JAMmin'

New JAM Event Coming Up!

2008-02-07T21:34:00.000+08:00

Hi folks! It's been an awful long time since my last post and I'm quite sure a lot of people are wondering what the heck has happened to JAM?!? Well, fear not... we're still around, though some things (and people and places) aren't.

For instance, JAM Pro-Tem President, David Gomes, is in Bangkok on a short-term contract playing a jazz gig at the new Grand Millennium Sukhumvit. Committe Member, Julian Chan, is freezing his made-for-sax lips all the way in New York City, and loving it! And probably the most regrettable, The Top Room has shut down its operations after months of struggling in the KL (authentic) jazz scene with its infinitesimal circle of supporters.

So why do we still hold high the torch that we carry for jazz? Well, simply because it's too beautiful and precious to let go of, even in its lack of serious supporters. Woe betide us all should jazz be but a vague memory of good things past.

Anyhow, JAM VP, Michael Veerapen and I, are cooking up the next JAM event and it is slated for the 24th of February. That's all that's definite as of this writing. I am in the process of negotiating with a couple of venues in Bangsar and will update you all in the next couple of days or so (read: once the lure of CNY open houses and the overwhelming flow of oranges, cookies, ang pows, booze and all things great at this time of year begin to ebb).

In the meantime, have a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR and may the Year of The Rat bring you golden opportunities for love, joy, peace, health, wealth & great jazz!

JAZZ 101 went to town!

2007-11-10T18:26:00.000+08:00

A wonderful time was had by all who were in attendance at last Sunday's JAM event at The Top Room. Some nearly 30 people sat through the almost 2-hour clinic masterminded by KL's jazz honcho, Michael Veerapen.

And as was all laid out in the "lesson plan", everyone learned more than a thing or two about jazz. From counting in bars to snapping on the 2 & 4 to finding their way in the song and knowing when to clap and even understanding the concept of improvisation! It was, to borrow a phrase from some of the participants,

"...a real eye-opener for me as, although I like to listen to jazz, sometimes I just get lost because I don't know what happens after they play the melody!"

"...i have a better understanding now of what i see on stage! listening is one thing but watching the musicians interact is another... now their body language makes sense!"

"...this is a really good way to spend my Sunday! It's worth much more than what we paid for."

"... what and when's the next event going to be ah???"

Well there you have it folks! Another successful event by JAM and you can bet your bottom dollar that there'll be lots more coming up!

For those of you who missed out this time, make sure you are there, whenever & wherever the next event's gonna be. Till then....

Adios!

p.s. pics will be posted here soon.

The JAMmers Are At It Again!

2007-10-04T20:37:00.001+08:00

Yo JAM members and other Jazz Advos! Wassup?? After some weeks of quiet, the JAM committee is raring to bring y'all another rip-roaring event in November! Our 2nd JAM Event is slated for Sunday, the 4th at, where else? The Top Room. It will be an evening of JAZZ APPRECIATION together with JAM Pro-Tem Veep Michael Veerapen and the usual suspects which, I suspect, would include Julian & myself :) What da heck is Jazz Appreciation, you say? Well, it'll be kind of a JAZZ 101 approach where you'll learn about what jazz musos really do on stage. In point-form, here's what the main moderator, Michael Veerapen, has laid out for discussion/ presentation at the JAM event:

1. The Form. Nope. Not the 'Borang' as you Malaysians are accustomed to. Form as in... how to 'follow' what's going on especially during the solos.
2. The functions of the various instruments and how it comes together. I think that needs no explaining.
3. Trading 4's, 8's [not talking about the stock market here]. What he is referring to is open solos. OK. Still don't get it? Then all the more reason you need to be there!
4. Ending the piece....the tag ending, picking up on a rhythmic riff. Huh, you say? Even more reason to make it there that weekend!
5. Interpretation - setting the song to various rhythms, tempos, re-harmonisation. Ah... this should be interesting. How many times have you heard My Funny Valentine in how many diffferent versions & tempos? Same song, different feel. Get it?
6. Interplay - when musicians feed off each other. Yep! Jazz musos are a hungry lot. They're always eating. But they're also very generous cos they 'feed' one another, in musicspeak.
7. The blues - 12 bar blues form. Ok. For everyone's benefit, let's refer to this as 'Borang 12'.
8. Jazz etiquette - when to clap and when not to clap. This really ought to be an eye opener for many. Having had the unfortunate privilege of being on stage & observing the audience, I have witnessed quite a number of people, un-initiated in the seemingly intricate perception of this wonderful thing called jazz, jump up in their seats and eye-ball the flers at the next table who are applauding wildly after an exceptionally moving & goose-bump inducing solo [aka adlib].

So there you have it. This is what the next JAM event's gonna be about. If this sounds like fun, then call these nos. to book a place... Junji: 016 2254868; Julian: 012 2732378, Nissar: 012 217 1386, Albert: 017 3814493.

A special concession price of RM30 (inclusive of hi-tea and free-flow of coffee/tea) will be charged, with part of the proceeds going to the Association for the furtherance of our cause.

Hope to see you there!!!

The day the JAMmers came to town!

2007-09-10T21:03:00.000+08:00

We dun it! Yesterday was the first unofficial official event for JAM and what a great time we all had. Though I need to confess that, up till 2 pm yesterday, I wasn't quite sure what was gonna happen.

Firstly, there were but a handful of replies to my earlier emails to committee members as to possible suggestions for the days' activities. The few that replied suggested screening videos of live jazz concerts and doco-type videos ranging from Oscar Peterson to Keith Jarrett to Buena Vista Social Club to Shanghai Jazz! When other suggestions for activities never made it to our gmail inbox JAM Prez, David Gomes & I decided to go with the screening idea, to be on the safe side.

So there we were yesterday, lugging our jurassic 29 inch tv and dvd player (much to our kids annoyance) all the way up to The Top. A li'l arranging here & there, the expert manoeuvering of cables by JAM Treasurer, Albert Yap, and we were good to go!

The room was filled with many new faces who somehow managed to receive emails from the able-bodied Julian Chan (JAM Committee Member) and, being quite an eclectic mix, we decided to get started with the Buena Vista Social Club documentary video. After a brief welcome by the gorgeous JAM Secretary (that's me!), David Gomes gave a brief intro about
the spirit of Cuban music before Albert hit the play button.

Some 15 minutes later into BVSC, we decided to give them something different and so we switched videos to Oscar Peterson and his trio. It was at this point that I realized how engrossed the crowd was to the telly. They gave 100% concetration to what Oscar was saying and were really intent on watching this video! They even applauded at the end of a swinging number!!!

Another few more minutes and we switched to Chick Corea and friends performing live at a jazz concert. This was a real test of faith for us in the committee as we thought we'd lose the crowd once those cats got into their solos. But, guess what? They all seemed to love it! And, doubtless, the musos in the house were lapping it all up watching the big guns at work. No doubt, the few minutes with those videos fired them up to get the live jamming started so, with apologies, I went up on stage to announce that we would end the screening at that point to make way for the Sunday Jazz Jam. Again, the crowd enthusiastically gave their affirmation with thunderous applause. And that pretty much set the stage for the rest of the evening.

What a record it was too that we had so many musicians in attendance that we basically went through the jam session without stopping for breaks in between! One after the other they went to have a go and, before long, spirit & soul having been fed to fullness... our stomachs were rumbling and were in need of body fuel. It was at this point that we bid everyone goodnight with promises of doing it again. Trust us, after yesterday's success, there'll be plenty more up ahead where JAM activities are concerned.

Posting some pics below. Coming soon... Video snippets! Yay!

JAM Treasurer, Albert Yap busy
behind the telly setting up the
next video for screening.

The crowd glued to the telly... well,
most of 'em anyway.

JAM Veep, Mike Veerapen going
at it with Julian Chan on sax,
Albert Yap on bass & Yacob Madon
on drums

JAM Committee member,
Cheah Wei Li on piano

Ee Jeng under the
watchful eyes of MJV
sitting up front!

Top Room newbie,
Kevin Theseira

So keep tuning in to this site for more updates! If you wanna be on our mailing list, send us an email at jazzmalaysia@gmail.com.

Junji Delfino

ANNOUNCEMENT: First JAM Event!

2007-09-05T01:28:00.000+08:00

*UPDATE*

ANNOUNCEMENT:

On behalf of Pro Tem Secretary Junji Delfino (while her internet connection is down), I am pleased to announce that The Jazz Association of Malaysia (JAM) will be organizing its first event and here are the details:

JAM Get-Together
Venue: The Top Room @ Top Hat Restaurant. 7 Jalan Kia Peng, KL
Date and Time: 9 September 2007 (Sunday), 4pm onwards
Entrance: FREE

OPEN TO ALL!!

This is basically an open-to-all event, which starts from 3pm, and trails off to the Sunday Jam Session which (usually) starts at 6.30pm until 9pm (or well past if it gets too hot full of musos on stage!).

As this is our first open event, we're starting off with some rather casual activities, including DVD screenings of some live jazz performances and some documentaries, ranging from Keith Jarrett to Buena Vista Social Club. There will probably also be some short performances by established jazz musicians and bands, to make things more interesting (what's a jazz event without a jazz performance, anyway, right?). There will also be some finger food (liver pate and bread, I heard), courtesy of JAM's Pro Tem Secretary, Junji Delfino.

The main objective of this event, is really to just get people who are interested, to come bask in the wonderful spirit of jazz, including musos and non-musos. And this will also be a good opportunity to try to attract new members into the association. Prospective members can sign up and join the association anytime during this meet!! So do inform your friends who are interested to join, and get them to come by this Sunday to sign up.

As the Ramadhan month approaches, please do note that this weekend's event will be the last weekend of live jazz performances at the Top Room for the entire month, as The Top Room jazz programme will be taking a hiatus during this period. Regular programming will resume after the Ramadhan fasting month is over. So, in the spirit of any jazz jam session, let's make this a big, rowdy, one!!

For more information, please contact JAM via email, or contact Pro-Tem Secretary Junji Delfino at +60162254868.

2007-08-04T11:42:00.000+08:00

As the ball started rolling with the initial meet, everything is slowly (but surely) falling into place with JAM. We have zeroed in on a logo out of at least a dozen submitted by, Committee member, Andrej Bastar. Thanks, Andrej! We hope your enthusiasm and all-around goodwill infects the rest of the JAM members' roster. I will be posting the logo in here soon... as soon as I can scan it.

Let's see... we have also targetted the 9th of September as the first official jam night (or day). We will most likely start around 3 pm and gently merge into the Sunday Jazz Jam which normally starts at 6 pm. We would like to take this opportunity to get more people to sign up and get into the jazz frenzy. The last Sunday Jazz Jam that coincided with JAM's inaugural meet drew a record-breaking turnout of musos, so much so that resident jammer, David Gomes only played 3 tunes at the end of the night. And it's not a complaint by any means. It is really an affirmation that what we got started at The Top Room on Sundays is a novel idea that has brought satisfaction (and still is) to many.

So, in closing, I would like to ask you to keep tuned in to this space to watch for updates and announcements. Also, feel free to post messages, requests, suggestions, etc. right here and let us know what you're thinking. Don't want your message seen by all and sundry? Email us here.

Till then... let's keep jazz alive!

What A Great Start!

2007-07-10T16:26:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday's first attempt to round up the jazz die-hards of Malaysia brought some 40 over people to The Top Room, all eager to hear what the JAM's about. And needless to say, a lot happened that evening. A Pro-Tem Committee is in place, headed by President: David Gomes, Vice-President: Michael Veerapen, Secretary: Junji Delfino, Asst Secretary: Mohamed Nissar and Treasurer: Albert Yap. This Pro-Tem Committee will be responsible for preparing all the necessary documentation, including drafting the JAM Constitution, for submission to the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

For the Association to be recognized on a national level, we are required to submit 7 names representing 7 different States in the country. Hence, following is our magic 7:

DAVID GOMES (Selangor)
MICHAEL VEERAPEN (Kuala Lumpur)
TAY CHER SIANG (Malacca)
CHEAH WEI LI (Alor Setar)
MIA PALENCIA (Sabah)
MICHAEL LU YIAN LOCK (Sarawak)
WILSON QUAH (Penang)

Other Committee members nominated into the Pro-Tem include: Julian Chan, Tay Cher Siang, Cheah Wei Li, Mohd Sharin, Swithin Monteiro, Andrej Bastar, Charmayne Chong, Syaf Selamatt... am I missing anyone?? (:-( not a very good start for a Secretary now, isn't it?)

I am still going through the pages of minutes Nissar, Julian & I took down. I had to rope Julian in just in case Nissar & I missed out on something important! And I have to confess, it was very easy to miss taking down some points because the discussions were quite interesting and, on a few occcasions, I did find myself listening to and watching the interaction before reality hit home and my brains started screaming: OI!!! TAKE THAT DOWN! TAKE THAT DOWN! Anyway, once I'm through deciphering the notes, I shall post it all here for all to see.

At the end of the meeting last Sunday, the Pro-Tem Committe has set this coming Sunday, 15/7/07 at 3 pm, for the round table discussions on what we will be setting down in our JAM Constitution. It will be at The Top Room which, incidentally, was also agreed to be JAM's "home" (thank you Mr & Mrs Danker for all you're doing for jazz)!

Here are a few snapshots from Adrian:

4 Days to go...

2007-07-04T23:44:00.000+08:00

We are quite amazed at the number of phone calls and emails we've received in light of this coming Sunday's JAM meeting. It seems there are more jazz fans out there than we've been led to believe! If that's the case, then we're pretty sure that JAM would prove to be a valuable tool to bring us all together for the furtherance of jazz in Malaysia. How exciting!

Are you coming too??

CALLING... CALLING...

2007-06-28T09:38:00.001+08:00

CALLING ALL JAZZ LOVERS, AFICIONADOS, FANS & MUSOS!

If you have a passion for jazz and want to see that it is nurtured...

If you enjoy the freedom in jazz and want to make sure that it is heard...

If you believe that jazz has the power to bring people together in a common bond...

or

If you have something to share in the interest of building up the Malaysian jazz movement...

...then come on the 8th of July and join JAM. Together let's stand up for jazz!

For more information, ring 016 225 4868 or 016 322 9383.