A mix of highs & lows

NOW IN its 13th iteration, Miri’s longstanding Borneo Jazz Festival (BJF), held over the May 11 to 13 weekend, found itself being shaken up through the inclusion of Kuala Lumpur’s No Black Tie.
According to Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) acting CEO Mary Wan Mering, the BJF has been under the umbrella of STB for the past 12 years. Wanting change, the board partnered with the peninsular jazz club in an attempt to introduce new blood through showcasing more varieties of artistes at the BJF.
“We are very excited to ... [be] bringing jazz to this very exotic, natural place,” said No Black Tie founder Evelyn Hii, adding that the introduction of a new element, the Borneo Jazz Talent Search, would help to spread awareness of the festival to the younger generation.
But the mainstay of the festival remained with well-known local artistes such as Datuk Zainal Abidin, Michael Veerapen, Nadir and Zee Avi among others, while the slate of international jazz musicians included Chris Stalk Quartet, Cecilia Brunori, Tony and his younger brother Roby Lakatos.
But the sight of chairs lined up in rows and columns for visitors to sit was slightly off-putting on the first day of the festival at Coco Cabana. Previous BJFs had none.
The mise en scène shift from everyone standing around to largely sitting in plastic chairs was jarring.
A media personnel from a German radio station shared the same sentiment, and added that the social dimension of being able to freely walk around has been removed.
The situation eventually proved to be not that bad as the lack of chairs for the growing number of visitors led to everyone crowding any open area in Coco Cabana they could find.
Once the festival officially began, musicians such as guitarist Isao Miyoshi and saxophonist Tony Lakatos displayed why they were masters at their craft as part of BJF’s Day 1 line-up, with the other bands and singers giving more of easy listening as if one were at an orchestra performance, or a fancy restaurant with an expensive live band.
I say this because beyond the applauses, there was little interaction with and from those present. Somehow, it just cannot be called a music festival if there is no two-way conversation between the artiste(s) and their listeners.
The line-up for Day 2 was significantly stronger, even if one of the performers was out of sync with the rest.
After the doors opened, local band Jasso entertained the crowd with Elvira Arul, Melissa Tham and Pete Kallang rotating on vocals.
However, the following one-hour set by Grzegorz Karnas Formula had everyone scratching their heads. Led by frontman Grzegorz Karnas, the Polish jazz band relied largely on his vocals, which produced a cocktail of mumbling, shouting and whispering. Imagine an a capella rendition of any song, except completely incoherent to the crowd.
This expectedly sent those among the audience into dead silence, with many visibly shuffling on their seats awkwardly, despite Karnas’ efforts to rile them back up.
Following Karnas’ set – something another festival-goer audibly referred to as “the death rattle of a wildebeest” – Malaysia’s NewSound took over but failed to get spirits back up until around 10.30pm, when Dasha Logan took centre stage.
Arguably the artiste a majority of those present at Day 2 were waiting for, the daughter of Alleycats’ late Loganathan Arumugam brought the festival-goers back up to their feet. Backed by a ‘custom’ band that consisted of music heavyweights, particularly the legendary Michael Veerapen, Dasha offered a soulful set that concluded with her bringing Datuk Zainal Abidin on stage.
His electrifying charisma and unfiltered star power naturally sent the crowd into a frenzy. Performing Manis and the iconic Hijau in a jazz rendition, and garnering a large sing-along in the process, Zainal effectively broke Borneo Jazz Festival 2018 out of the spell that was cast on it by the second band to perform that day.
With spirits back up, Havana Social Club wrapped up the night with vibrant Cuban and Latin music.
Due to time constraints, I could not cover the third and final day of the festival whereby the finalists of the Borneo Jazz Talent Search were to perform.

The trip to Miri for the Borneo Jazz Festival was organised and hosted by AirAsia, which flies 86 times weekly to Miri from Kuala Lumpur.