Space Between The Notes
Miri Jazz Festival 2010
By Asif Pishori
International UK Jazz Musician
During the press conferences at Miri Jazz festival 2010 We were warmly greeted by familiar faces, journalists, and friends and the ever so hospitable organizers the STB Team. For some of us not only is Miri Jazz Festival the most popularly enjoyed Jazz festival in Malaysia it is also a place for Jazz enthusiastic journalists and musicians alike to reunite on a yearly basis and catch up on all the latest news & gossips.
We were all pretty anxious about the new line up of players for 2010 and what was in store for this year. With headliner acts such as Blues Legend James Cotton, the feeling and anticipation of a growth into this once small Festival was that of a consistent movement in a new upwards direction.
Seated in front of us was Mellow Motif from Thailand, Amina Figarova Sextet from Holland, Norbert Susemihl`s New Orleans All Stars from Denmark, Germany and the USA and Jeremy Tordjman from Switzerland. All here to perform for the 5th edition Miri Jazz Festival and share a little bit of their own personal music with us.
Jeremy Tordjman a guitarist and leader of his group explained that the music he would be performing is a mixture of jazz, funk, soul, groove and pop fused together and he was going to unleash a dynamic blend of contemporary style for his audience. Jeremy first started playing rock music and was inspired by world famous rock bands and guitar players. His father was a jazz blues guitarist and so Jeremy discovered jazz music from an early age. Jeremy studied in Paris for one year and during that time produced his first CD entitled `Zambouka` a mixture of fusion styles and electro jazz remixes.
Jeremy is not a purist he likes to experiment with all styles of music and fuses them together. Norbert Susemih`ls on the other hand who was born in Hamburg Germany explained a little about his background. He lived in new Orleans in the 1980s and he plays trumpet and sings. His current line-up of players was formed in 2006 comprising of 3 musicians from New Orleans representing a wide spectrum of new Orleans music. The band is a 6 piece band with trumpet, clarinet and trombone on the frontline.
Everything Norbert has learned in music is from his experiences living in New Orleans. All his CDs have been produced by himself which gives him the freedom to do the kind of music he loves best. `New Orleans is my love and that is what I want to play, traditional jazz`.
Amina Sextet was formed 10 years ago with musicians from all over the world. The group share unity in one body with 12 hands and all the music they would be performing this weekend was 100% original compositions. Her latest CD `Sketches` was recorded on March 28th 2010. Her new album is inspired through travelling and working abroad, the experiences that happens on tour and interesting adventures. Amina will also be playing music from her previous CD `Above the Clouds`
Her line-up includes herself on piano and her back up musicians on bass, drums, strings and trumpet. One of her well known songs called `Sunrise in Kyoto` was inspired by the sounds of the Shakahuchi flute, when she first heard Bart playing shakahuchi it inspired her to write `Sunrise in Kyoto`, Bart also plays lots of Indonesian flutes, bamboo flute, the sound is like a human voice it moves me she says, there are lots of musicians exploring Asian scales which are close to the blues scales.
If you are a young artist and you approach a record label and they say now you have to do commercial music you go with it but it is important to find your own voice, that is the only music that survives if it comes from the heart, if it is very personal then it’s pure. A lot of jazz musicians from west Africa are born out of the freedom of no boundaries so there is no definition of what music should or should not be.
Melow Motif from Thailand and Singapore and this was their first time in Miri, they had been working hard on putting together solid re arrangements of jazz standards and classics for their show. The group’s name Melow Motif means something very smooth very easy, motif meaning a repeating phrase or hook of a song. Mellow motif will be performing their own version of `Lemon Tree` during their show.
Vocalist Natasha told us that the King of Thailand is a jazz musician. He writes a lot of tunes very much like jazz standards and a lot of his tunes are really well known, fusing Thai flavor with jazz arrangements, they were inspired by this idea.
Legendary Blues king James Cotton Super Harp at 75 years old still has the power to produce the real original sound of the blues. James has a new CD Coming out soon and in a brief history lesson of jazz, he explains that Jazz and all sub genres of jazz and contemporary music come from the blues. He started playing at 9yrs old and created his own unique sound. James has performed with legendary giants such as Muddy Waters and BB king.
Michael Shrieve`s Spellbinder are all from Seattle USA. Michael was Santana`s original drummer back in 1969. The group is the resident band in a Seattle club and they play weekly. Michael enjoys listening to Chilled out classical choral music which is not what you expect from a drummer but this is how he feels and plays with compassion and ambience. Too many musicians are focused on how many notes you can squeeze in a bar and how fast you play or how complex you play but to me the most important thing is
`The Space between the notes`
the gap the lingering of a sound of a note that draws your attention into appreciating the sound of silences and the impact music has in between the notes.
Ricardo Herz began performing in High School with his friends. His current lineup include some of his school band boys from school days Pedro’s on drums and Mano on Bass and Luky is one of the new members of the team. Ricardo has been living in Paris but is now planning to go back to Brazil to begin recording his 4th album. To Ricardo jazz is a word that is very wide. He defines his music as Brazilian music inspired by Brazilian rhythms. For over 20 years the group has been experimenting with many cross rhythms. Ricardo’s heroes include Jobim and Dominguez a Legend from Sau Paulo. Jobim spread Bossanova worldwide and Samba music the rhythm of Africa and harmony of Europe has made samba music known all over Brazil and the World.
Simak Dialog from Indonesia is currently working on their 6th Album with an underground label. Guitarist Tohpati is also planning on doing a solo album soon. The group is from West Java, Jakarta, Bandung and East Java Sunda. Sudanese music the center of Indonesia’s most complete Gamelan orchestra and the center of rhythmic patterns that are very fast and very rich. We use the kendang which is a drum shaped like a conga that can create a very groovy pattern. The kendang could also give strong rhythm in Dungdut music, Dungdut is very Indian influenced music and popular in Indonesia.
Simak Dialog is thrilled to be in Miri Sarawak for the first time after hearing great things about the festival. We traditional musicians have our own language and we jump and swim together in the river. Asian Jazz, so far that we know in this area the most important patterns that are unique and exotic and one of our strengths. In Indonesia we have a growing number of Jazz Festivals; one of the biggest in the World now is Java Jazz. We start to have more of a jazz culture movement in Indonesia with a population of 220 Million people how would you define Asian Jazz perhaps it is the space between the notes.
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