Jazzin’ it up in Penang

Koh Mr Saxman and Steve Cannon of Thailand’s Band of Brothers

AS the four young female cellists took to the stage as the first performers at the Sixth Penang Island Jazz festival, it was whispered that this year’s festival was going to be a little different.

Participants in the Young Talent competition, CGDA (as they were called) exhibited a boldness and verve as they plucked and played their way through their two songs, the small audience open-mouthed that a band comprising only four cellos could be part of a jazz festival.

It was wonderful to behold, and the fun they clearly had doing it not just translated to the other four groups performing that evening, but throughout the whole of this amazing festival held at the Bayview Beach Resort a fortnight ago.

This was not a weekend where you turned up and stomped your feet and danced your way through the night. This was a time where you sat mesmerised, as page after page of the still-being-written book that is jazz was turned.

Act after extraordinary act came onto the various stages by the beach.

The audacious programming drew particularly on newer European groups. It allowed us to glimpse the way musical boundaries are now being broken even as they are created.

So we were witness to the manically extrovert drumming of Chris Strik behind the Dutch Buzz Bros, the haunting, almost translucent trumpet playing of Sebastian Studnitsky of the German Studnitsky Trio, the intense inventiveness of the Lithuanian Danius Pulauskas Group, and the exhilarating ambition of the Norwegian In The Country, their music spilling like a stream of consciousness, one minute sparse, the next epically anthemic.

Wrapped around all this were the acoustic guitars of Paulo Bellinati and Cristina Azuma, the funk explorations of the renowned Jerry Monteiro and Organamix, whose music soothed like the Batu Ferringhi wind, the mix of instruments and rhythm that was Sizhukong, the blues of the Charlie Jung Band, and of course the nostalgia of 1960s Penang brought to us by the Island Palm Beach Boys.

Then along came the Michelle Nicolle Quartet, her voice giving us an exquisite expressiveness, the four of them changing gears and shifting tempos with a fluidity of interaction that came from long association together.

And just when you thought you probably could not take much more, on came the Janek Gwizalda Project.

From the moment Janek unleashed his first plaintive bass note, no one moved. Here was Jojo Mayer, one of the top drummers in the world. Here was Oli Rockberger, outstanding keyboardist and vocalist. Here was the achingly poignant trumpet playing of Audun Waage.

This was world-class musicianship and the audience was entranced. It was a fantastic finale.

So, left sitting on the grass by the beach under the casuarina trees, one could not help but feel what a privilege it had been to be able to enjoy such consistently inspiring music.

But the festival had also been much more. There was the fringe (with Tokyo Blue being a stand-out performance from among the younger bands), the workshops, the forums, and the exhibitions.

If one felt like it, one could get up and go talk to world-famous jazz photographer William Ellis.

One could meet and marvel at the experiences of some of the key people in the world of jazz and festivals not just in this region but elsewhere in the world.

So it is mind-boggling that there is still doubt about the future of this festival. Sponsorship is still apparently hard to find.

Given that this festival is now increasingly known globally, the benefit to the branding of Penang as a desirable destination should be obvious.

There was a forum at the festival which talked about jazz and the creative economy.

We should know by now that arts and culture cannot be seen as some kind of minority entertainment indulgence. Far from it, they are very much part of the word of the moment, creativity.

We all know how important the creative economy is to our future. But none of this will just happen; we need to invest in it. And here is a festival already established, with a commitment to quality, to education, to involving people of all generations and backgrounds, to both showcase exquisite music and all the creativity that is jazz, and at the same time nurture and inspire our local population.

People should be queuing up to invest. Let’s hope they are. And let’s hope we will see you next year.