Thursday, May 12, 2011

Borneo Jazz 2011 kicks off today

MIRI: Borneo Jazz 2011 commences today until Sunday at ParkCity Everly Hotel.

The festival promises an enjoyable experience with artistes hailing from every corner of the globe – India, China, Japan, France, Brazil, Holland, Australia, United States, Canada and Malaysia.

The event, organised by Sarawak Tourism Board hopes to generate RM10 million in revenue and targets a crowd of 10,500 this year.

Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Rashid Khan yesterday disclosed that responses from the tickets sales are very encouraging.

He also said around 60 per cent of the crowd are from outside Sarawak.

Eight bands will heat up the festival’s stage this year.

They are Maria Muldaur (USA), State of Monc (Holland), Yuchiro Tokuda’s Ralyzz Dig (Japan), Victor Yong & Electric Carnival Band (Malaysia/Canada), Les Doigts De L’Homme (France), John Hammond (USA), Cunha & Piper (Brazil/Australia) and SIU2 (China).

Four bands will be performing each night.

Opening the festival will be the respected guitar player from Mumbai – Dhruv.

He will perform at the opening night, tonight at Marina Seafood Restaurant.

Joining him will be ‘CQuence’, a band formed in 2008 by a multicultural group of friends in Miri.

The opening night is open to the public and dinner is included in the cost of tickets.

Grammy award winner, John Hammond who has repeatedly been voted as one of the top 10 blues artistes in the world, will take the stage tomorrow night with his combination of brilliant guitar and rack harmonica performance.

Hong Kong’s Ng Cheuk-yin, a sheng (mouth-organ) wizard, will also be present and he will be taking this five thousand year old instrument well into the 21st Century, promising to produce an unimaginably rich and unique new jazz sound.

His ‘SIU2’ augments the traditional jazz rhythm section of bass, drums, and piano with other traditional Chinese instruments such as the ‘sanxien’ and the ‘zheng’.

Les Doigts de L’Homme will take gypsy jazz to the next level.

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