Here’re another couple of moments captured at the fantastic Penang Island Jazz Festival. The first is of the extremely photogenic Eva Bjerga Haugen. She was the finalist in the prestigious Norwegian jazz competition “Jazz Intro”. At the Penang Island Jazz Festival she was supported by the Espen Eriksen Trio with Espen Eriksen on piano, Lars Tormod Jenset on bass, and Andreas Bye on drums.

The second is of Fabian Gisler of the hugely entertaining Swiss trio, Rusconi. You can see more pictures from the festival in the Music folder of my Portfolio.

One of the highlights for me at the recent Penang Island Jazz Festival in Malaysia was the Austrian trumpeter and vocalist, Michaela Rabitsch, and her partner, composer and guitarist, Robert Pawlik.

The jazz repertoire is pretty standard but Michaela’s approach and Robert’s distinctive playing give it a touch of funk and fusion.

You can find out more about them and their quartet at the website.

I have to confess that as a long-term expat there are few things that I miss about my past life in the UK. The first is good beer, and by that I mean real ale, and a few very particular foods such as stilton, and…errr…decent bacon. Everything else, I fear, is pure nostalgia and probably has little to do with reality. The exception is quality live music which I really do miss.

Serious music fans could be forgiven for thinking that the scene in Southeast Asia has little to offer. In the case of Thailand where I make my home, they’d be right. It is truly appalling and shows few signs of improving. Thankfully, and rather surprisingly given its somewhat conservative nature, Malaysia is just a short flight away.

Lars Tormod Jenset from the Espen Eriksen Trio

Over the last decade Malaysia has carefully cultivated a strong music scene which encompasses some exceptional artists from around the world. A prime example of how far the country’s tastes have come is the fabulous Penang Island Jazz Festival. Now in its eight year, the festival continues to grow from strength to strength and now has a well deserved reputation for showcasing great jazz talent from around the globe.

Michaela Rabitsch from Austria

I have just returned from two nights of outstanding music enjoyed in the beachfront gardens of the Bayview Beach Resort in Batu Ferringhi, just 40 minutes from Penang’s historic Georgetown. A cosmopolitan crowd at the extremely well organized event enjoyed a line-up that included the excellent Espen Eriksen Trio from Norway, the delightful Michaela Rabitsch & Robert Pawlik Trio from Austria, another extremely talented young trio, Rusconi from Switzerland, the tremendous Indonesian trumpet-led Rio Sidik Quartet, the mainstream crowd-pleaser from the UK, Shakatak, and more. There was only one person missing to make it a perfect weekend…and she knows who she is.

Norwegian vocalist, Eva Bejerga Haugen

I was surprised at musical maturity of the crowd. From late teens to those of a rare vintage, the audience sat of the grass, gave each band their full attention and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. This is unheard of in Thailand where a jazz festival is simply background music while you eat, chat with friends and photograph yourself…again.

Ito Kudhi, bass player with the Rio Sidik Quartet

Key to the success of the independent Penang Island Jazz Festival is the fact that the organizers, Capricorn Connection, and all the volunteer crew love jazz. I take my hat off to the main man, Paul Augustin, and to Brian Kwan for all their assistance and support.

In addition to the evening performances the festival almost hosts jazz workshops and performances at venues in Georgetown. There was also a jazz forum discussion, an exhibition of jazz photography by Slovenian photographer, Zigo Koritnik, old jazz posters on display, and of course, an lively after hours jazz jam in the hotel bar until the early hours. What more could a jazz fan ask for? Needless to say I am already looking forward to the 9^th Penang Island Jazz Festival!

Rio Sidik in full swing on Sunday night at the Penang Island Jazz Festival

The good news is that Penang is also going to host the Penang World Music Festival from 30th March to 1st April 2012. With this new event to add to a list that already includes the Borneo Jazz Festival in May and the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak in July, Malaysia is skillfully using live music to raise its profile on the world stage and is way ahead of neighbouring countries.

Shakatak’s George Anderson slapping out funky bass riffs

Over the next few days I’ll be posting more shots of the performers as well as some from the lovely George Town.

Last but not least, a big thank you to Tourism Malaysia.

At the recent Hua Hin Jazz Festival I had the chance to sit down and chat with Lee Ritenour. I last interviewed him three years ago so it was great to find out what he’s been up to. This year, Lee Ritenour marks his 50^th year playing the guitar but he is still sounding as fresh as ever. The full interview will appear in print but here’s a snippet to accompany a few shots of Lee at rehearsal and on stage.

Lee Ritenour’s discography reads like the Who’s Who of Rock and Roll. At a young age this prodigious jazz guitarist established a solid reputation as a one of L.A.’s most sought-after session men. From Sonny Rollins to Steely Dan, Pink Floyd to Aretha Franklin, Ritenour’s fluid and distinctive sound has appeared on over 3,000 recordings, the first of which was with the Mamas and Papas at the tender age of 16.

 ‘I knew very early on exactly what I wanted to do,’ asserts Ritenour. ‘I started studying guitar when I was eight years old. By the time I was 12 I was very serious about it and knew I wanted to be a professional musician.’

Recognising the youngster’s talent and his fondness for Wes Montgomery, Ritenour’s father was supportive of his ambition and ensured that he had excellent teachers.

‘I grew up in L.A. It may not be the best jazz town, San Francisco and New York are both much better but it is great for teachers. It is also hard to beat simply for the amount of musicians who live there,’ he says.

The laid-back and affable West Coast musician honed his craft as a session man during the seventies but it is his early years which he cites as being the most influential period for the development as Ritenour as a musician.

‘I think the most valuable time was from about 13 until into my early twenties. I probably formulated everything that I have worked on since then during these years,’ explains Ritenour.

Check out Rit’s new album, Six String Theory with a host of guest guitarists including BB King, Taj Mahal, Steve Lukather, John Scofield, Mike Stern, and more.

Hua Hin, a beach resort town 200 kilometres south of Bangkok, recently held its ninth annual jazz festival. In the past, I have been extremely critical of the festival due to poor organisation and lacklustre line-ups. You could certainly be forgiven for believing that most live jazz performed in Thailand is in the Kenny G mould of non-jazz as promoted by the appalling radio station, Smooth FM. Either that or it tends to sound like a gaggle of geese being worried by a sheepdog. Although the Hua Hin Jazz Festival has a long way to go if it wants to get serious, things are looking up.

This year, thousands gathered on Hua Hin’s beach to enjoy a line-up that featured virtuoso guitarist Lee Ritenour who gave a stellar performance. The superb Korean guitarist Jack Lee performed his own set and played a few numbers with Ritenour as well as inviting fellow Korean and vocal artist Hye Mi onto the stage. Other highlights included sax man Eric Marienthal with the outstanding Jeff Lorber on keyboards, bassist Jimmy Haslip, and drummer Joel Taylor.

The Hua Hin Jazz Festival has the potential to be a truly great event on the music calendar. Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the festival so hopefully the organizers will pull out all the stops and turn into in an event of international standing.

Here’re a couple of shots from Friday and Saturday night. You can see more in the Music Gallery.

Jeff Lorber on keyboards accompanied Eric Marienthal and also played some of his own compositions.

Renowned Korean jazz fusion guitarist Jack Lee in action at the Hua Hin Jazz Festival.

I’ve just returned from the superb Miri International Jazz Festival in Sarawak. The event is held in the beachfront garden of a hotel and attracts a crowd of around 3,000 jazz lovers.

This year’s festival featured the legendary harmonica player James Cotton who fronted a very tight blues band.

Now in his 70s, Mr. Cotton is looking a little fragile and is barely audible when he speaks…but when he plays the harmonica it’s pure magic. 

Other highlights included Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder. Michael was the original drummer with Santana and, at the tender age of 19, the youngest musician to play at Woodstock. The band’s sound, a cool fusion of rock and jazz, featured the great trumpeter, John Fricke.

Saturday night saw Ricardo Herz from Brazil take to the stage.

The wild haired violinist whipped the crowd up into a frenzy with his exuberant playing that touched on samba, jazz and classical.

I really enjoy the challenge of photographing live gigs. It can be a bit hit and miss with constantly changing lighting and there are lots of images to delete after the show but the handful of satisfying shots make it worth. Of course, it’s always great to be in the photographers pit and to be able to chat with the musicians too.

Last year, at the annual Hua Hin Jazz Festival the organizers invited me to interview the Brit-funk outfit, Shakatak. They were a great bunch of guys and very kindly allowed me to spend the entire gig on stage to photograph them.

Bass player, George Anderson, recently sent me a copy of his debut solo album, Positivity.  

The back cover features an image I took at the festival. He has also used my B&W images on his  newly revamped website.You can order George’s superb album through Amazon.

Just so you can see what a great job the graphic designers have done, here’s the original image.

Other muscians I have photgraphed and had feature articles published about include reggae star, Jimmy Cliff, the superb Touareg band, Tinariwen, jazz guitarists, Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour, guitarist, Steve Lukather, and jazz drummer, Billy Cobham. Next weekend the musical theme continues. I’m flying off to Sarawak to cover the tremendous Miri International Jazz Festival. Highlights of this year’s two-day event include the legendary James Cotton Blues Band, and Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder.

I’ll also be taking a two-day trip up to Limbang and Lawas in northern Sarawak at the invitation of Sarawak Tourism.

Tell your friends you are going to Sarawak for a holiday and the most likely response will be, “where’s that?” In case you don’t know, Sarawak is Malaysia’s largest state on the land mass once commonly known as Borneo, and now divided into Brunei, Indonesia and Sarawak. It offers a diverse range of experiences for adventurous travellers. I look forward to bringing back some great images of the jazz festival and of northern Sarawak’s more remote areas.