Kota Kinabalu Jazz Festival

Below are my 2 cents worth of opinion and they are strictly personal.

The festival scheduled to start at 6pm but recently, the sun sets quite late and at 630pm, the sky was still bright with the amazing sunset.

The festival was held at the Jesselton Point with its nice T-shape jetty.

The plane on the skyline. Amazing coincidence.

The 100 bucks seat near to the stage.

Another T area where the seats were located.

The show started with some local bands playing to warm the audience up. Personally, I think the 1st group not bad. The flute is a nice touch-up. Then another group incorporated the traditional Chinese musical instrument er-hu in its performance and that's a fresh take. Not a surprise though cox fusion is highly sought in music nowadays. Other notable performers; the set of the singer-songwriter from Labuan with his catchy tunes and Rimba, who was playing ethnic jazz (according to MC Jasmine) really showed that our local musical talents not only restricted to the SMS-hyped Akademi Fantasia, Astro Talent Quest and tonnes of other talentime reality show but there are other hidden gem waiting to be discovered and supported.

The Jazzelton Quintet. They were the first act and June was the vocalists cum keyboard player. They rolled out some notably standard jazz tunes started with Cheek to Cheek (heaven.... I'm in heaven.....) and an instrumental version of Have You Met Miss Jones? They ended their set with a surprise jazzed up version of the theme song the Flintstones. This managed to get the crowd in tune as some of the jazz standards played are not that familiar to the audience.

Then, my favourite act came out and do their thingy. Yes, it's none other than our local duo, Double Take, Roger Wang (guitar) and Mia Palencia (vocal). Mia had a flower in the hair (very much like the great jazz diva Billie Holiday in her glory days, nice touch Mia!!!) and she sang beautifully as usual though her voice doesn't comes off as powerful, maybe due to the microphone and the open air venue.

Mia got the crowd cheering with her rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow then moved to the next tune which she thinks all of us are familiar with. It turns out to be Bila Larut Malam...shobe do wa shobe do wa (imagine background vocalists of 3 ladies in fitted kebaya and shades, with their hands shaking left and right, their legs twisting front and back like in the P.Ramlee movies) and some of us (yeah... uncles and aunties, me included) recognized it.

Then Roger continued to dazzle us with his fantastic fingerwork on his guitar and Mia keep us on her string with their rendition of I've Got The World On A String. Of course they did! AND the crowd asked for more, chanting en core which the MC promised that they will be back for the finale.

Next is the Gambus-man Farid Ali. He jazzed up the crowd with his Middle-East-infused piece of equipment and provided some mystically enchanting element to the rather pop-infected concert. He sang some of the tunes as well, Getaran Jiwa that I remember.

OH yea.... how can Digi-Man be left out here? Thanks DIGI for being the main sponsor and yes, their coverage in Sabah now is way much better than their other Red and Purple rivals. And I didn't get sponsors or deducted bills from them. Though tat's kinda welcomed.

The final act was specially brought-in-from-US, Dennis Mininfield whose performing style is something akin to the great Tina Turner. Hers is fueled with energy and power, accentuated by her raspy vocal and it's not a disgrace her to quote reference to Tina Turner. She really worked out the crowd from the beginning with a powered-up version of The Way We Were (I have to apologize here... cox I couldn't be 100% sure. Correction appreciated). She went on to sing some signature sure-to-heat-up tunes and what a better choice than a party-tuned Yesterday from Beatles. Strictly-speaking, her choice of songs are not all that jazz but with the crowd worked-out and the fun that obviously everyone had, who cares? She interacted with the crowd well and children were invited to dance onstage with her, a group of Japanese tourists were invited to sing as well; everyone's happy. Of course party-goers and clubbers got their dose when she belted out Can't Get My Eyes Off You (ba lat ba lat ba lat ba lat..... I love you baby....) She sang Superstitious by Stevie Wonder too. It's obvious that she's a seasoned performer from her songs choice and the way she bantered with the crowd. And the crowd loved her too!!!

The much awaited finale WAS a let-down for me indeed. I mean, I was expecting some jamming sessions from all the vocalists and musicians but it didn't happen. Mia was given a mic and when Denise asked her to sing a song, which I hope to turn into some great duet at least... Mia just shook her head and I was disappointed. Maybe she didn't want to rope the attention from Denise's set but I think the better way to build up to the finale is that they sing something more high and the jamming of all the guitars or drums or bass to end it up. It's kinda awkward when Denise asked the musicians to drum up some tune and nothing came up. It was even a bit awkward when one of the guest sang To Love Somebody by Michael Bolton (OK... I'm from that era, betraying my age here). Not to say he's singing badly, in fact he sang it well (must be his karaoke yum go) but the song just didn't sound right for a much-awaited finale.

To save the silent (not that silent to be frank cox the music still playing) awkward moment, Denise sang Superstitious again and yes, this sounds more like a more apt finale. The Venezuelan percussionist from the previous acts Son2Nos were given a chance to showcase his mettle when he was doing solo; the sporting and highly-excited Datuk Adeline Leong had her share in the showcase too. Bravo Datuk for really showing enthusiasm for the music and as the co-organizing chairperson, Datuk is really into the music. My heart goes to Datuk who was supposed to be the 1st Mayor of Kota Kinabalu before being transferred to Sandakan. Oppss... that's another story. But Datuk, really respect you for the percussion showcase! The organizing chairman Mr. Fu got his share in showing his musical talent as well with the tambourine.

The night was a typical party night, went on to sing a Happy Birthday tune to one of the backstage organizing members. Denise said something about the importance of celebrating our birthdays and dun worry Denise, we Malaysian loves celebrating birthdays. Go to any of TGIF restaurants in Malaysia and 80% of the time you will get to hear the birthday-song-plus-We Will Rock You-come-with-the-foot-thumping-choreograph sang by the TGIF staff. I think that's a pre-requisite for the recruitment in TGIF.

The band who performed for Denise's set includes our very own Malaysian, the well-known Mac Chew. Those who's familiar with the Malaysia music scenes or buy CDs (original with lyrics booklets) will know who Mac Chew and how good he is. With his partner Jenny Chin, they are the frequent winner in the AIM (Anugerah Industri Muzik) and you can find their name in the albums of many Chinese singers, especially those with Rock Music (滚石). They are the frequent musical partner for Jonathan Lee 李宗盛.

Of course the crowd still wanted more when the finale was completed and as cliche as it can be, the crowd's wish was fulfilled and Denise came out to perform the last song. Before that, she parted some advice asking the audience to love ourselves. By loving ourselves, all the other love will come along the way. What song you ask??? One of my favourite song by the talented Alicia Keys If I Ain't Got You.

My Comment :

1. Seating should be arranged so that only 1 side stage as it's easier to manage. Put the food section in the covered area at the entrance not only easier for foodstuff buying (yesterday, you may have to walk to two area) but also from logistic point of view, moving the foodstuff to the stall will not disturb the audience, the trolleys moving, the staff carrying big tray.

2. Some audience who purchased 100 bucks complained that their view is blocked by the standing crowd in front of the stage where yours truly was one of them, admiring Double Take from near. How? One: no seats and same price ticket. Then you can choose to sit on the floor, lean on anything or stand or dance. But this will turn off many elderly and family with kids. Two: Prepare a dance area (or 摇滚区) where the dance enthusiast can swing and sway. More big screen so the audience sitting/standing far away will be able to see the performer (double joy of senses mah... though music more important here).

3. The MCs were a blessing for the sponsors due to their never-tired-attitude of mentioning the names of the sponsors. Great camaraderie I would say though personally I think Jasmine can cut down on defining the music as which category of jazz cox most of the time, it's hard to define the style as acid jazz, fusion jazz and etc. Just let the music speaks for its own. Also the first few sentences of Jasmine on what is jazz which she found out from the internet was redundant.

4. The tickets says the show starts at 6pm but the entrance and ticket checking counter was still not in place/in order when we went in at about 610pm. Seating especially the descending area next to the entrance should not be seated as it's crowding the whole area.

Kudos to the organizer for bringing our own jazz festival to KK and as a first instalment, this is really a great success. Improvement should come along and I strongly recommend that the next organizer should go visit other jazz festival such as the Miri International Jazz festival or the coming Penang International Jazz Festival. It's of course not fair since the place/venue is different but I think this current venue has it's EDGE and ADVANTAGE as the sunset view can be very nice and breathtaking. All it needs is just a little fine-tuning on the stage and seating arrangement. MY 2 CENTS WORTH OPINION