Jon Pirini is a guitarist and teacher with links to Te Rarawa in the North. He has played with artists such as Robbie Karena, Pio Terei and Majic Paora and supported acts such as House of Shem. As a young teacher he was introduced to jazz by a group of older musicians in the Bay of Plenty called Dr Jaz and toured round the North Island with international acts such as the American Jazz Trombonist Robert Harris. As a teacher he has worked in London and Kyiv in teaching music and maintained a hand in performing. It was his passion for teaching, to put into pracitce his mantra to be ‘a life-long learner’, and drive to upskill that drove him to move himself and his family to Wellington to study jazz at Victoria University. His passion is specifically in learning the jazz language to bring it into reharmonizing popular songs and using the jazz colour palette to embellish Maori songs and traditional hymns. Jon has moved home to the Far North to be near family and is teaching music at Kaitaia College.