Thursday 15 December 2011

All that jazz* - Breathe

It was free and it was at Empire Shopping Gallery. So why not? We decided to attend the ESG Jazz Festival 2011 on the 3rd December 2011. After all, we wre planning to celebrate our 3rd month of wedded bliss at Empire. So just drop by and watch for a while.



We did not regret it!!!!! It was simply wonderful!

The first performance for the nite was by Atilia. Who? Well, if u're familiar with the local jazz scene, you'll prolly not know her. Like us. But when she got onto the stage and started singing, we knew we would remember this girl from that day onwards!

She was really really good!!!! Her voice was so powerful and suitable for her jazz pieces. We even concluded that she was better than Ning Baizura. But that was a sad comparison. She (Arilia) not only sings in key, she sings well! So sad that she is not more popular than she is now.

We were planning to just listen for a while and then rush off to see some frens. But in the end, we stayed for her entire gig.

It also convinced us to go the next day to watch the other performances. We had dinner with me mom and sis so when we got there, it was almost the end of the first gig - Yudi Yap and the Shanghai Jazz.

But they prolly saved the best for last - the final performance that nite and for the Jazz fest was Junji Delfino and Michael Veerapan's quartet. So, so good!!!!! The musicians - the bassist and drummer along with Michael were pretty impressive. Junji was such a natural on stage and such wonderful vocals!!!!

Here, check out one of her numbers that nite (pic quality is bad but sound is quite alright):-



Junji is actually not Malaysian - but she is as Malaysian as we can get, living here for so many years. Atilia is Malaysian and so is Yudi. Michael Veerapan is Malaysian and so were most of teh musicians that nite too. This jazz fest restored my faith in the local jazz scene. If these performers were to be used as a gauge, i will say that our local jazz scene is in a very healthy state indeed!

*The title song of their debut album.

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