Godfrey de Grut

Godfrey de Grut currently lectures for the University of Auckland's Popular Music degree in the areas of composition, music theory and piano studies, but he is perhaps best known for his saxophone playing on Watties' unbelievably long-running “Food in a Minute” commercial. He was also the freelance producer for such hits as the Dukes platinum selling single Vampires.

In 1997 he was the recipient of the RIANZ Best Jazz Album of the Year award for The New LoungeHead album Came A Weird Way and in 2002 he won the APRA Silver Scroll Award with Che Fu for Misty Frequencies. In 2013 he was the musical director for the APRA Silver Scrolls and the NZ Film Awards (Moas). 2014 saw his appointment as the co-artistic director for the 20th anniversary of Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park. In 2015 De Grut was back co-directing the 50th-anniversary APRA Silver Scrolls and Musical Directing the 21st-anniversary Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park.

De Grut is a freelance session musician and arranger, recording and touring with artists such as Anika Moa, Brooke Fraser, Boh Runga, Scribe, Elemeno P, Hollie Smith, Nathan Haines, Tama Waipara, Open Souls, Gin Wigmore and Carly Binding and has been a player of saxophone for ten years in the Rodger Fox Big Band.