Day 1 was extremely fun and i was excited for day 2 of the Borneo Jazz Festival. It was an early start for day 2 as we attended the last press conference at the Lambir Hall. I also took the opportunity to take some pictures with Suchen, the official photographer.After that, Raihanah, Eileen and I took our new friend, Rayyan Harries on a personal city tour and to get some Mee Pok (was suppose to bring him for Mee Kolok but unfortunately they ran out of mee kolok. Poor Rayyan.

So after brunch, went to Bintang Megamall for a little shopping and around 230pm, we were back at the hotel for the official media city tour. The main reason i wanted to go for this city tour was to visit the two temples(Taoist and Buddhist temple located in Krokop). Mind you, I was born and raised in Miri and yet I've never been to any one of these temples. So We boarded the bus at 3pm together with local and international media guests. 

The 3rd stop was Miri Handicraft Center. This was my first time coming here too. Like any other people, we tend to ignore what's behind our backyard.. At this stop I was surprised when I saw Ryuta (journalist from Japan) picked up a Sape and start tuning it and eventually played it. At first I thought he picked it up out of curiosity and just to get the feel but when he started playing, he sounded like he's been playing that instrument as long as he had been consuming sake.

The fourth stop was The Grand Old Lady.. It was a perfect sunny day that day and we decided to loosen up a bit and have fun.The Sarawak Bloggers together with Air Asia Travel Blogger having some some in the sun. 

The last stop was the Luak Esplanade but we asked the bus driver to drop us off at the hotel as we promised Rayyan to get some Lalapan for dinner. Went for dinner and after that we prepared ourself for another awesome jazzy night.

First up on stage for Day 2 was the Asian Jazz All Stars Power Quartet. Asia's top jazzmen coming from Hong Kong, Philippines  Singapore and Thailand. A mixture of old school and new school jazz as the appetizers. 

The second band that was performing that night was Hazmat Modine from the United States Of America. Based in New York and has been touring internationally for the past six years at in over 30 countries worldwide.(excerpt from Borneo Jazz Booklet). Earlier in the show, Gavin Hope from The Nylons made a special appearance with this band which made the night more interesting. 

Third Band for that night was Mo' Blow From Germany with their "Gimme The Boots" release concert. A band which describe as one of the hottest club band(by Berliner Zeitung) with soul and funk element added into the music. No doubt their performance was brilliantly energetic which got the crowd up and dancing in the rain.(yes it was raining.. it started off with a slight drizzle but towards the end of the night, it was raining heavily) . And one more thing, from certain angles, the saxophonist looks like Adam Levine. Seriously!

 The last performance that night wasn by Jump4Joy from Sweden. Their performance kept the crowd dancing in the rain. A high energy performance i would say. I know it got me tapping my toes and swaying my body from left to right.

After the latt performance, the night didn't just end up like that, the crowd proceed to the Pavilion to the after party with DJ Uno  of PopShuvit on the decks for 2 hours together with Dj DoubleD freestylin MC on the mic. The beat was too hard to resist not to dance along to. So I put down my camera bag and started dancing with random people till 2am. I guess I partied too hard till i didnt realize my tongue stud went missing.(no, no kissing was involved. I guess I must have accidently swallowed it.)

Well, thats about it. I must say my first time attending Borneo Jazz Festival is truly amazing and definitely an eye opener. For someone who always thought that Jazz is a boring genre, boy I was proven wrong. Very wrong.. For those who thinks Jazz is boring, please do attend Borneo Jazz Festival and like me, you'll be surprised with what jazz have to offer. If I were ask to cover this event again next year, without hesitation, I would say Yes! For those who missed it this year, don't worry, Borneo Jazz will be back again next year.

And before I end this post, I would like to say Thank You to Sarawak Tourism Board and Sarawak Bloggers for giving me the chance to be part of the team. 

p/s: If you wish to see more pictures, click on the link below :D
~ Facebook ( Day 1)
~ Facebook ( Day 2)
~ Facebook ( Behind The Scene)
or you can check out them out here.

First of all, I wanna say,Borneo Jazz Festival 2013 was the BOMB! A gazillion thanks to Sarawak Tourism Board  for giving me the opportunity to cover the event under Sarawak Bloggers  and thanks to Abang Joe and  Ladybird Eileen for your guidance.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was my first time attending the Borneo Jazz Festival and at the same time given the chance to cover the event, I was very excited and nervous at the same time. I seriously didn't know what to expect. But I'm glad I was selected as one of the blogger to cover this event as it changes my perception towards Jazz music. All this while, I just couldn't take in Jazz music. Those who thinks Jazz music is boring, you should go to this event. I kid you not, you will never think the same way again. The amount of "feel" the performers put in their music was indescribable. Here are some of the photos I took during the event. (just teasers, the full album will be uploaded soon in the "Photos" tab)

Attended the Press Conference at Meritz Hotel together with members of the Media(local and international) on Friday (10th May 2013). The second press conference for the Borneo Jazz. The first one was the day before at Parkcity Everly Hotel.

Members of the media given a tour of Meritz Hotel by the Executive Chairman, Dato' Lau  Siu Wai. Seen in the picture is Dato' Lau explaining the infrastructure of the M Ballroom (Equivalent to one football field) which can cater up to 1,400 person at any time making it the largest indoor banquet hall in Miri

After the press conference and a short Q&A session with Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Johari Bin Tun Haji Openg,Minister Of Housing, Minister of Tourism and YBhg Dato' Rashid Khan, Chief Executive Office, Sarawak Tourism Board, members of the media was invited to attend the cocktail reception at the Sky Garden Outdoor Dining which is located at Level 17 of the Hotel.

After the press conference and  media cocktail reception, we headed back to the hotel and prepare for the Day 1 of Borneo Jazz Festival 2013. I managed to spot Dato Rashid Khan at the ticketing counter as seen in the picture.

First up on the stage that night was West Jazz Band. Representing Malaysia! A local jazz band from Sarawak. One of my personal favourite that night. I just love how the present Jazz music with a Sarawakian twist to it. I never knew "liling" and "Semina Duduk Berimbai" by Anderson Ngalai can be Jazz-erzied (if there's such word). But nonetheless, I loved their performance. First band for that night to get an "encore" from the crowd.

The last band that performed for Day 1 was The Nylons from Canada. Another one of my personal favourite. This acapella group got the crowd dancing with their opening act "Spiderman! Spiderman!" in jazz and a pinch of reggae too. They also did a cover of "I'm Yours" By Jason Mraz which got the crowd singing together with them.. You can find a snippet of the vid from our fellow Blogger, Abang Joe, in his Youtube Channel here. They also did a cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", a famous soundtrack  from The Lion King. You can find the Youtube version of this song here but i guarantee you that if you were there to witness their performance that night, you had the time of you life.

The night didnt just end like that, after all the Jazz performance, the crowd went up to the Pavilion for an afterparty with DJ Uno  from PopShuvit spinning on the decks.

Thats all for my Day 1 Borneo Jazz Festival 2013 experience. Stay tuned for part 2 of the event. For now, gotta get back to editing the vids and pictures I took during that 2 days. Latersssss! :D

The long awaited Borneo Jazz Festival 2013 is just around the corner and I'm all excited! Its this weekend to be exact. Tonight I'm going to introduce to you more performers for Borneo Jazz Festival 2013! First up is Jump4Joy!

'Let’s literally jump for joy at Borneo Jazz 2013!. Yes there will be popular high-energy entertainment with a strong New Orleans flavour when Swedish band, Jump4Joy performs at the jazz festival this year.

There will be feel-good, energetic and toe-tapping sounds.Two of the musicians, UlfSandstrom and Bo Gustafsson, have both been nominated for their contributions to Swedish blues by the Scandinavian Blues Association with the Janne Rosenqvist Memorial Prize and in 2008,Bo received the Prize.

Ulf and Bo deliver a one hour round trip to New Orleans as a duo, mainly in a theatrical setting or at festivals like Borneo Jazz. Intimate and fun. They have performed over 3000 gigs, with standing ovations in Paris, Moscow, London, New Orleans, Berlin and Helsinki.

Jump4Joy is an extraordinary band and one that will keep you spellbound. Their concerts are always a sold out.

HAZMAT MODINE is a New York based band that has been touring internationally for the past six years in over 30 countries world wide. Malaysia is not new to them as they have been performing at Genting Highland Festival few years ago.

The band is a hard edged blues and jazz fusion driven by a pair of dueling harmonicas, backed by tuba, drums, guitars, and a horn section.  They recently completed their long-awaited follow-up to their first CD Bahamut. 

The CDtitled CICADA reached number one on the World Music Charts summer 2011 in Europe and was voted number 2 for all of 2011 out of over 800 nominees and 150 finalists.CICADA also received the Charles Cros Grand Prize  in France for Best Blues Record in 2011.  They are just one of the 8 award winning bands at Borneo Jazz next coming weekend.

Other than Malaysia, Hazmat Modine also visitedwell known festivals around the world such as the Berlin Jazz Festival, Pori and Tempari Festivals in Finland, Stockholm Jazz festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Sinnes Festival in Portugal, Womex in Spain, the Wings Festival in Moscow, the Sayan Ring Festival in Siberia, The Vienna Jazz Festival, Killkenny Arts Festival in Ireland, Trowbridge Festival in the UK, Chicago World Music Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Borneo Jazz 2013 is pleased to welcome another GRAMMY® Award winner, The Scott Martin Latin Soul Band from west coast of USA, in Miri, Sarawak next coming weekend. They will make their appearance at Borneo Jazz on the first night show, Friday (10 May), which scheduled at around 10pm.

Scott Martin is exploding on the scene as a leader of his own band, after more than fourteen years of playing with the GRAMMY® Award Winning Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band. He was an influential part of the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band winning a Grammy with the band for 'Best Latin Jazz Performance'.

Hehas recorded with Ray Charles, Billy Preston, Sam Moore and many other soul greats.They also won 2 Billboard Music Awards, and embarked on countless World and Nationwide tours.

Scott’s numerous compositions have been featured on Poncho’s recordings, as well as on TV shows such as “Sex and the City”, “The Jimmy Kimmel Show”, “As The World Turns” and more.

The Scott Martin Latin Soul Band has performed at venues and festivals all over the world in the last couple of years. They performed two tours of Japan, a tour of Canada, they played at the Hawaii International Jazz Festival, Temecula International Jazz Festival, KSDS ‘Jazz Live’ from the Seville Theatre, Brea Jazz Festival, Oxnard Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, MOCA Jazz Series and many more concerts, events, and jazz clubs.

Scott Martin Latin Soul Band are just one of the 8 award-winning bands at Borneo Jazz. So don’t miss the excitement. 

Have you gotten your tickets? 

Entry tickets to Borneo Jazz priced at RM60 per day and RM100 for 2 days for adult and RM30 per day and RM50 for 2 days per child aged between 3 and 12 and can be purchased online at www.jazzborneo.com.

Tickets also now available at all Visitors’ Information Centres in Kuching, Sibu & Miri. Call them at +6 082-410944 (VIC Kuching), +6 084-340980 (VIC Sibu) and +6 085-434180 (VIC Miri).