Borneo Jazz Festival 2012: Behind The Scenes

So you already know all that happened on the second (and final) night of the Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 right?

Wrong. That was just half the story!

Here’s the other half: all that happened everywhere apart from the main act on stage.

Earlier that evening, when I explored the Festival grounds, apart from the food, craft bazaar and Strongbow stalls, there was also this:

The official Sarawak Tourism Board Borneo Jazz Merchandise booth

This was where you could buy the official merchandises like the Program book, Tshirt and the performers’ albums – and get their signatures or take photos with them after their performances! Remember this bit.

And, there were also “activities” stalls where you could get your face painted or get an airbrush tattoo or even a henna tattoo!

And wasn’t I surprised to see who the henna tattoo artiste was?:

None other than an old friend of mine whom I had not seen for years…hello!

And then there was, of course, the media centre, that was privy only to the organizing committee, performers and media (including me hehe). Here was where we had all the official stuff like press conferences etc…

Published news about the Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 lined one part of the wall of the Media Centre

Posters like these lined up the others

…but apart from those, we even managed to have a mini #TwtUp after Tangora’s performance!

Meet @jazgra of  jazzyanen.com (Japan) and @adjayMAGIC “hard at work” ;p

@adjayMAGIC and @SarawakTravel

#TwtUp #BorneoJazz

Remember the bit above where I mentioned how you could get the performers’ signatures or take photos with them after their performances? Well, right after Schalk Joubert’s 3 Continent Sextet’s performance, along with every Pierre, Jean ou Jacques, we made a bee line to the Merchandise booth hoping to get a photo with them.

…but they were not there…

I walked away disappointed.

Especially considering I could have easily taken a photo with Schalk after the Press Conference earlier that day but Nnnnooooo…

Fortunately though, we caught them just as they were leaving from backstage!!!

Mar with Schalk Joubert’s 3 Continent Sextet (partial) – Melissa, Schalk, Rich & Shannon

Oh yeah! My evening was just beginning!

After that, we went to check out what the lights and sounds coming from the Pavillion were…

And guess who was the culprit?

Larger than life: DJ DoubleD of TraxxFM, mixing up some tunes for the crowd in between acts!

And if you’re a TraxxFM listener, you’ll know that if he’s here, these 2 would be pretty close by:

DJ YogeeTheLegend & DJ Roundhead – strangling someone much? :p

DJ Roundhead was actually at the Press Conference earlier that day and it was funny how we met too! – he stole a guy from me. I was having an interesting chat with Ian of allaboutjazz.com & he kindly interrupted us to interview him. True story. I wanted to take a photo with him then but he was busy so I never got my chance… -.- Next round on you yes, Roundhead?

Oh, and don’t think YogeeTheLegend was harmless either:

No animals were harmed in this photo

But yeah, as expected, the 3 guys from Traffic really brought the house down!

Pretty soon, it was back to the Press Pit… :-

Hands down the BEST seat in the house!

…for Koh Mr Saxman!

Noticed how I had some really great shots in my previous post, like this:

FYI, this was for MY lenses only: Koh Mr Saxman bent forward (with me just below him at the edge of the stage) for this shot!

And that was only made possible (after Tangora onwards cos I didn’t have one before that) by this:

Thanks @reyanna13 for letting me use yours! <3

Now, imagine the access THIS guy had:

Meet The Borneo Jazz 2012 Official Photographer, Pein Lee – he can even go ON stage! Whoo~

Credits to Sarawak Tourism Board for this photo:

The @SWKBLOGS Media Team in action in the Press Pit for the finale!

Alas, Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 came to a close, but it was a birthday I will never forget ‘cos for once, something was so awesome I forgot for a second it was my birthday!

My legal-aged bros enjoyed themselves – especially with me giving them allowance, literally, for a drink each. (They told me much later they almost got tattoes! My mom would never let them go out with me anymore had they did! -.-”)

Met up with old friends & made new ones – special shoutout to Yasmin of toonaripost.com, the first other media person I met that day and the first who wished me Happy Birthday!

The @SWKBLOGS Media Team: @adjayMAGIC @orend3vil89 @LadyBirdMollyz @reyanna13 & @mcdrewnis (me)

It was a pleasure to meet & tweet with you guys!  

…eventhough 2 of you photo-bombed this photo -.-”  :-

Mar & Ben

And right at the very end of the night, before leaving, we managed to get autographs from and take a photo with:

Koh Mr Saxman!

Tangora!

Finally, to end my series of posts on Borneo Jazz Festival 2012, credits to:

The wristband that opened the Festival experience to us!

The Media Pass with all it’s responsibilities & perks!

Not to mention, awesome goodies like the Tshirt!

And of course, Sarawak Tourism Board and Sarawak Bloggers for the experience that came with it! #RWMF? Hehehe…

Last and definitely not the least: ALL photos in this particular post (unless watermarked or otherwise mentioned) is credited to a dear friend Ben and the @SWKBLOGS Media Team.

Updated: Credits to MrFabianLim of Tropic Green for the video in my previous post!

~~~

To read all the Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 posts from the @SWKBLOGS Media Team, click here.

To read all the published news by local and international media, click the “Media Centre” tab on the official Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 wesbite here. 

Borneo Jazz Festival, 12 May 2012

The sun had disappeared over the horizon. The South China Sea quietly murmur in the dark, but only a few feet away from the beach in the compounds of the well-known Parkcity Everly Hotel in Miri, the night had just begun!

It was the second (and final) night of the Borneo Jazz Festival 2012!

The stage was set…

The audience await…

AND THE SHOW BEGINS!!!

Tropic Green was the first act of the night. This 7-piece (sometimes 8 according to their Facebook page) jazz band based in Singapore was really sensualising the atmosphere in Miri…

As they played one number to the next, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity with some of them. One in particular was what a dear friend of mine said was from SimCity. To me, their number called “Flight” (which was inspired by birds) sounded familiar though I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it…maybe real birds?

Mid-act, Susan Harmer (piano) admitted that all of Tropic Green’s music were originals written by herself. I was impressed! And the musicians themselves were also awesome: Chua Siong Loo, Regan Wickman (trombone), Brad Swope, Fabian Lim (saxaphone?), Stephen “Mr Sexy Eyes” Rufus, Mario Lopez (percussion), Pablo Calzado from Cuba (on drums), Hiroaki Maekawa (bass?) aka “Ganji”(?)

Tropic Green jazzing away the crowd at the Borneo Jazz Festival

One piece was especially written for the bassist Hiro & he really hero-ed it!  A piece titled “Camelia” had me nodding my head & swwaaaayyying.. Another called “Rosie”, Susan wrote for her mom. Aaaawww~ And then there was the Father&Son jam: Mario (father) & Pablo (son) on percussion & drums - oh my Pablo, you really made my heart skip a (drum) beat! Woot~

I was tapping my foot along with Tropic Green all the way to their last number which was a pure Jazz string.. By the end of their act, I felt like I was loosened enough to have a mojito hehehe

The second act for the night was Tangora from France!

But then, when she started with a song in Spanish (or was it Italian?) I was momentarily perplexed. LOL.

Turns out, she’s of French-Italian background so that explains it…hehe

She also sang some French & English numbers & she just made jazz sexy! There was also “Lolita”, a west Indies composition & she then turns Miri into the Amazon!

The next act was one I was personally looking forward to:

Schalk Joubert’s 3 Continent Sextet – with a name like that can you blame me?

Schalk Joubert

Now, if I were to go The Avengers on this, Schalk is Nick Fury. Why? ‘Cos he brought all these individually talented musicians together from South Africa, United States, Norway & Sweden…

Schalk’s ensemble (quoted from the Program book) “is made up of new generation jazz musicians, all schooled musicians from the younger modern jazz scene where technical ability and inspiration are both necessities”

Karin Hammar

They’re all technically able alright…

Schalk & Karin

I can honestly say I loved ALL their numbers!

Rich Armstrong

And they are all very very talented!

“One might say all of them are stars in their own right” – Program book

Melissa van der Spy

Indeed they are!

And below is my personal favourite:

Shannon Mowday

Everyone in the crowd absolutely adored her! Just by looking at the photo above you can tell she’s really passionate about what she does. She just simply blew everyone away! (Pun intended.) And a bit later, you’ll see that it wasn’t just the crowd who felt that way either…

Finally, the last act for the night was:

Koh Mr Saxman

& Takeshi Band

from Thailand…

Even before they performed, I kinda had a feeling that they were famous – and I was right! Per the Program book, “Mr Sekpol Unsamran, more famously and affectionately known as Mr Saxman, has been winning awards for the last 2 decades…started…when he was 16…performed in over 10 different countries…recorded 5 solo albums…” Well, you get my drift

Mr Saxman in action

He is indeed worthy of his name!

His numbers were closely related to places/nature – and they were very very real. His number about Koh Samui made me feel like going on a holiday & another about the Ayutthaya Province sounded very cultural and made me feel like I was in Thailand…

And the guys in the Takeshi Band were pretty awesome too, especially this guy:

Not only does he play funky music…

He has the sweetest of smiles I’ve ever seen! *swoon*

The guy’s constantly smiling, it’s like he doesn’t have a care in the world…I couldn’t take my eyes of him.

They also had a guest singer – one of the best singers in Thailand.

All their songs/numbers were so mesmerising I was just drawn into their performance – so much that I even forgot to take a video of any of it! It was like I was in a trance…

However, I did stumble upon this complete video of one of their performances – uploaded by none other than MrFabianLim of Tropic Green! Could this be Tropic Green’s Fabian Lim? Hello!

She was indeed great! And her name is Betty.

And then, just when you think things couldn’t possibly get more sensual/sexy/mesmerising that night, guess who Mr Saxman pulled back on stage?

None other than Shannon Mowday of Schalk’s Sextet!

And these two professionals battled it out to the excitement of the crowd!!!

Battle of the Saxes: Mr Saxman & Shannon Mowday

It was simply ear-gasm! Looking back at it now, I’m wishing I had taken a video of the whole thing but I was too engrossed in watching it LIVE! that the thought didn’t even cross my mind! (That said, if anyone did take a video please do share! )

And as with all good things, it was then time to call it an end; but not before acknowledging the people that made the Borneo Jazz Festival happen – and did it brilliantly too!

The guys from the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB)

The Performers (shown here are F.V.E. Project & Tropic Green)

All the performers & organizing team on stage, bidding farewell to the crowd

And thus ended the Borneo Jazz Festival of 2012. It was my first jazz festival, and by the looks of it, it won’t be my last!

Thanks once again to Sarawak Tourism Board and Sarawak Bloggers for the opportunity to cover this event! Hopefully, I’ll have more opportunities to collaborate with you again in the (near?) future! *cough*RWMF*cough*

Exploring the Borneo Jazz Festival 2012 grounds

Arriving at the scene around 6pm on Saturday, I was immediately drawn towards the performance by the Chung Hwa Marching Band. They were playing a personal fave of mine: The Phantom of the Opera‘s “Music of the Night“!

They’re really really talented! And the conductor is a girl too!

Me reporting “on site”

With the Band providing some really awesome sets in the background, I thought I would explore the festival grounds a little before the Concert that night began…

And guess what I saw at the food stalls?

Marvel presents:

SHAWARMA!!!

Food of Superheroes (as per the post-credit scene of The Avengers hehe)

Looks delish huh? *drools*

The venue of the festival was perfect I think! Being by the beach, it was breezy…and the Marching Band playing the theme from Hawaii Five-O really helped set the mood for the evening.

View of the beach from the festival grounds

View of the food stalls from the beach with Parkcity Everly Hotel standing magnificently in the background

And of course, there’s the craft bazaar which was open since 2 in the afternoon:

As the name suggests, they were selling crafts:

Beautiful & colourful bead-stuffs

Last of the kind of stalls, and definitely not at all the least, the booth of (one of) the sponsors of the Borneo Jazz Festival: Strongbow!

Are you thirsty?

Take your pick:

Prices are kinda steep though – RM4 for a 500ml bottle of water?! I think I’ll have one of the alcoholic beverages then.