![\"rad-tradz\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/rad-tradz.jpg\")
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Ethno jazz, Dixieland swing jazz, New Orleans jazz, rock-infused blues, progressive acid jazz, afro jazz, classical jazz, organ jazz. That was the whole spectrum of jazz performed at this year’s Borneo Jazz Festival 2016. I didn’t even know there was so many! But I’m thrilled that I got to enjoy it all, skillfully performed by talented musicians from different parts of the world. Here’s highlights of all the fun I had\u00a0at the Borneo Jazz festival 2016. If you live in Malaysia, you should definitely do it next year!<\/p>\n
![\"casette\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/casette-1024x58-1.png\")
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The Borneo Jazz festival from 13-14 May 2016 was a music-filled weekend in Miri<\/a>, featuring 8 bands over 2 days. The bands came from Malaysia to Poland, bringing a whole myriad of culturally-influenced music. In fact, the bands themselves\u00a0already had a mix of genders and nationalities, leading to an interesting colourization of their music.<\/p>\n “It’s all about the bass this year,” said the artistic director about the lineup for the 2016 Borneo Jazz Festival. Indeed it was. Most notably from Manou Gallo & The Groove Orchestra, a band fronted<\/em> by the outstanding female bassist from Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n I was also impressed to learn that\u00a0the Cuban band, needing a replacement bass player for their gig here, filled those shoes with a\u00a0talented young bass player who had won a scholarship for his outstanding bass skills.<\/p>\n [tabs]<\/span><\/p>\n [tab title=”Weather” icon=”entypo-light-up”]The weather in Borneo is hot and sticky. 100% humidity! Remember it’s surrounded by rainforest. So keep your clothing light and airy. Mosquitos are very busy here, and if you go on the beach the sand flies will happily feed on you. So bring your repellant. And I’d avoid the beach at Park City Everly Miri anyway – it’s dirty. Only great for watching sunset. [\/tab]<\/span><\/p>\n [tab title=”Where to Stay” icon=”entypo-suitcase”]<\/span><\/p>\n Where to Stay in Miri for Borneo Jazz Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n The Marriot Miri<\/a>\u00a0is just a few minutes walk. The 4.5 Star property has a wonderfully inviting pool and a lush lawn facing the sea. I recommend joining the weekly BBQ.<\/span><\/p>\n Pullman Miri Waterfront<\/a> is another luxury hotel choice in Miri worth checking out. It’s in the centre of town, with a good view and the Pullman attention to design.<\/p>\n Park City Everly is the most convenient place to stay but the hotel is dated and frankly, leaves a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n [button style=’blue’ url=’https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/Miri-Hotels.d2496.Travel-Guide-Hotels’ icon=’entypo-suitcase’ fullwidth=’true’]Find More Hotels in Miri, Sarawak[\/button]<\/p>\n [\/tab]<\/p>\n [tab title=”Getting There” icon=”entypo-address”]<\/span><\/p>\n Take a flight to Miri Airport. The Borneo Jazz Festival is held on the grounds of Park City Everly which is a short 10-minute\u00a0ride away.<\/span><\/p>\n [button style=’blue’ url=’https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/Cheap-Flights-To-Miri.d2496.Travel-Guide-Flights?rfrr=TG.LP.Flights’ icon=’entypo-flight’ fullwidth=’true’]Find flights to Miri Airport[\/button] [\/tab]<\/p>\n [tab title=”Visa Requirements” icon=”entypo-book”]<\/span><\/p>\n Bring your passport if you plan to visit Brunei, which is \u00a0only 30mins drive from Miri. It’s easy enough to do in the daytime before the festival starts.\u00a0[\/tab]<\/p>\n [tab title=”Practical Info” icon=’entypo-info’]\u00a0Stuff to bring: <\/strong><\/p>\n Go early to watch the beautiful Miri sunset.<\/p>\n Support the bands by buying their CDs. You can get them autographed, each band sticks around to take photos and sign CDs after their set. They sell albums to open the doors to more live music.<\/p>\n Bring cash, not credit. (The ATM at the airport ate my card before I even pressed any buttons. Would have been a nightmare if I didn’t have spare cash on me to change into Ringgit.)\u00a0[\/tab]<\/p>\n [\/tabs]<\/span><\/p>\n [button style=’pink’ url=’https:\/\/travelblog.expedia.com.my\/activities\/borneo-jazz-festival-2016-pre-event\/’ icon=’entypo-heart-empty’ fullwidth=’true’] Read: Borneo Music Festival 2016 Pre-Event[\/button]<\/p>\n Crowds filtered in late Friday afternoon, wandering\u00a0the festival grounds behind Park City Everly Hotel Miri, Sarawak. The open-air setting is fringed with tall trees and a beach looking out over a calm sea. Just like the Rainforest World Music Festival, I really liked the natural outdoor setting with a very professional stage and sound set-up. There was also food, drinks and handicraft stalls. Again, very impressed that Coffee Bean makes iced frappucinos out there\u00a0\ud83d\ude42 At 6pm, the\u00a0local Chung Hwa School Marching Band welcomed early arrivers as the sun begin to go down over the seascape. They were part of the new positive addition this year – a\u00a0youth outreach programme to\u00a0give opportunities to\u00a0young people and encourage their musical journey.<\/p>\n The USM Mini Big Band was the second to take\u00a0the stage under the leadership of Assoc. Professor Razif Mohd who\u00a0I found to be\u00a0an inspiring figure. He’s doing his best to facilitate the continuity of music through youth. He has designed a\u00a0programme\u00a0in the local university, where students studying any major, can\u00a0learn music too. It’s designed to grow their music skills within the limited few university years, to reach\u00a0basic performance-ready level. Interestingly, he shared that\u00a0it’s\u00a0the students who aren’t<\/em> majoring in music who are most disciplined in practicing.<\/p>\n Both student bands did a good job. The crowd was very encouraging too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a beautiful sunset, Spanish band O Sister!<\/strong>\u00a0kicked things off to a great start with their cutesy swing style. With the crowd warmed up, Malaysian-Indian collaboration band A.P.I<\/strong> took over, followed by Japan’s Ralyzzdig<\/strong> and finally the Manou Gallo Groove Orchestra<\/strong>, for an entertaining\u00a0night of jazz tunes.<\/p>\n Over the 2 days, each of the 8 bands sounded very different from the next. For serious fans of jazz, there’s lots of technical skillful stuff happening on stage for you to appreciate. But no one is left out as the festival was full of great music – to dance, to snap your fingers, to feel the blues.<\/p>\n Speaking of the blues, I just adored the seductive bluesy tune by Manou Gallo Groove Orchestra. That was just one\u00a0of the many great songs they played at the Borneo Jazz Festival 2016. Fast, slow, sexy… their entire set was great. In fact, they\u00a0were my favourite band.\u00a0I’ll elaborate a little more on that later when I get into the highlights of my 3 favourite bands.\u00a0 I definitely recommend attending the festival even though you’ve probably never heard of any of the bands. They’re going to be good – trust me. Or rather, trust the organizers. The Sarawak Tourism Board puts in a lot of effort to create a great line-up of musicians who offer a wonderful variety of sounds within the jazz spectrum. And\u00a0you’ll be pretty cool for discovering a band your friends don’t know — yet \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n In any case, good music is good music so that’s reason enough to attend. Plus it’s wonderful to hear\u00a0something for the first time.<\/p>\n I will say though, it’s not a very big crowd. Which is great because you have plenty of space. But this festival deserves a much bigger crowd. So tell your friends k!<\/p>\n Now, back to O Sister! who made my top 3.<\/p>\n Spanish group O Sister! more than warmed up the crowd with their lively performance. I was expecting a slow start, but this definitely started things off with a bang. They were just wonderful! Made me excited to see the rest of the festival play out if the start was this good! I told the singer, “Your snazzy outfit\u00a0looks\u00a0great but how are you going to manage when it’s so hot out there?!”<\/em><\/p>\n “We’re making hot music,” he joked.<\/p>\n He added that wearing the full jazz suit helps him get in the mood.\u00a0And he proved that on stage!\u00a0They were delightful! \u00a0I\u00a0especially loved when they made the wah-wah sounds with their mouths, and that bit of dancing was also a big crowd-pleaser.<\/p>\n This performance was easily enjoyed by everyone. Very chirpy and perfect to put you in a good mood. The band is fronted by amazing female bassist Manou Gallo from Ivory Coast. The whole groove crew comprises 4 ladies and 4 men hailing from Ivory Coast, Belgium, France and Denmark. They\u00a0play\u00a0afro jazz with lots of energy. It was obvious to me that each one of them is super skilled at their instrument – their energy and passion\u00a0music was infectious! Even when we didn’t understand the words, the crowd absolutely loved Manou Gallo Groove Orchestra. Listening to them, you would have no clue that they’d had a very stressful journey to Malaysia and almost didn’t make it in time to perform for the Borneo Jazz festival! Half the band got stuck in the Belgian airport strike. They finally arrived the afternoon of the same day they were to play, but without their instruments so they had to scramble to borrow some from the local bands. Madness!<\/p>\n But come evening, they were all smiles and brought some serious groove. Manou was indeed a killer bassist.<\/p>\n And then there was the cellist who had to make do with the borrowed cello, yet put her heart into playing it.<\/p>\n The guitarist… the boys loved her and the girls wanted to be her. I was in awe too. She has mad skills and c’mon, she looks super<\/em> cool.<\/p>\n The guys on trumpet, trombone, sax and drums were smooooth. Loved.<\/p>\n Lene surprised me with her vocals. Blown away. After chatting with girl-next-door type Lene, I was very curious about the dynamics between herself and the vivacious Manou who has quite the presence. How could they fit together? But on stage, they were absolutely electric\u00a0<\/em>belting out afro rhythms. Lene’s vocals.. wow.<\/p>\n Even more interesting, Lene learnt French completely from Manou by practicing music together. She sang it before she understood it,\u00a0and now she’s fluent with the rest of the French-speaking band. Just another magical story of how music connects across borders \ud83d\ude42 Those were 2 of the 3, and the last is the Rad Trads<\/strong>. It’s a bit of a tough choice between USA’s Rad Trads\u00a0vs The Klazz Brothers<\/strong> (Cuba + Germany).<\/p>\n Cuba hit a bit more of the latin notes, which I adore. They did a great job of getting the crowd dancing. Even got a few people up on stage! I liked the smooth tunes and their backstory of how the band got together, was my favourite. The German guys were in Cuba to perform, and met the Cuban musicians. They\u00a0invited them over to Germany, and so the Cubans went, despite having no language in common. Today here they are, performing together in Borneo. How wonderful \ud83d\ude42 Their set also included great jazzed-up interpretations of classical symphonies. The Rad Trads<\/strong>\u00a0were… less radical. Haha. But super lively. They closed the show on the 2nd day with a very very entertaining set. Full of big energy and all the guys looked like their cheeks were about to explode! The epic moment was right at the end, when several of them jumped into the crowd. The crowd went bananas! That was so much fun. It was in fact a shame the night had to end there.<\/p>\n Well, almost — there was the post-performance casual jam session where the audience could mingle with the musicians. Before I get to the jam session, I have to say my absolute favourite moment was a very random one. After the jam session the first night, the bar closed and among the last handful of people to leave was Manou Gallo’s lead vocalists, Manou and Lene. In their pyjamas and in a good mood, they spontaneously broke out into song. And it was the most melodic wondrous thing ever. Seerriously. Best skali!<\/p>\n Ruined only by the drunk dude who thought he should add a drum beat despite his complete lack of rhythm. Funny moment \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n My favourite part of the Rainforest World Music Festival was the workshops. There, musicians who had never met before, playing unique traditional instruments, would sit together and create unrehearsed music in front of a crowd sitting in traditional longhouses.\u00a0I was in complete awe of how\u00a0beautifully they could communicate just with music. (Read more about that here<\/a>) At the Borneo Jazz Festival,\u00a0after midnight similar magic takes place. In the cosy\u00a0hotel bar, any musician is welcome to take the stage and jam together without any practice. You’d be surprised how good they sound, with zero rehearsal. They do some wonderful things together with the freedom to just go where the music takes them. I’m no musician, but this is the part about music that has me in complete awe.<\/p>\n I was personally most impressed by the musician from India who could create such rapid drum beats with his vocals alone.<\/p>\n The rest of the night was fun too, hanging out with the musicians and hearing more of their personal journeys through music that took them to this very moment, in Miri where they probably never imagined they would be when they first started\u00a0following their passion for music far far across the world.<\/p>\n Just do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"borneo-jazz-klazz-cuba\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneo-jazz-klazz-cuba-2.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nIt Begins!<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/05136955-800x533-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOutreach to Young Musicians<\/h4>\n
![\"Miri](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/miri-student-band.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSwing & Dance<\/h2>\n
![\"API](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/API-borneo-jazz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Japan's](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/japan.jpg\")
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\n<\/span>My Top 3 Highlights Of Borneo Jazz 2016<\/h2>\n<\/span><\/h2>\nO Sister! Light My Fire<\/h2>\n
![\"O](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-dixeland-o-sister.jpg\")
![\"O](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-o-sister-girls.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"spanish-dixieland\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-spanish-dixieland.jpg\")
![\"wah-wah\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-wah-wah.jpg\")
Photo: Sarawak Tourism Board<\/em><\/span>![\"Chicken](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-o-sister-spain-2.jpg\" "\\"Chicken")
They even got the crowd to do the chicken dance \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nAfro Groove & Girl Power<\/h2>\n
![\"Manou](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneojazz-manou-gallo-ladies.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manou](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/manou-gallo-1024x683-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Guitar](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/manou-gallo.jpg\")
Manou on the right<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Manou](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cello-borneo-jazz.jpg\")
![\"Guitarist](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/virna-guitarist.jpg\")
![\"Virna](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/guitarist-manno.jpg\")
![\"Manou,](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lene-nico.jpg\")
![\"Gaspard](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/gaspard.jpg\")
![\"Christophe](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/manou-gallo-christophe.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/boyus.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Language of Music<\/h4>\n
![\"Vocals](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/manou-lenne.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTop 3 Favourite Bands<\/h2>\n
![\"Cuba's](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/cuba-borneo-jazz1.jpg\")
![\"Audience](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/lets-dance1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"USA's](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/borneo-jazz-rad-tradz-singer.jpg\")
\u00a0\u00a0![\"Rad](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/rad-tradz-borneo-jazz.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBonus: Pyjama Jazz<\/h2>\n
Jam Session<\/h2>\n
![\"Spain](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/spain-drums.jpg\")
![\"India,](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jamsesh1.jpg\")
![\"dancing-jam-session\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/dancing-jam-session.jpg\")
![\"jam-sesh1\"](\"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.my\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/jam-sesh1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBorneo Jazz Festival 2017<\/h2>\n