is a member of Christchurch-based jazz trio The Mixers.

Neville’s musical journey began rather later in life than those of his classmates,  most of whom come from musical families where they picked up an instrument and joined in the fun from an early age.  

On clear Timaru nights a teenaged Neville, using a single mono earpiece to avoid parental intervention, could pick up on his portable transistor radio exotic stations such as Radio i from far-away Auckland.  Hearing, under these challenging conditions, Christchurch boy Gary Thain’s magnificent bass lines on Uriah Heep Live one 1973 night sowed the seed of a dream to be a bassist some day.  However, this goal was not to be realised for several decades as education, travel and raising a family intervened.

Neville started his career last century, initially as a physicist, and for the last 30 years has been a university lecturer, teaching and researching in software engineering.  However, a lifetime of listening has given him an appreciation of a wide range of genres, styles and artists that has provided a wealth of influences on his evolving jazz style.

Seeing his two children gain music degrees contributed to the revival of his dormant ambition to take up music himself: a Hagley College programme provided an introduction to jazz and sparked an interest that has developed over the last decade.  

Neville was (groan!) instrumental in the formation of the Hagley Jazz Club, an incorporated society offering performance opportunities for alumni, students and friends.  Regular club nights at the Southern Blues Bar and Fat Eddie’s, as well as appearances around Canterbury with quartet BroadBand and trio CJT, provided a solid background in performing and jamming with a wide range of musicians.

More recently, Neville committed to developing as a player and made two of his better decisions — switching to upright bass and taking lessons from bass guru Clayton Hiku — paving the way for becoming a student in Ara’s Music Arts programme.

The Mixers are a trio whose alt-lounge blend of standards and retro-pop is ideal for occasions such as corporate, charity or private functions,  and weddings as well as regular gigs.