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Nick Tipping

Nick Tipping is a New Zealand bass player, and heads the jazz department at the New Zealand School of Music.

About Me

I grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, and was exposed to music from an early age. Most of my childhood and teenage musical experiences involved classical music, and I played in orchestras and sang in choirs until I was in my twenties.

At university I studied Musicology and Linguistics. When I graduated at the age of 22, I went back to school and studied jazz bass. I spent a couple of years in the US, learning from Tom Warrington and Stefan Karlsson at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before returning to NZ to teach at the Massey University Conservatorium (now the NZ School of Music).

I have been head of the jazz programme at the NZSM since 2007. My teaching interests cover jazz history and the emergence of a NZ jazz sound.

I love playing music, regardless of the style. In recent years I have been involved in performances ranging from an early Ornette Coleman-style trio, to a collaboration between Mike Nock and the NZ String Quartet, to the TV show Dancing with the Stars.

My listening tastes are equally wide, and I enjoy anything that has a good groove. I'm an unashamed fan of anything from John Mayer to Jelly Roll Morton.

I also review for Radio NZ, and scoop.co.nz.