|
The 3rd Annual Manila Jazz Festival seeks refuge indoors at Greenbelt 1’s Expo Exchange from last year’s “Tag-ulan Blues”.
Catering “bottomless” French red and white wine to a thirsty SRO crowd, both young and old, the Jewelmer-sponsored festival featured a mixed bag of groups with the aim of pleasing both jazz aficionados and the casual music constituencies of Metro Manila. In this respect, the organizers achieved a high degree of success based on an estimated 85-90% house seen at the end of the event around 12:30 am. It was quite apparent that lessons learned last year paid-off with a smooth running program, replete with quick turnovers of the stage to on-coming bands, impressive lighting design, an indoor venue and a less chatty master of ceremonies. Although the event was videotaped with a three-camera production unit, no video projection for the audience was used this year. This was a sensible decision too due to the characteristics of this venue -- one which is small enough to create an intimate atmosphere yet adequate in size to accomodate all but the standees. As a video person, this reviewer noted the extreme intrusiveness of the stage cameraman who nearly fell off the platform at one point in the program!
 Musically, the evening’s program was wildly uneven, given the range of experience of the five bands that played. Although this observer was not able to catch the Jewelmer Jazz Band, he did enjoy Affinity (3rd) and the Jamie Oehlers Band which closed the show. As for Subconcept (2nd), a relative new-comer on the scene, they were clearly outclassed by the aformentioned two bands. The fourth group, Satya, turned in an energetic, crowd-pleasing performance with tight ensemble blowing and a sensational female vocalist (right). Resembling material Chicago or Donald Fagen might have performed, this group skirted the periphery of what most aficionados would call jazz or improvised music.
To this reviewer, the evening’s outstanding performances were turned in predictably by Johnny Alegre Affinity and Jamie Oehler’s group. Regrettably, it wasn’t until Oehler’s group had finished an astonishingly hot set, that it became apparent that Affinity had, once again, been short-changed in terms of time alloted to them. It was no surprise, then, that Oehler’s group could stretch out as it did so magnificently, playing a mostly-John Coltrane repertoire to a spellbound audience. Affinity was never given a chance to stretch out equally so thereby short-circuiting what might have been an even more thrilling evening of jazz virtuosity like Manila hasn’t seen in a long time. The virtuosity of Affinity is well-established, and its recent Ayala Museum performance will never be forgotten by those who had the good fortune to attend that steller event.
 
Bottomline, however, is that the Jamie Oehler band blew away everybody this evening given the circumstances alluded to above; not only were Oehler’s solos searing in their intensity, but his bassist, turned in an enthralling performance reminiscent of the late Scott Lafaro, a longtime associate of the late pianist, Bill Evans. One fan grumbled on the Pinoy Jazz Yahoo Group that the bassist was not sufficiently amplified. This cannot be confirmed since this observer was was quite close to the stage. As for the mix and sound system used this evening, no deficiencies in the overall production audio were noted.
|
