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Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
MyBand Goes to the Java Jazz Festival
Well it happened. We played at the famous Java Jazz Festival. We didnt have much time to prepare, as we were told by Mas S about 3 weeks beforehand. We were actually in the middle of preparing for another event when we learned about the opportunity.
With such short notice, we decided to play songs that we have mastered, instead of trying to get in a new playlist. Since it is a jazz festival (of sorts) we chose our songs carefully, getting in the more standard jazz tunes and our most decent sounding swing tunes.
We ended up with the following list:
1. Satin Doll
2. The Way You Look Tonight
3. Fly Me to the Moon
4. How High the Moon
5. Girl from Ipanema
6. You are the Sunshine of My Life
7. Quiet Night of Quiet Stars
8. My Favorite Things
9. Birdland
We also managed to get some singers to perform together for some songs: How High the Moon, Girl From Ipanema, Fly Me to the Moon. Additionally, we got some rest time for the Big Band while the singers did Just the Two of Us and Didadaku with the rhythm section.
MyBand was the first show of the day and we were neatly tucked away, off to the side in the Talent Stage. So we didnt expect the parking lot to be full nor would we have any body watching us, but it was and we did.
The parking lot was pretty full when we got there at 3:00PM. We had wanted to drop off our equipment and our instruments near the entrance but we couldnt. We had to park all the way over yonder and lug our stuff to the hall. Being a small band we didnt have our own roadie crew. Being a small Bigband, we had the dubious honor of having to lug our own chairs too! Yes the committee didnt or couldnt provide us with chairs for the event.
We were warmed up and ready to play by 4:00PM, but we had to wait until our actual time of 4:30 before we could start playing. These guys were pretty strict on the rules. I guess it is important if you have multiple stages that are pretty close to each other. I would be pretty upset if I couldnt hear my band because some other band was tooting around. So at exactly 4:30, our conductor picked up the mike, and in his very Javanese accent announced who we were, and what our first song would be.
Before we knew it, we were already at our 5th song, we had already covered half of our repertoire, introduced our singers and had quite a gathering. I estimated about 50 people, consisting of friends and spouses, jazz community people and people just wandering between shows. At the end of every solo, we clapped for our own just because we could. It helped to pump up the crowd too...
We closed with Birdland, its a crowd pleaser song, rather fast paced, loud, jazzy and a definite toe tapper. All ini all, I think we had as much fun as those that turned up to watch.
Well it happened. We played at the famous Java Jazz Festival. We didnt have much time to prepare, as we were told by Mas S about 3 weeks beforehand. We were actually in the middle of preparing for another event when we learned about the opportunity.
With such short notice, we decided to play songs that we have mastered, instead of trying to get in a new playlist. Since it is a jazz festival (of sorts) we chose our songs carefully, getting in the more standard jazz tunes and our most decent sounding swing tunes.
We ended up with the following list:
1. Satin Doll
2. The Way You Look Tonight
3. Fly Me to the Moon
4. How High the Moon
5. Girl from Ipanema
6. You are the Sunshine of My Life
7. Quiet Night of Quiet Stars
8. My Favorite Things
9. Birdland
We also managed to get some singers to perform together for some songs: How High the Moon, Girl From Ipanema, Fly Me to the Moon. Additionally, we got some rest time for the Big Band while the singers did Just the Two of Us and Didadaku with the rhythm section.
MyBand was the first show of the day and we were neatly tucked away, off to the side in the Talent Stage. So we didnt expect the parking lot to be full nor would we have any body watching us, but it was and we did.
The parking lot was pretty full when we got there at 3:00PM. We had wanted to drop off our equipment and our instruments near the entrance but we couldnt. We had to park all the way over yonder and lug our stuff to the hall. Being a small band we didnt have our own roadie crew. Being a small Bigband, we had the dubious honor of having to lug our own chairs too! Yes the committee didnt or couldnt provide us with chairs for the event.
We were warmed up and ready to play by 4:00PM, but we had to wait until our actual time of 4:30 before we could start playing. These guys were pretty strict on the rules. I guess it is important if you have multiple stages that are pretty close to each other. I would be pretty upset if I couldnt hear my band because some other band was tooting around. So at exactly 4:30, our conductor picked up the mike, and in his very Javanese accent announced who we were, and what our first song would be.
Before we knew it, we were already at our 5th song, we had already covered half of our repertoire, introduced our singers and had quite a gathering. I estimated about 50 people, consisting of friends and spouses, jazz community people and people just wandering between shows. At the end of every solo, we clapped for our own just because we could. It helped to pump up the crowd too...
We closed with Birdland, its a crowd pleaser song, rather fast paced, loud, jazzy and a definite toe tapper. All ini all, I think we had as much fun as those that turned up to watch.
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