Following the tradition of summer jazz festivals in many cities around the world, Taipei's Tamsui Jazz Festival is now well into its third year with organizers this year wheeling out a program that not only seeks to entertain but also offers an opportunity for local and international jazz musicians to show off their chops and exchange musical ideas in a 90-minute long jam session.
Organized by the Taipei County Government, the Taipei Philharmonic Radio, and BenQ, this year's festival differs from those in the past in that it not only invites trios and quartets to perform their usual numbers, but features musicians collaborating in a big band setting.
PHOTO: GRACE WENG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Our programs in the last two years sought to attract audiences with a more commercial repertoire and a large amount of hot Latin numbers, but this year we want to present a more authentic and mainstream kind of jazz, like the big band swing of Duke Ellington," says Edith Kuo (郭大微), vice president of the marketing department at the Philharmonic Radio (台北愛樂).
The organizers invited 17 musicians active on the local jazz scene, including members from Metamorphosis (變形蟲), New Decision (爵心爵士樂團), Dizzy Big Band (底細爵士樂團) and Chipin-Kaiya Duo Project (啟彬凱雅二重奏) to perform onstage together for the first time.
"We've played with almost everyone here at different venues, but never altogether in a big band. I'm enjoying myself and I'm very much looking forward to the festival this Saturday. I've been in Taiwan three years and I think the jazz scene is getting better year after year," says Joshua Aguiar, a trumpeter who has played regularly at Blue Note and Brown Sugar, at the big band rehearsal.
The program also features vocalist Zorina London from the US, whose intoxicating voice and electrifying stage presence certainly enriched the instrumental arrangements of this year's big band director Miles Chou (邱建二).
In addition to the big band performance by local musicians, the Ivan G. Solberg Quintet has been invited to join the show. The five members of the group happen to be from different countries -- Norway, Sweden, Australia, the Philippines and India -- and they have titled their program "Different Places, Different Voices," in line with this year's aim of promoting cultural interaction through music. The group will present original compositions such as Mantra of Relativity and Taipei by Night, blending a variety of styles from funk-rock to fusion jazz.
The festival begins at 3pm tomorrow at the Fishermen's Wharf at Tamsui, with activities such as posing with pictures of jazz giants Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, or selecting your favorite jazz quotations with an opportunity to win BenQ's S830C cell phone and other special prizes provided by the organizers. Performances begin at 6:30pm and continue late into the evening. So join the bands tomorrow to indulge in the infectious swing of jazz by the Tamsui waterfront. Admission is free.
Catch Dee Dee Bridgewater Live
Taipei summer jazz does not end with merely a one-day outdoor festival. For jazz aficionados who prefer dressing up for the concert hall, you'll definitely not want to miss Dee Dee Bridgewater's "Getting 'Weill'd" at the National Concert Hall next Tuesday. Organized by the National CKS Cultural Center, Dee Dee Bridgewater will be the first in a series of jazz concerts at the National Concert Hall this summer, with three other concerts coming up all within this month: Coco York and the Mike del Ferro Trio, Belgium harmonica legend Toots Thielemans with the Mike del Ferro Trio, and the husband-and-wife guitar and vocal duo Tuck and Patti.
Described by the Chicago Sun-Times as "the sole and rightful heir to the Fitzgerald tradition, Dee Dee Bridgewater has garnered a Grammy for her jazz performance as well as a Tony Award from Broadway. This time she will present reinterpretations of the cabaret-style songs by German composer Kurt Weill, featured on her album This is New. With Thierry Eliez on piano, Ira Coleman on bass and Hans Van Oosterhout on drums, Dee Dee and her trio is sure to captures the hearts of Taipei audiences with her virtuoso scats and the band's ebullient energy.
"Dee Dee Bridgewater: Getting 'Weill'd" will be at the National Concert Hall next Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 7:30pm. Tickets are NT$400 to NT$3,000, available through the CKS Cultural Center (02) 2343 1587 or from the Web site at http://www.ntch.edu.tw
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50