Thursday December 10, 2009
The tide of change
By DARYL GOH
With a quality line-up, the recent Penang Island Jazz Festival proved that international exposure isn’t such a far-fetched idea.
FOR the last six years, early December has always brought the diverse sounds of jazz to the shores of Penang. If you want a thoughtful and properly curated jazz festival in this country, the Penang Island Jazz Festival has become the music fan’s reliable and consistent choice.
No commercial crassness ... just a bijou festival standing firmly behind the music and trying to meet popular expectations at the same time. The bonus is that it also attracts families and hipsters alike. That’s quite a rarity in these parts.
New jazz: In The Country’s main man Morten Qvenild (on piano) delivered an intense set that had a post-rock architecture to it. Same as every year, the back lawn of the Bayview Beach Resort in Penang was a hive of activity as the venue played host to the festival. Last weekend saw nearly 3,000 punters through the gates over two days. No dramatic increase, nor a significant drop in attendance.
The numbers crunch aside, this year’s edition of the Penang Island Jazz Festival saw the event strongly committed to an ambitious roster of headlining acts as well as lively fringe performances, jazz forums, lectures, photo exhibition and other pre-festival activities that shared the people-friendly spirit of the fest.
Noticeably, the masses enjoyed the free afternoon performances across several locations along Batu Ferringhi and discovered homegrown names like Rhapsody, Tokyo Blue, Ray Cheong Trio and SquareCircles. Not many will argue that enthusiasm remained high for these small shows.
As for main stage concerns, the festival is now operating within some “transitional” phase. It has achieved much of its early goals, gained a loyal following and kept smooth jazz, ultimately a sore point among jazz purists, in the bargain.
But the music quality has gotten better and far deeper while the showbiz/pastiche jazz of the past is slowly being nudged out. The recent sixth edition brought about pressing questions about its future directions. From a critical perspective, this festival has been established long enough for memories to be both fond and rather distant.
The Studnitzky Trio, hailing from Berlin, made the most of its debut show at the Penang Island Jazz Festival with an explosive performance. Contemporary and adventurous in selections, this year’s festival was programmed largely around the progressive-minded European acts like Janek Gwizdala Project (Norway/USA), Studnitzky Trio (Germany), In The Country (Norway) and Dainius Pulauskas Group (Lithuania) that upended conventional jazz dynamics. Most tellingly, these forward-looking groups were more aligned to rock-based directions, darker, cerebral material, and often enough, electronic manipulation.
Met with polite but rapturous applause, the crowd dug the uncommon jazz currents and these groups could have given the early Heineken Green Room days a run for the money.
After a blistering set on Saturday night, Berlin-based trumpet player Sebastian Studnitzky (of Mezzaforte fame) was all smiles as the Studnitzky Trio stole the show with a cacophonous ending of disparate jazz that fell into place.
It was an opportunity to road test unreleased songs, and the bald jazz maverick noted that the local crowd were “alert to the new pulse of jazz ... they can see how improvisation with electronics can sit with jazz, and a festival with a thinking, receptive crowd is a good sign.”
Norway’s In The Country, which has three acclaimed recordings with the Oslo-based Rune Grammofon label, was also the much-talked about act on the first night. With pianist Morten Qvenild in an intense mood, the trio delivered an incredibly tight set that had a post-rock architecture to it. It was more emotional exploration rather than a physical jazz workout here. Tracks from the recent Whiteout album, played live, pointed to a band opting for minimalism and varied textures rather than exploiting conventional song forms.
More European driving, droning jams were witnessed again with the Dainius Pulauskas Group on Sunday, where nostalgic jazz yearnings and tape effects combined to maximum impact.
Had these Lithuanian dark horses pumped up the volume, trimmed down their setlist and extended their more epic tunes, it would have been a perfect performance.
Of all the acts to feature, the highly accomplished Janek Gwizdala Project, comprising a multi-national set-up, were an immense series of musical moments to savour. Band leader/bassist Gwizdala anchored the improvisational tempos, but it was superstar Swiss drummer Jojo Mayer, prone to sudden flares of inspiration, who was a sight to behold with his fluid drumming technique.
Not to be left out was London-born pianist and singer-songwriter Oli Rockberger adding a melodic presence to the manic instrumentation on stage.
It was difficult not to be overwhelmed by the new jazz currency of these European free spirits, but there were also bright turns from the more traditional jazz trio of Organamix (led by pianist Jeremy Monteiro) while Brazilian guitar duo Paulo Bellinati and Cristina Azuma were a dignified and illuminating delight despite a set hampered by lighting failure.
Palm Island Beach Boys, led by William Scully (left) on lap steel, gave the Penang Island Jazz Fest a dose of nostalgia. While the entire festival was taking great strides forward and flirting with international exposure, you only had to go back to the very start of the event with the opening act Island Palm Beach Boys to realise how much hometown charm has mattered in the festival’s history.
Led by William Scully, a seasoned Hawaiian lap steel player and jazz sessionist, these senior Penang musicians played at a languid pace and were roared on by family and friends. On stage, they enjoyed each other’s playing so much, it was easy for them to work a tune and simply arrange-on-the-fly, by listening and responding to each other.
Whether the playful sway of that ol’ Hawaiian classic Sophisticated Hula or a Jimmy Boyle-inspired waltz ringing out across the Bayview gardens, you just knew that this festival had its heart in the right place.
On this evidence jazz as a genre, has been kept alive and cultivated as a matter of public interest through the efforts of this independently run festival. Whether recognisable international names, obscure yet provocative European acts, regional favourites or local stalwarts on stage, the modestly-managed festival has remained well-grounded and, to date, it has punched far above its own weight in gaining recognition and credibility.
Public expectations are significantly higher these days, but who is to say that the Penang Island Jazz Festival won’t be twice as interesting next year ...
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