Sunday, June 27, 2004
the festive spirit
summertime in victoria means festival time. warm sun, cool breeze, tourists-packed, groovin' (and the occasional annoying) music, lotsa cool (and the occasional dull) performances, funky (and the occasional bulky) crafts, and good (and the occasional ripoff) food. oh, and of course, good time. no exception for that one.
that being said, JazzFest is the foremost reason of it. even though the event isn't as big as other cities' own JazzFest across the country, it was the trendsetter and is among the raunchiests of all. and for a city the size of victoria, the event is BIG—with capital letters. enough local contributors, enough canadian artists, and enough across-the-globe musicians.
so i went to see the free performances at the Market Square. started at noon, i arrived around 1 o'clock so i missed the first performance by the highly-appraised Damiam Graham Trio. But came along the next show by the Flying Saucers—four old men playing guitar, bass, drums, clarinet and saxophone, delivering pre-50's blues rhythm and swing style tunes inspired by the big bands era. sounds boring? then you don't understand why they call it the good ol' days. hear them and you might find yourself humming—and dancing—along. the crowd wasn't just the grannies, and i'm thankful for that. of course, the seniors were there too, but they also attract lots of swing-driven jazz lovers from various age groups (and that includes me), and the parrots. that's right, parrots. as in the birds.
one kickin' hour and it's time for the group who stole the show, the Budapest-based Besh o droM. (maybe alaya knows them? =P) the place was suddenly packed, and full with groove. the band has 8 people playing 2 saxophones, a (rockin') trumpet, 2 drums, a bass, a guitar, percussions, and one obscure-looking instrument i don't even know what it's called. but this wasn't the real shocker—at least for me. for me, the shocker was their first song ('piece', as they call it), which, i swear to God, has the same rhythm with one of indonesia's most famous folk songs: *drumrolls* kopi dangdut! except that they were so good and talented that the music doesn't sound like dangdut at all, but instead it was kinda like a mixture of the 60's french electro-jazz music with the hand-clapping, feet-tapping and belly-shaking mediterranean cocktail tunes. for their next songs—uhm, pieces—the ethnic yet funky band kept their balkan-ish gypsy music fabulously jazzy. groovy.
curious, i finally put the courage to approach them and ask about their music influences. i talked to the lead-saxophonist (his performance was amazing, by the way), said that i really enjoy their music and that their first song is similar with a very popular song in indonesia. "our first song? you mean the first piece that we played? in where?" he asked. "indonesia," i repeated. "really?" "yeah. and so i thought maybe you were also influenced by asian music other than the middle easterns," i explained. he looked perplexed for a second and finally said, "but that music is originally from romania."
oh. kay.
i missed the first half of the next performer, the German Youth Orchestra or the Landes Jugend Jazz orchester Hessen because i had to wait for my friend who were coming from vancouver but turned out to be really late. but that's another story. anyway, i catched up for the latter half, finding about 20 people in a big band—from germany, as the name suggests— playing mainstream jazz music as what it should be (three quarter of wind section and the rest is rhythm section). very entertaining, i wish i watched them since the beginning. but they're not the biggest lost of the day, however. for that goes to the Jaga Jazzist who performed the night before and the sultry, Oslo-based Beady Belle (damn!) who performed later in the evening. while i know the former beforehand that they're gonna be really good, i hadn't heard about the latter until when the staff played their record in-between the shows. nu-jazz hip combined with funk and drum 'n bass. i was strucked. they're G.O.O.D. (lan, if you like Bebel Gilberto you'll love Beady Belle). if only they lower their ticket price...
and so i went to the FolkFest afterward, but i'll share the story later on. i just realized i've written one freakin' long post, eh?
summertime in victoria means festival time. warm sun, cool breeze, tourists-packed, groovin' (and the occasional annoying) music, lotsa cool (and the occasional dull) performances, funky (and the occasional bulky) crafts, and good (and the occasional ripoff) food. oh, and of course, good time. no exception for that one.
that being said, JazzFest is the foremost reason of it. even though the event isn't as big as other cities' own JazzFest across the country, it was the trendsetter and is among the raunchiests of all. and for a city the size of victoria, the event is BIG—with capital letters. enough local contributors, enough canadian artists, and enough across-the-globe musicians.
so i went to see the free performances at the Market Square. started at noon, i arrived around 1 o'clock so i missed the first performance by the highly-appraised Damiam Graham Trio. But came along the next show by the Flying Saucers—four old men playing guitar, bass, drums, clarinet and saxophone, delivering pre-50's blues rhythm and swing style tunes inspired by the big bands era. sounds boring? then you don't understand why they call it the good ol' days. hear them and you might find yourself humming—and dancing—along. the crowd wasn't just the grannies, and i'm thankful for that. of course, the seniors were there too, but they also attract lots of swing-driven jazz lovers from various age groups (and that includes me), and the parrots. that's right, parrots. as in the birds.
one kickin' hour and it's time for the group who stole the show, the Budapest-based Besh o droM. (maybe alaya knows them? =P) the place was suddenly packed, and full with groove. the band has 8 people playing 2 saxophones, a (rockin') trumpet, 2 drums, a bass, a guitar, percussions, and one obscure-looking instrument i don't even know what it's called. but this wasn't the real shocker—at least for me. for me, the shocker was their first song ('piece', as they call it), which, i swear to God, has the same rhythm with one of indonesia's most famous folk songs: *drumrolls* kopi dangdut! except that they were so good and talented that the music doesn't sound like dangdut at all, but instead it was kinda like a mixture of the 60's french electro-jazz music with the hand-clapping, feet-tapping and belly-shaking mediterranean cocktail tunes. for their next songs—uhm, pieces—the ethnic yet funky band kept their balkan-ish gypsy music fabulously jazzy. groovy.
curious, i finally put the courage to approach them and ask about their music influences. i talked to the lead-saxophonist (his performance was amazing, by the way), said that i really enjoy their music and that their first song is similar with a very popular song in indonesia. "our first song? you mean the first piece that we played? in where?" he asked. "indonesia," i repeated. "really?" "yeah. and so i thought maybe you were also influenced by asian music other than the middle easterns," i explained. he looked perplexed for a second and finally said, "but that music is originally from romania."
oh. kay.
i missed the first half of the next performer, the German Youth Orchestra or the Landes Jugend Jazz orchester Hessen because i had to wait for my friend who were coming from vancouver but turned out to be really late. but that's another story. anyway, i catched up for the latter half, finding about 20 people in a big band—from germany, as the name suggests— playing mainstream jazz music as what it should be (three quarter of wind section and the rest is rhythm section). very entertaining, i wish i watched them since the beginning. but they're not the biggest lost of the day, however. for that goes to the Jaga Jazzist who performed the night before and the sultry, Oslo-based Beady Belle (damn!) who performed later in the evening. while i know the former beforehand that they're gonna be really good, i hadn't heard about the latter until when the staff played their record in-between the shows. nu-jazz hip combined with funk and drum 'n bass. i was strucked. they're G.O.O.D. (lan, if you like Bebel Gilberto you'll love Beady Belle). if only they lower their ticket price...
and so i went to the FolkFest afterward, but i'll share the story later on. i just realized i've written one freakin' long post, eh?
