All that jazz* - Breathe

I was pretty determine to go. I've been starved of live concerts for so long. The last time was during summer last year when i had to stand outside Tower Hill to watch Jamie Cullum (see here). I missed Olivia Newton John recently due to family commitments. So altho the line-up was virtually unknown to me, i had to go watch the Genting International Jazz Festival.

I've had some great concert memories. No surprise to many that the best concert i've attended was Jewel's. That was so so so so good! :-) She's just so talented and so cool and was such a joy to watch. She communicated so well wif us audience and got us all really partying along.

Other memorable concerts were Debbie Gibson's (my very first ever concert - we stood near the speakers and had this ringing in our ears for the next 2 days!!!!), Sting's (me mate who was suppose to go wif me met wif an accident on the way there and i ended up watching the concert alone), Bon Jovi's (we were miles away from the stage but we still had fun), Sam Hui's (altho the anticipation was better - and i almost died in the stiffling heat) and Syro Gyra (their live performance is so much better than their recording).

Unfortunately, the Genting Jazz Fest was not to be one of the memorable ones - not for the good reasons anyways!!!!

The first act was a Malaysian group - i've nothing against the locals, generally. We do have some really good and talented fellas. But unfortunately, none of them showed up!!!! I guess these home grown fellas were technically competent but their music was boring and uninspiring. To me and me mates, anyways. The only highlight was when their bassist - who is a Japanese - did his bass bass solo. He put his bass over and behind his head and slapped!!!! That's so pointless but nonetheless entertaining to watch!!!!

But the next group which came up was IMHO truly brilliant. I enjoyed their music tremendously!!!! Maybe it's because the first group sounded so bad that made these fellas sound so good. They were the Cape Jazz All Stars. I loved their horn section (trumpet and alto sax). Their pianist was brilliant (see above right) and their bassist was lovely (his playing, i mean!). The other musicians were competent. Not only were they technically sound and obviously very experienced, they had "heart"! Just watching them for me was enough to justify the ticket price.

The Cape Jazz All Stars

Unfortunately, they proved to be a false dawn as the subsequent acts just din live up to their standards. They were clearly the best of the nite - and to think that they were originally not scheduled to play (they were to play the next nite but some last minute changes brought them forward - thankfully!).

The next group was a group from China - the Shanghai Jazz Ensemble. They were competent and i loved the old Chinese tunes they jazzed up. Their lead singer - his name is Coco - stole the show, tho. His effeminate manners coupled wif a strange looking blouse and MC Hammer pants made us all take notice of him - and he's a real show-man... erm, woman... err... person!!!!

The Shanghai Jazz Ensemble

The 4th act was this 3 piece band which tried to fuse tango with jazz and some classical elements. The result - some really dry and trying pieces!!! The final act was a brass band from Benin, Africa. It was a breath of fresh air for me after the previous act. Their vocals were good and the tuba was cool as was this blue wooden box thingy which they used instead of a drum. But it was too much for me mates and we called it a nite.

Me behind the mixers

It really din help when we had this MC who was pretty lame and kept on making jokes wif sexual connotations. The audience also din make it any easier. There were basically 3 groups of people. The first are those like me who were there to listen to the music.The next group were those who were there just to have a good time - they were cheering at every single little thing. I was telling me mate that if we went on stage and played, they'd be cheering us too!!!! Ah well... i've nothing against those who just wanna have a good time! It's the 3rd group of people that really got to me - those whom i wonder why there were there for!!!! They spent most of the time chatting, smoking, drinking - like they were in a bar and the performers are some pub-gig. It din help that most of them had the reserved places at the front so they were blocking me.

Anyways, no regrets. 2 good acts plus a good time spent wif 2 of me mates, getting to enjoy the cool air up at Genting and eat the crispy pork at Gohtong Jaya, and ending the nite wif a late nite supper of fried hokkien mee at a deserted Petaling Street!

*The title song of their debut album, they were more known for their ballads like Hands to heaven and How can i fall?