Swing 42
Swing 42 as a trio on stage: guitar, double bass and clarinet, their shadows on the wall behind

The band

Clarinet and saxophone, guitar, double bass and percussion.

Photo: Shaun Waugh

Swing 42 usually appear as a trio: clarinet or alto saxophone, guitar and double bass. For concerts and special occasions they become a quartet with percussion.

Reuben Derrick playing clarinet

Reuben Derrick

Clarinet and saxophone

Reuben Derrick is a saxophonist, clarinettist and composer whose work spans ensembles, solo performance, and experimental and multi-disciplinary work with theatre, poetry, ritual and dance. Outside Aotearoa it has taken him to Australia, Sri Lanka and Europe. In 2015 he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to attend the Music OMI residency in New York, with 13 artists from around the world. His Doctor of Musical Arts (2014) focused on field recording and improvisation. He has taught at the University of Canterbury, Ara Music Arts and in local schools, and is also a member of Christchurch's Silencio Ensemble.

Keith Petch playing guitar

Keith Petch

Manouche jazz guitar

Keith Petch is a guitarist and teacher in Ōtautahi. Self-taught, he has performed since the 1980s in Latin and jazz ensembles, touring New Zealand with some of the finest local acts and playing regularly when visiting Spain. He played in Swing 42's first line-ups in the late 1980s, and continues to explore the gypsy manouche style with a passion.

Michael Kime playing double bass
Photo: Michael Jones, Music Project

Michael Kime

Double bass

Michael Kime is a bassist who has worked with many of New Zealand's finest musicians in jazz, classical, popular and free improvisation settings. He is a founding member of Christchurch's celebrated Silencio Ensemble, contributing as a composer and holding the double bass chair, and has played in Free Theatre Christchurch productions. He has performed in concert halls and venues in America, Japan and Dubai.

Doug Brush playing a cajón
Photo: Michael Jones, Music Project

Doug Brush

Percussion

Doug Brush built an international career over more than 30 years as a percussionist in Chicago. He has recorded on over 60 albums (producing some of them), composed for dance, written for Downbeat magazine, and been an artist in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago; he has performed and taught on five continents. Since moving to Aotearoa in early 2010 he has played with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, including as a soloist, with many local ensembles, and in productions at the Court Theatre, Free Theatre and Showbiz.

Since 1986

  1. 1986

    Swing 42 forms in December, taking its name from Django Reinhardt's tune. That month it plays lunch sessions at The Courtyard restaurant in Wakefield Avenue (“1920's jazz by ‘Swing 42’”, the advertisement says), and spends the summer at the Forget-Me-Not cafe in Sumner.

    The Press, 6 December 1986 and 6 May 1987

  2. 1987

    A drumless quartet of Keith Petch and Warren Feeney on guitars, Pete Rainey on violin and Paul Gilmour on double bass. A lunchtime recital at the Arts Centre, where, Allan Francis writes, “the title tune of the group, ‘Swing ’42,’ moved along in athletic style with the two guitars providing plenty of extrovert bounce.” Friday nights at Wickhams in Cashel Street, “In the Mood” in the Botanic Gardens, and lunchtimes in Cathedral Square.

    The Press, 9 May 1987

  3. 1988

    Gordon Tan takes the second guitar. Philip Norman, reviewing their Great Hall recital, finds red bow ties on white and “Nuages”, “where Petch alone accompanied Rainey on muted viola.” In July they are the opening-night guests on TVNZ's live “Friday Night” from the Christchurch studios.

    The Press, 9 April and 29 July 1988

  4. 1989

    Thursday jazz nights at the Parkroyal, Jazz South concerts in the Great Hall, and the interval set in the Town Hall foyer at the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's “Symphonic Syncopation”: “The best part of this concert was the interval,” Philip Norman writes.

    The Press, 8 May 1989

  5. 1990

    With Tom Rainey on bass and Fernando O'Reilly on guitar, they open for Tuck and Patti at the Arts Centre, the American duo's only South Island date. In January 1991 they play the Whitecliffs Festival's Sunday main stage.

    The Press, 28 February 1990 and 11 January 1991

  6. 1991–2010

    After Whitecliffs the newspapers go quiet. The band is next on record in 2010, in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre again, with Keith Petch the thread that runs from the first line-ups to today's.

    Papers Past; Songkick

  7. 2010s

    Swing 42 opens the New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival in Christchurch in 2012. By 2014 the band at Nut Point is Reuben Derrick on clarinet, Michael Kime on double bass, and Bob Heinz and Bourke Goff on guitars; Keith Petch and Bob Heinz share the guitar chairs later in the decade. In 2015 violinist Daniel Weltlinger guests with them at the Christchurch International Jazz and Blues Festival.

    The Press, 12 April 2012; Nut Point Centre

  8. 2020s

    Percussionist Doug Brush joins for concerts. Regular nights at Nut Point, the Vesuvio and Fat Eddie's, Altiora Live at the Arts Centre in 2025, and a Chamber Music New Zealand tour in October 2026.

    Nut Point Centre; Eventfinda; Chamber Music New Zealand

“The title tune of the group, ‘Swing ’42,’ moved along in athletic style with the two guitars providing plenty of extrovert bounce.”

“…Christchurch band Swing 42 play an ageless swing style.”

Gary Sutton, Kaikōura Jazz Festival · Stuff 2017

Earlier members

The years are the ones the newspapers and gig listings show, so each player's time in the band may be longer.