Jazz along in Beishan: Festival kicks-off tomorrow

Music returns to Beishan Village, in Zhuhai, this weekend with the second edition of the International Jazz Festival, whose programme mingles local and international talent of some 40 jazz entertainers.
“It’s getting bigger and it’s getting better,” said Jean-Jacques Verdun, the event’s marketing director.
Attracting a mere average of 500 people per day last year, the event is hoping to become the defining music event in South China, and the organisation is expecting around 2,000 music lovers in each of the three nights of the event held over the weekend.
“It is a larger music festival that presents concerts and workshops, late night jam sessions and some interesting names in jazz,” Verdun told the Macau Daily Times.
All but one of the bands will be appearing for the first time, according to the organisation. The returning Rusconi Trio from Switzerland, playing this evening at the Albergue SCM in Macau before heading to Zhuhai, garnered the highest popularity during the previous event.
“The best band will remain and better bands will be targeted for invitation to keep the high level of the festival, because we believe the only way to strike new sparks is to keep the best musical seeds circulating,” TPR Education Management president Simone Xue was quoted by Zhuhai Daily as saying.
“The festival allows jazz fans to communicate and share the music and to forge a scenario at which Chinese and western music can be exchanged. It is also a rare opportunity to generate concern and thinking about traditional culture in Zhuhai,” Simone noted.

‘For the next Jazz Festival, we will try to share some resources to include both Macau and Beishan… In 2012, for sure!’

JJ Verdun

According to Verdun, the festival has something for everyone, mingling up local talent and top-notch performers from different countries.
“We want to stay as fresh as we can,” he said, adding that people in the South China region are becoming more aware of the events that are organised at the Beishan Theatre.
All in all, the Beishan International Jazz Festival’s budget this year stands at approximately 1 million yuan, said Verdun, double from last year, with the money serving to transform the historic village through jazz.
“Jazz is a great community builder,” he remarked, adding that “it really brings people together, not only from Zhuhai but from many other regions around the city”.

‘The festival allows jazz fans to communicate and share the music and to forge a scenario at which Chinese and western music can be exchanged’

Simone Xue

The organisation raised the money itself, but this year they got more logistic support from local authorities. TPR Education Management and Xiangzhou District Culture Bureau, under the municipal Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, co-sponsor the Jazz Festival.
“We had more support this year, more high-level officials will attend the event and everything seems to be running smoothly… it’s great to see it [the festival] grow,” Verdun said.

Macau to join

The previous Jazz Festival early last October was a great success, and the World Music Festival on April once again turned the spotlight onto small Beishan Village, which draws the dream of hosting the best music festival in South China a little closer.

Line up

Friday,
September 23
Mangrove Bay
18:30-22:30

RUM, Hong Kong
ACID Live, China/UK/Malaysia
Dainius Pulauskas, Lithuania 
Rusconi, Switzerland
Welcome Party

Saturday,
September 24
Beishan Theatre
17:30-22:00

Ginger Kwan, Hong Kong
In the Country, Norway
Alexandre Cunha, Brazil
Rusconi, Switzerland

Sunday,
September 25
Beishan Theatre
17:30-22:00

Li Gao Yang, China
Michel Bisceglia, Belgium
SiminTander, Netherlands 
Mdungu,
Africa/Netherlands 

But Macau could play an important role for that dream to become a reality.
“We had so much positive feedback from Macau at the first festival,” said Verdun, confirming that there were plans to include the city in this year’s programme.
“Unfortunately, there was no time to accomplish all that we wanted… but we didn’t give up on that idea,” he stressed.

“For the next Jazz Festival, we will try to share some resources to include both Macau and Beishan… In 2012, for sure!”
The Rusconi Trio will perform tonight in Macau but that is not part of this year’s festival. “We can say it’s a teaser for what’s going to take place in Beishan over the weekend,” quipped Verdun, adding that it can be the first step for more initiatives in years to come.
The Beishan International Jazz Festival welcoming party at which international jazz bands will perform will kick off at Citic Mangrove Bay tomorrow, with the Beishan Theatre being the central stage on September 24 and 25.
A music workshop where musicians and jazz fans can communicate will also be held at Yang Great Ancestral Hall and Beishan Theatre on Saturday and Sunday.
The Ancestral Hall and Beishan Theatre are located in Zhuhai, near the Yang Family Temple. The two buildings accomodate festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, company functions and private dinners. 
“Beishan is a special place in Zhuhai. A small village between residential area developments,” Verdun explained.
Tickets are still available at the Portuguese Bookshop in Macau or at the door of the event.
Let the music begin.

Mdungu
Africa/Netherlands

Mdungu is a nine piece band based in Amsterdam with brings to Asia a refreshing Afrobeat sound. The musicians, from Holland, Luxembourg, Spain and Gambia, perform their music with skill, flair and energy that some consider irresistible to audiences.
“African music by Mdungu is a strong musical experience: it funks, it grooves, it moves your feet and feeds your soul,” the band explains.
The percussion is dazzling, the melodies enchanting and the vocals, captivating, creating a chemical reaction that makes people start dancing and romancing.
“The moment Mdungu kicks off and the music takes over; there is no future, no past, no borders, no passport. The groove is king, and that’s the way it should be.”
The Dutch African band was founded in 2003 by alto saxophonist Thijs van Milligen. From the start Mdungu was a most welcome guest on international stages and festivals of world music, pop and jazz scenes.

Rusconi
Switzerland

This trio of young, Swiss jazz musicians stormed the world at the Zurich Jazznojazz Festival in November 2006 and were immediately praised as ‘The New Discovery’.
They have been raved as the new Esbjorn Svensson Trio (EST) after Esbjorn Svensson died in 2008 and continues to lift the European Jazz scene to a higher level.
They make their own approach to the noisy capers and lyrical dissonance of Sonic Youth. They don’t break the songs down, nor do they justify them for a jazz audience. Instead, they casually reinterpret jazz in the spirit of rock music. Notwithstanding all the intermittent ecstasy, the sound itself remains crystal-clear throughout, always precise and light as air.
The three young genius musicians provide a sound that is simple and clear, light and floating and their compelling interpretation of jazz shows a character of their own – pieces that fit seamlessly into the seductive hybrid world of alternative rock and jazz.

Dainius Pulauskas Group
Lithuania

Dainius Pulauskas Group was formed in 1994 and debuted as a quintet but, by 1996, had evolved into a sextet and before long became one of the most significant Lithuanian jazz groups and winning international acknowledgement.
Over the years, DPG has performed in a number of European countries as well as in jazz festivals in China, India, Indonesia and USA.
Currently, Dainius Pulauskas Group is well known not only to Lithuanian but also for foreign audiences and performs more abroad than in Lithuania. Its performances are usually well received by audience and critics.
Dainius Pulauskas Group is characteriaed by their use electronic and acoustic instruments to create a very eloquent music space – a very peculiar version of fusion.
The Finnish jazz critic R.Haapsamo called their music “a powerful pulse of the modern jazz”. The Swedish critic Bo Levender states that “Pulauskas, together with his colleagues creates the best fusion as it can be. The variety of their musical expression is ‘giddy’”.

The Michel Bisceglia Trio
Belgium

Michel Bisceglia is a talented music influenced by the likes of Keith Jarret, Bill Evans and Lennie Tristano plus his roots in Mozart, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Born in Belgium, he began playing at 6 and started formal training by 12 learning classical piano. Later, he switched to modern piano and after a few more years of self-study, he began to do gigs in Europe before teaming up with American jazz-guitarist Garrison Fewell Quartet.
In ’91, Michel founded Cattleya, a trio that was an important forum for his experimentations in composition and the sonics of jazz trios. At 26, Michel Bisceglia started his current trio, with Werner Lauscher and March Lehan.
“Michel Bisceglia’s artistry, prowess and vocabulary at the piano delivers a well versed slant on the traditions of modern jazz. He has taken an astute look at all the masters of his instrument and developed a uniqueness, all his own,” wrote John Nugent, from the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

In The Country
Norway

In The Country is a piano trio consisting of piano player Morten Qvenild, bass player Roger Arntzen and drummer Pål Hausken.
The trio is the jazz outfit that seems impossible to decide to which musical world it belongs. Is it jazz or is it just plain music that contains inspiration from a lot of different fantastic genres?
Morten Qvenild is probably best known for being the orchestra in Susanna and the Magical Orchestra but has plenty more to show for. He has been a member of both Shining and Jaga Jazzist and is since long a member of Solveig Slettahjells Slow Motion Orchestra.
The trio was formed at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo in 2003.
Downbeat called their debut album “one of the finest and most arresting albums to come out of Europe” that year, and their latest studio album ‘Whiteout’ was voted in the “best releases of 2009” by several publications.

Alexandre Cunha
Brazil

A professional drummer for 22 years, Alexandre Cunha has lived in Germany from 1994 to 1997 and played in the best jazz clubs in order to develop even more his own way of playing Brazilian music.
Back in Brazil, he started the Brazilian Duet: two drummers playing Brazilian rhythms and grasping lots of positive reviews and great audience.
Since 2004, Alexandre has hosted an editorial section in Modern Drummer Brazil, the most prestigious drum magazine in the country. Alexandre also writes on the international website Drummers Zone.
In 2005, his debut record, Batepapo, gathered some of the best Brazilian musicians such as Airto Moreira and Alegre Correa to present traditional Brazilian music with a fusion approach. It became one of the top ten CD’s of 2005 in Smoothjazzandmore.
In 2008, his band was the first Brazilian group to play at the Shanghai International Jazz Festival, and later travelled through China to play at many jazz clubs.