Of the many music genres, my favourite genre is jazz. Originated in the 20th century in African American communities of the United States, jazz is developed from a mix of African and European musical tradition. As jazz spread around the world, there are many sub-genres of jazz evolved. There are thousands of way once can perform jazz as a skilled jazz performer will be able to interpret the tune in individual ways.
Having been to few jazz festivals in Malaysia and Indonesia, I flew to Miri few weeks ago to attend Borneo Jazz Festival, Miri Sarawak for the first time to witness 8 bands performing world-call music performances. Borneo Jazz Festival is one of the famous Sarawak music event held annually.
Sunset at Parkcity Everly Hotel, Miri – the venue for Borneo Jazz Festival 2014.
Borneo Jazz Festival 2014 – Day 1
The first day of Borneo Jazz Festival kicked start at the festival ground with Chung Hua Miri Brass Band performing upbeat concert orchestra and showcasing different range of music like Jazzy Latin American music, Malaysian tunes and classics. Although the crowd was still building up, they played the upbeat YMCA and PrettyWoman rendition.
Diana Liu of Malaysia
Came a pretty young lady on stage. She introduced herself as Diana Liu. The Sarawakian-born lass participated in 8TV’s 2nd season of “ProjectSuperStar” and won the 1st runner-up title.
She collaborated with Asiabeat as vocalist as they criss-crossed the region performaning at Java Jazz Festival, the ASEAN Jazz festival in Batam as well as the “Asia On the Groove” concert series in Singapore. Her sweet and melodious voice filled the stage by the beach as the audience cheered and swayed to the tunes.
Mario Canonge of Martinique
A reknowned painist from Martinique F.W.I. Inspired by the two most famous Carribean painists, it did not take Mario Canonge long to be recognized of his talent and become quite much in demand. In 2011, Mario Canonge releases “mitan”, a jazz album, which according to him marks his half-time of his life. He is also dubbed as the pianist with flying fingers.
Mario Canonge grabbed the audience attention by conducting simple choreographed steps. Almost all people who were standing at the festival ground took part in the choreography. It was enjoyable as we half squatted on his saying “Bayse-ba”.
Junkofunc of Malaysia
Borneo Jazz Festival 2014 continued with a performance by 12 members outfit whose genre is funk/soul. Junkofunc gave an outstanding energetic funky rhytms performances. The crowd cheered, whistled and danced. Lady Elvira gave an astounding performance; she was a real performer.
Vocal Sampling
“Stay tune, we will bring you to Cuba after this” said the master of the ceremony. As its name suggested, Vocal Sampling is a male vocal sextet originating from Cuba using a cappella genre. You have all the instruments for popular music as Vocal Sampling projected their voices imitating the instruments. They sang to the famous song of Hotel California and a famous mandarin song of Tian Mi Mi. Of course, everybody went crazy when they did what they do best : Vocal Sampling.
Stay tune for Borneo Jazz Festival 2014 – Day 2