Stage at MIJF 2006
Finally, my write-up of the wonderful weekend. I've only used my pictures because I don't have pictures from other cameras, but I'm sure they'll be posted in due time, in their various owners' blogs.
My trip to Miri was formally begun with a meeting with Sheena's affable mother. She seemed to set the mood for the whole weekend - warm, pleasant, good food and good company. This was emphasised by the amazing rich sunset that greeted us at the seaside. It was a very brief greeting though - by the time we'd gotten out of the car and trotted on our high heels to a suitable position, the shy sun had already hidden under the horizon.
Sunset@Miri
At first, we thought that the festival would start on time, what with elections coming up and the politicians wanting to get on the good side of the people, but Malaysian timing being Malaysian timing, we ended up starting almost 2 hours late. That gave us time to pose around the picturesque lawns of the hotel, and meet and make friends, one of which we "adopted" for the weekend. ;)
The first set was by "All the Best", supposedly a collection of the best jazz musicians from Sarawak, led by Sapiee Obie, SONS Jazz Orchestra conductor. It was good in the beginning, and for me the performance's peak was his Orang Ulu melody-jazz fusion. After that his overpowering authority over the whole band got boring. The overall highlight of the band was the percussionist: with his ever-present toothy grin he seemed just-so-pleased to be playing jazz, no matter with whom.
The toothy-grinned percussionist of All the Best
When they brought out the double bass for the 2nd set, we were all ecstatic. Nowadays (or at least in Malaysia) you don't see a real live double bass in jazz, only the electric basses (not that it's not good of course). Our jazz high got higher as the lead singer of the outfit walked out and started singing. Nah Youn Sun, a Korean jazz singer backed by a French band, was spell-binding with her extensive voice range and timbre, as well as her entranced expression while she sang. Her hand movements were a tad distracting, yes, but it lent to the whole individual aura around her. I loved her song "Pancakes". Oh yes, liked her top too. :>
Korean Nah Youn San hand-gesturing
The next act was also a real treat, with the added fact that the lead singer/guitarist was Miri-born. U-Blues, made up of Trevor Jalla (the Lutong kid), Danny Loong (guitarist/keyboardist), Francis Chan (bassist with the cool headless bass) and Gary Tan (drums) brought the blues to Miri and the livened the crowd up. Trevor was in the element as the frontman, and Danny was equally impressive. Francis was as cool as his bass. I didn't really notice the drummer, but I bet he was cool as well.
UBlues painting the city blue
We wanted more blues (contrary to life in the real world) but they took them off and put on Gangbe Brass Band of Benin, flown in from US specially for the weekend festival.
The Gange Brass Band
They were pretty good in the way they merged the ethnic African sounds and rhythms with jazz beats and elements. However, my fellow festival-goers weren't "feeling it" so we left earlier for supper, complete with adoptee, Tim, and Sheena's friends.
The next day, we were supposed to go to Lambir waterfalls, but ended up having another different adventure entirely, due to the leisurely pace we adopted. I wouldn't have traded the experience we had for the waterfall actually - going downwards in a car yourself is much more exciting than watching water go downwards! And not only going downwards, but going rear-end first down a windy narrow road, shouting "Left! Left! Left!" and "Okay! Stop! Right! Right! Right!" and "Stop! Stop! Give him the hand!" After the reverse roller-coaster ordeal, we finally made it to level ground, and went to Luak Bay for superb beach and sunset views.
1! 2! 5!
Ooh! How'd the picture turn out? QC!
The golden-bronze waves of sunset
Sheena flies with Grads on her wings..
Guess whose shoes?
We then went to New Fun Lin for a superb meal - I was too busy eating Mongolian Crab, butter prawns, honey ribs, etc. to take pictures, but YP has the pics. This same dinner made us miss the first act for the night - Quinteto Mambo Jambo, but we heard it wasn't much. 5 very satiated jazz enthusiasts did however join the crowd for the ending bit of the Shanghai Jazz ensemble, which had the attraction (at least for me) of a jazz violinist, a very rare breed in the world. Furthermore, he had this flashy white electronic violin which was uber-cool. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a clear enough picture of it, and he wasn't so hot anyway.
While waiting for the next act to set up, several bored people started posing.
Risque or what?!
When the next band, Fra Fra Sound from Netherlands, came on, we were entertained at first, but you can only get so much of the same routine of tutti - trumpet solo +/- saxophone solo - tutti. Too much of a good thing isn't too good. The percussionist was interesting when he changed to an African-looking drum, but not enough.
Fra Fra Sound, sounding fra-fra-ish
With those 3 mediocre-ish bands out of the way, it was up to Lluis Coloma and his ensemble to, well, jazz things up, and boy did he do just that and more! With his boogie-woogie beats and lightning fingers, and his superb band of 1 double-bass, 3 tenor saxophones and 1 bass saxophone, and drummer, he led the ensemble without being overbearing. In fact, his double-bassist was in his element, and all the saxophonists gave inspired improvs in many of the pieces they played. One of the saxophonists even jazzed up 3 simple party trumpets!! But above all that was his effortless playing, his fingers moving precisely and soulfully, carressing the piano to let out streams of melodies and harmonies, all blending together to weave his magic music.
Lluis Coloma and bassist in "the zone"
Saxophonist in "the zone"
He's a great guy to spice up a party with a toy trumpet!
It was early in Lluis Coloma's set that something somewhat unsettling happened. The audience being primarily Malaysians, were content sitting and enjoying the music and mastery of this maestro, but the foreigners couldn't stand sitting down (:>) and took over the front part of the floor for dancing, obscuring the view of the stage for us poor people on the floor and beyond. No amount of politeness could get them to move, and ultimately we had to leave the floor to them, which resulted in their cheers, and our disappointment.
However, that appeared to be a blessing in disguise, because it gave our group the chance to hug the rails in front and take great pictures of the performers on stage, as well as ogle up close. And it appeared that although our battle was lost, the war wasn't over. In front, I had the "privilege" of bumping butts with one of the foreigners who had the dancing itch in her feet, and after a while of bumping she turned to me and said, "Come on, dance!"
I was having none of that, so I said politely, "It's okay, I'm here to enjoy the music." To which she replied indignantly, "No, if you're up here, you have to dance!" All the while jiggling, so not in time with the music.
Who on earth set up that rule? The nerve of them.. or at least this one lady. "I'll dance when or if I want to, thank you very much. For now, I want to enjoy the music." And I planted my feet right where I was, and continued being in awe of Lluis Coloma's fingers. And after a while more of butt-bumping, she moved away. Whee!! With that small victory, it seemed that the floor cleared somewhat of those pesky revellers, and they could be seen congregating in their small pulsating groups, while they left the rest alone to enjoy the music any way they pleased.
The crowd didn't want Lluis Coloma to stop when the set plus an encore ended, but then the jamming session that we were promised materialised, in parts at least. It started with UBlues coming up amidst cheering and whistling, then Lluis Coloma stepped up to the plate to tickle the ivories with Danny, later joined by his brass ensemble. Amazing!! One of the saxophonists literally took the music to the masses, coming down from the stage to do his improv among the partying revellers.
4 hands on the piano=so much fun! Cool pic of Trevor of UBlues
Later on, a member of Fra Fra Sound came onstage to scat (improv using his voice), and then a singer from the audience sang a few songs with UBlues. And all the while, we had front-row standing space, which mean great photos and great sounds. After the jamming session, when even the hardest of the hardcore jazz fans had left, we stayed around like groupies, chatting with UBlues and some of the bands' members.
Ultimately, we had to leave. But we were still psyched from the great jazz so we paid a visit to the Grand Old Lady of the (Canada) Hill to see what we could see. That included a glittering vista of the city and beyond, as well 4 ghostly spectres which turned out to be cement figures, frozen in the act of drilling oil.
On the last day, we met several performers in the airport, and were lucky to get a photo opportunity with them. YP and Val were luckier still - they met Lluis Coloma and the ensemble in the departure lounge and had a great time talking with them. Sheena had to entertain Tim and I by taking us on a slow drive to Lutong, as well as a fruitless search for kolo mee for Tim. Some other time, perhaps...
I've never been so saturated with jazz in my life, and the feeling has been great. Too bad it doesn't seem like I can make it back in time for the next year's instalment, but if you're free please try and make it - it'll be on the beach this time! Perhaps there'll be other festivals in UK...
A big thanks to Sheena and her family, especially her mom, for putting up with us, and showing us warm and friendly Miri.
If anyone wants music clips, a reliable place would be the MIJF website; and there are some videos on YouTube.Enjoy!
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