Borneo Jazz 2011 – Eight Performing Groups – No. 4/8 – 徳田雄一郎 RALYZZ DIG ＠マレーシア - Yuichiro Tokuda’s RALYZZ DIG

By Anthony Tan email:anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

Jazz seems to have established a strong footing in Japan, especially in Tokyo, and attracted a large audience. Tokyo has a large number of entertainment hangouts and its jazz clubs spin out some of the best of jazz concerts over the last few decades.

One of the best jazz joints to hang-out with top jazz groups is Shinjuku Pit Inn, a jazz and blues club for over 35 years. Most major jazz musicians have played at least once in this classic Tokyo club including Yuichiro Tokuda RALYZZ DIG’s.

Yuichiro Tokuda RALYZZ DIG, an upcoming jazz group, will be making its debut concert performance outside of Japan at Borneo Jazz 2011 on May 14 from 8.15 pm – 9.15 pm at ParkCity Everly Hotel in Miri, Sarawak in Malaysia.

Tokuda, born on March 9, 1980, returned to Japan after completing his study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He plays the saxophone, a composer and a vocalist as well.

He formed the Yuichiro Tokuda Quintet on his return. Tokuda cut his first album, Initial Impulse, in August 2006 and the Jazz Life magazine reviewed it as "the cutting edge of the present progressive form of jazz".

His second album, Urban Lights or Umi Toki Kaze Iro in Japanese, was released July 2007.

In 2008, Tokuda decided to change his band’s name to Yuichiro Tokuda’s RALYZZ DIG and received an award as the “New Face of the Year in Art & Culture” from the Chiba-City Government, the first time ever for a jazz artiste.

The others members of his band are Naoto Suzuki, who plays the guitar, Kazuhiro

Tamura on the piano while Kumpei Nakabayashi plays the bass and Gaku

Hasegawa is on drums.

Yuichiro Tokuda RALYZZ DIG’s third album, Imagination Live @ Shinjuku PIT-INN, was released in May 2010.

The same year, Tokuda released his fourth album, Imagination, which spins for 73 minutes of jazz music and was acclaimed by CD Journal Japan as “enormously impressive, definitely as excellent work assured and it is ahead of a couple generations”.

2010 was a busy year for Tokuda and his band. They performed in numerous small music festivals throughout Japan and to top it all was their performance at the jazz festival, Yokohama Jazz Promenade.

In January 2011, Imagination was awarded a prize at Mike Pinder's SONGWARS 2010 song writing competition in alternative category.

If you are jazz fan and enjoy a fabulous outdoor music, Borneo Jazz is one jazz festival that you should not miss. Check out three sample pieces of Yuichiro Tokuda below.

徳田雄一郎/Yuichiro Tokuda : "Nothing There"


徳田雄一郎/Yuichiro Tokuda: "Brunei" 1/2 Dairo, Naoto Solo


徳田雄一郎/Yuichiro Tokuda : "Home"

Hope to see you at BORNEO JAZZ 2011 from 12 - 14 May at Miri City.

Borneo Jazz 2011 – Eight Performing Groups – No. 3/8 – SUI2

By Anthony Tan email:anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

Ng Cheuk-yin playing the “Sheng”(Right)

Members of the SUI2 (Below)

Another performing band that is coming to Borneo Jazz 2011 is a group of young Hong Kong music enthusiasts who got together in 2008 to form SIU2.

Leader of the group Ng Cheuk-yin is a composer himself who specialises in blowing “Sheng”, a mouth organ which is believed to be first played 5,000 years ago.
Cheuk-yin reintroduced “Sheng” into the 21st century to produce a unique and rich sound to the new jazz music. He also plays the Chinese percussion and keyboard.

The other band members are Cass Lam who plays the sanxien, Jason Lau (zheng), Peter Fan (piano), Liang Chun Wai (bass) and Melchior Sarreal (drumset).

Cass Lam plays the sanxien (Right)

SIU2 augments the traditional jazz rhythm section of bass, drums and piano with other traditional Chinese instruments such as the “sanxien” and the “zheng” to come up with exciting, new jazz melody.

The band has introduced Chinese style jazz into something totally different. It is not a mere crossover of rock, classical, Chinese and another western music unlike what most bands tried to do.

Powerful, inventive, enticing and aggressive, their music takes you into exciting new sonic spaces yet with a familiar framework.

Their concerts and CDs are a ground-breaking melting pot of musical genres from the east and west, which serves as a sonic portrayal of the juxtaposition of disparate cultural elements in Hong Kong.

Ever since its acclaimed debut performance in the 2008 at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, SIU2 has been creating and refining their innovative music and style.

The Flower Music Co Ltd, set up by them, produces, distributes and promotes innovative music as well as supports composers and artists in fulfilling their aspirations.

SIU2’s debut album, Open Door, released in 2008, received unanimous accolades from both music critics and fans.

Its second album, Kon Fusion, scored with music genres with its mixture from the east and west. It reflects very much Hong Kong’s amazing wide array of disparate cultural elements with its historical past and ultra modern existing side by side.

The best way to describe SUI2 is they have their very own music. Paradoxical as it may sound but this is exactly what is so unique about their music.

View their performance video selections below and see how it would entice you to be at Borneo Jazz.

SUI2 will be honouring us for the opening act on Friday 13 May at ParkCity Everly Hotel, Miri from 7-8 pm.

If you want to have good time, better make your travel plans to Borneo Jazz early, especially your hotel accommodations and flights arrangements.

See You there!

For more details about the Borneo Jazz, info@jazzborneo.com or call the Miri Visitors Information Centre at
+6 085-434180/81.

Borneo Jazz 2011 – Eight Performing Groups – No. 2/8 – State of Monc

By Anthony Tan - anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

The State Of Monc, with their unique, innovative sound and striking position within the band collective, the Dutch Nu-Jazz Movement, will certainly put the Netherlands firmly on the map of the future of jazz.

This seven-strong member band from Amsterdam and Rotterdam was formed in 2000 by trumpet player Arthur Flink and electronics soundsmith/beat-maker Hielke Praagman.

Its other members are Robin Koerts on bass, Ben van den Dungen, who plays the tenor sax, Milan Bonger on alto sax, Tuur Moens on drums and Johan Hendrikse fingering the keyboard.

This group fuses slick electronic sound with pure jazz on acoustic instruments for the perfect balance between electronic beats and sounds.

Its brass instrumentation, acoustic bass and drums open up new directions and appeal to fans of jazz, dance and experimental music.

Since State Of Monc’s formation, its members have been working very hard to establish a strong profile. They have had performances sold out in top clubs and rocked major music festivals.

The band not only took their vision to fuse together complex, impassioned jazz with adventurous, dance-rooted electronics “nu-jazz” at the Amsterdam dance event and North Sea Jazz Festival but has also performed in most prestigious clubs such as Paradiso, Melkweg and 013.

In 2006, their first album “Hand To Mouth” released by EDM/City Groovez was launched.

Their impressive debut was followed by Clippertron and Clippertron Extended in 2008. Both albums were released by Challenge Records and produced jointly with Michel Schoots, formerly of Urban Dance Squad.

In 2010, they did a live CD/DVD Phantom Speaker on Sound Camp Records with half of the tracks on the CD unreleased before. It was a combined effort with Michel Schoots again.

Having performed in Germany, Morocco and Ukraine, the group is now coming to Malaysia for the Borneo Jazz festival to build up their international audience.

Let their dynamic and amazing music enthrall you. With their cutting edge pumping dance and complex breakbeats, this Dutch band spins a unique sound that ushers in a new era,

As children of the dance age trained in traditional jazz, State of Monc has seen their music reformed over the years.

Get a taste of their music with just a few clicks below. While you warm up for the coming Borneo Jazz, don’t forget to make your reservation early & See you there!







If you like their music catch the STATE of MONC "Live" on Saturday May 14, 2011 at 9.30 - 10.30pm at Borneo Jazz in Miri, Sarawak.

BORNEO JAZZ 2011 – Eight Performing Groups – No: 1/8 – Maria Muldaur

By Anthony Tan email: anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

This is first of the series of the eight performing groups shortlisted to perform at Borneo Jazz 2011.

How many of you, have heard of the name “Maria Muldaur”?

Maria Muldaur was born in September 12, 1943 of Italian origin in New York City's Greenwich Village and named Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato. She hit big time with “Midnight At The Oasis” in 1974. Maria has banked in 38 albums with latest in December last year with “Christmas At The Oasis”

Maria has released than 38 records

Maria has been nominated six times for the Grammy Award but yet to strike gold even at the latest at the 53rd annual award this February, it was won by Genuine Negro Jig “Carolina Chocolate Drops”. The evergreen Maria will be one of the performing groups at the Borneo Jazz to be held at Miri City, Sarawak from 12-14 May 2011 at the ParkCity Everly Hotel in Miri. If you want to catch Maria Muldaur performance, she will be taking the stage on Saturday May 14.

A better way to introduce “Maria Muldaur” is to watch the video clips of her performances and interview:




Watch the video interview by Living Legends Music where Maria spoke on her sing career from the start.

Before coming to Borneo Jazz, Maria will be performing For A One-Time Only Show at Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues & Crawfish Festival, San Diego, California on May 8, at 2PM. She will be backed by Norton Buffalo's Knockouts on stage.

More details about the Borneo Jazz also available from www.jazzborneo.com, email info@jazzborneo.com or call the Miri Visitors Information Centre at +6 085-434180/8.

Borneo Jazz 2011 - Hello Borneo Jazz, goodbye Miri International Jazz Festival

Following the growing success of the Miri International Jazz Festival after five years, the organiser, Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) has decided to adopt a new title, ‘Borneo Jazz’ (BJ) this year.

Minister of Tourism and Heritage for Sarawak, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan, who announced this, said the rationale for the name change was to capitalise on the destination Borneo, a name which is associated with the images of a magical destination and to reflect the vibrancy of this festival altogether.

STB is now in the midst of reorganisation to further improve its overall tourism activities and see BJ become a viable commercial venture.

Effective 2011, BJ will be managed by STB subsidiary STB Leisure & Properties. With this move, STB will focus on the marketing and promotion of the event itself and tourism.

It has kick-started BJ’s transformation by extending the festival to become a three-day event with its Opening Night on Friday (12 May) having new features with activities happening around a few venues in the resort city of Miri.

The epicentre of the BJ’s happenings remains at the Parkcity Everly Hotel from 13-14 May. There will also be musical meetings on the Saturday afternoon of the festival followed by a Sunday Matinee.

According to STB chief executive officer Dato’ Rashid Khan, the board aims to attract 10,500 visitors to BJ with 60% of the crowd expected to be foreigners.

“STB is working with the private sectors to design tour packages to attract jazz enthusiasts from Peninsular Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia and Europe.

“With these packages, the visitors would be able to attend the festival at night, while during the day they can visit places of interest or participate in the local activities.”

Besides good jazz music and great company, he added, “We will also have stalls selling a wide variety of local and fusion food and beverages as well as festival memorabilia at the venue”.

BJ will have performances from various countries that will feature a wide range of jazz genre from gypsy jazz to traditional jazz. Grammy nominated Maria Muldur from the United States will be main attraction among the BJ performing groups.

Other selected jazz groups are Cunha & Piper from Brazil, SIU2 from Hong Kong, State of Monc from Holland, Les Doigts De L'Homme from France, Yuichiro Tokuda's RALYZZ DIG from Japan, Dhruv from India, Miri born Victor Yong, the Electric Carnival from Malaysia/Canada and C'QUENCE, a mixed group from Malaysia, Columbia, Venezuela, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

With BJ expected to be “sold out” music festival, it is advisable to book your admission tickets and confirmed your accommodation early to avoid last minute rush and disappointment.

Visit www.jazzborneo.com, email info@jazzborneo.com or call the Miri Visitors Information Centre at +6 085-434180 / 81 for more details.

Tickets will also be available at the Visitors’ Information Centre in Kuching, Sibu and Miri from March onwards.

Resort World Genting presents "Glitz"

By Anthony Tan

"Glitz", comprising magic, acrobats and sand animation artworks

For whatever reasons when you are drawn to Genting Highlands, treat yourself and your loved ones to its resident show, Glitz, which is held nightly at the Pavilion in First World Plaza until end-April.

This three-part stage show comprises a magic act by Charles Bach, an acrobat show by the Puyang Huachen Acrobatic Group and sand artworks by Daria Pushankina.

Members of GLITZ with Kelvin (forth form left) posing for the media

A 14-dancers troupe, in colourful costumes, performs dance movement in between these three main acts.

Charles, who hails from the United States, is a renowned magician, illusionist and escape artist, who had entertained audiences worldwide, including Hollywood, Las Vegas, Norway, England, Taipei and on cruise ships such as the Norwegian Cruises.

He has also made many television appearances on international entertainment TV channels such as Discovery Channel and E! Entertainment.

Charles performing the illusion of the lady floating in mid-air on the sharp tip of an Excalibur sword

Among the illusion acts the Charles performed was his special cordless floating light bulb besides having a lady floating in mid-air on the sharp tip of an Excalibur sword. Others include flying kite, cutting a woman in halves and projection on the white screen tick.

His last act was escaping from the straight jacket where Charles invited two members from the audience to strap him and shackle his ankles. After which, he was lifted up towards the ceiling of the auditorium to be suspended upside down at about 10 metres from the stage!

The stage assistants getting ready to hoist up Charles who is shackle up-side-down

The challenge is for Charles to free himself as quickly as possible before the rope that is holding him is being burned to the point that it will snap.

This act is modified from other magicians’ normal performance, which was made famous by the great Houdini where he was strapped in the same way in the straight-jacket but lowered into tank filled with water.

Whenever we have a chance to be on the beach, most of us will build sand castles, write or draw something on the sand. Daria from the Ukraine will amaze you with her sand art animation.

Daria from the Ukraine show you the way to play with sand

She is one of the few people in the world who practices sand art animation to create images by sprinkling sand on a flat table in the right quantity with her hand to form animation images.

The excess sand is carefully removed by her fingers with drawn lines to enhance the details of her image creations all done within a minute or two.

The images are projected onto a large screen by a projector similar to the one used for presentation in meeting rooms.

Daria can transform form one scene or image with her hand movements on the sand to form a different story board or images. To enhance her sand art performance, she would select a piece of background music to synchronise with the story board, theme or message.

This segment of Glitz should not be missed as it is the best of all the performances. Daria has performed in various international concerts and festivals. Her recent performance was with an international symphony orchestra in Day of Lvov with a Swiss conductor.


China’s Puyang Huachen acrobatic troupe, comprising a mixed of young and not so young acrobats who perform in flexibility with their nimble bodies. They have been performing in over 40 countries with different acts to suit the audiences.

Their first act was a skipping rope routine while their other acts were based very much on their synchronised legs work in passing various sizes of drums using only their feet.

In one of the stunts, they even spin their partners with their foot works. They did a formation of human pyramids by hanging precariously in the air, balancing on their teammates’ body while those on top of the pyramid were juggling and spinning a large drum in the air with their feet in perfect balance.

Dances performances in between main acts

According Kevin Tan, Genting Malaysia Bhd’s assistant vice president of the promotions and entertainment department, said Glitz is a family show that will be on for six months until end April. The all in cost to produce this show is about RM5 million. Efforts will be made to constantly change their show’s acts for better perfection and accommodate repeat visitors to Genting expectations.

The show tickets are priced from RM70 to RM100 for adults and RM35 to RM50 for children.

There will be an automatic upgrade to VIP Seat with no additional charges exclusively for Maybankard credit card members

Ticket Price:
Type Adult Child
VIP RM100 RM50
PS1 RM70 RM35

The tickets are sold at Genting WorldCard centres, Box Office at Genting International Showroom and The Pavilion.

For enquiries and bookings, log on to www.rwgenting.com or call the hotline 03-2718 1118.

Terms and Conditions include:

• Automated upgrades are applicable at 6pm onwards on the show day and subject to available seats
• Tickets are not refundable
• Seating arrangements are automated by system
• Automatic upgrade seats for Maybankard holders are not applicable with other ongoing promotions or discounts

ABBA’s Music By Arrival From Sweden: A Sell Out @ Resort World Genting

By Anthony Tan

The ARRIVAL from Sweden

What a treat for ABBA’s fans to relive the ageless music of ABBA, which was performed by tribute band Arrival from Sweden to a packed house at the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands on 25 and 26 December 2010. As the saying goes, nothing beats the original but if you can’t get the original, the second best will do. Arrival just proved that point.

The ageless music of ABBA cuts the generation gap

Although the ABBA stopped performing after the group split up in 1982, its music was able to break the generation gap as can be seen by the crowd who had enjoyed its music at their height in the 70s and 80s with today’s younger music lovers of the like of Lady Gaga.

I was there for the 26 December show. Being a long holiday weekend, Genting was very crowded, especially the family crowd since the year-end long school holidays are still on.
I was told by a Resort World Genting (RWG) staff that the previous night’s show was full house and some of the die-hard ABBA fans had return for another dosage of its music on the second night.

The second copy of ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad

There are many like me who do not get tired of listening to ABBA’s songs like Eagle, Knowing Me Knowing You, Dancing Queen, Fernando and The Name of The Game. The more you listen to it, the more you get addicted to the magic of ABBA’s music, which had rocked the world since 1971. The Arena of Stars was filled up by both the young and older crowd by 8 pm. For the next 90 minutes or so, over 5,000 ABBA music fans were brought back to the nostalgia of the 70s and 80s.

Full house at the Arena of Stars the two performances

At 8.15 pm inside the amphitheatre, the crowd gave a screaming ovation when The Arrival from Sweden came on stage to perform almost non-stop, giving Tiger as the first number for the night followed by Voulez-Vous, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), Super Trouper and a medley of Kisses/Angel/Lay All, Money Money, SOS, When I Kissed The Teacher.

The opening act with "Tiger"

There was another medley of I’ve Been/ Honey Honey/ He Is Yours, the ever popular Knowing Me Knowing You, The Winner Takes It All, Happy New Year, Chiquitita, Mamma Mia, Waterloo and Take A Chance On Me before the group left the stage for a short while.

Arrival returned to give us bonus songs like The Summer Night and Thank You For The Music. The group ended the night with a very popular top of chart number, Dancing Queen, with crowd standing up, clamping their hands and swinging to the music’s tempo.

"Thank you for The Music"

I was wondering if it was the signature of their act to have Dancing Queen as the last song and to invite one of the young audiences to join them on stage. Having tracked their past performances, I noticed that they have done this lately in all their concerts.

It was a worthwhile show, especially when the tickets were affordably priced at RM100, RM70 and RM50 for an international concert in Genting, this is quite rare.

The founder of ARRIVAL from Sweden - Vicky Zetterberg

Founded in 1995 by Vicky Zetterberg (the dark hair lady performer) from Gothenburg, Arrival is the only ABBA tribute band that has the exclusive rights to the ABBA’s name, costumes and original music score from all of ABBA’s greatest hits.

This Swedish group has since toured over 40 countries and appeared in several television and radio shows worldwide. Arrival’s tribute band production, the closest you will ever get to see ABBA, is touted as the next best to the real ABBA.

A familiar pose of ABBA done by ARRIVAL

The band’s success can be attributed to its musical superiority and sheer authenticity that even the original ABBA members acknowledged their skills. It is the only group who has got unreleased ABBA songs directly from ABBA. The three songs in Spanish were released worldwide in 2009.

Arrival has the exclusive right to copy ABBA's original outfits as can be seen in all their concerts. Having enjoyed their performance, as one of the millions of ABBA fans who treasured its collection of LP records, cassette tapes, videotapes, I could not help picking up an ABBA DVD - "ABBA The Definitive Collection' that night for RM30 which was on sale.

"Wishing you all HAPPY NEW YEAR & Prosperous 2011"