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Jazzmandu 2014 Finale: A Sparkling Night Of Jazz

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Kathmandu, 23 October 2014 - After a great week of concerts, as well as several Master classes by the visiting musicians of Jazzmandu, the 2014 edition of the festival came to its conclusion yesterday with the finale, a sparkling night of jazz music. Throughout the festival, artists from Brazil, Cuba, France, Sweden, the USA, Australia, Singapore and Nepal were at hand to play for the 12th Surya Nepal Kathmandu Jazz Festival.

As the sun went down over the lush garden of the Yak and Yeti Hotel, a huge turnout of jazz music lovers assembled themselves for the biggest jazz party in the Himalayas.

To get the celebration started, Australia’s Ange Takats opened the night singing light and soulful music. “Weaving her light hearted travel tales” with sounds of country flavoured acoustic guitar and rippling harmonies for a perfectly simple combination. She went on to pay tribute to one of her important influences by singing her version of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock and finally Fine and Dandy, a single from her latest album, Arva.

All the hard work the conductor and members of the Nepal Army Band put in over the past few months, not to mention the wonderful mentoring from Tropic Green certainly paid off during the Finale when the KJC- Nepal Army Jazz Band took the stage and wowed the audience with their swinging big band style. Talking with the band members, they reported they were not nervous to be playing before such a large audience but really enjoyed it and hoped to play in similar events soon. Conductor, Rajit Rai, from the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, confided “I was nervous at the beginning but became more relaxed, particularly as the audience was obviously enjoying itself.” The orchestra ended off their dynamic performance with a Latin tune, Arturo Sandoval’s Sandunga.

With lots of intricate rhythmic interplays between the members of the Pity Cabrera Trio, they couldn’t have sounded more polished. One of the songs they played was a pleasant and sublime rendition of Sonny Rollin’s Softly as in the Morning Sunrise where pianist, Pity Cabrera played using lots of clusters and broken voicings to achieve a more contemporary sound. Bassist Bruno Schorp and drummer Alex Tran Vuan Trat complemented Pity’s playing style with a locked rhythm that connected and provided the trio’s musical force and motion.

Next, Brazilian star, Eduardo Mendoça came on decked out in his swanky white suit and his ceaseless charisma. He played through a repertoire of Brazilian classics and originals including Aquarela do Brasil and Girl Ipanema. His wonderful charm and music brought the audience up on their feet and their hands clapping away to the infectious beat. The night was getting started. He introduced more Brazilian grooves with Evergreen Samba, Blue Rio and had the audience crooning away Paranaue before ending his final performance with the popular, Mas Que Nada. It was an entertaining night of Brazilian flavours all round and the audience, cheering for more, still had so much to absorb. This is not over yet, far from it.

Today, as it happens, Nepal is celebrating ‘kukur tihar’ (where dogs are honoured and adorned) and Kristian Persson Elements had a perfect alibi to start their show tonight with their tune, Dog Song, written in the memory of Kristian’s dog, Greta. The Swedish group followed up with another original Ocean, a tune motivated by the danger and depth of the undercurrent. They developed it into a forbidding mood with swelling synthesizers, thundering bass lines, capriciously fluid guitar solos and furious shredding on the trombone. It is hard to look away when a band is playing this good. They played more songs from their soon-to-be-released album. Kristian sang on Nothing Really Makes Me Happy bringing the set to a more sombre mood with virtuosic solos on the trombone and the guitar. Leaving on a high note though, they added colour with their funky song that had intense drum solos and spaced out synths madness.

Continuing the funky fierceness, Nepal’s own Cadenza Collective upped the ante with Pari Gaun Ma. The audience packed up in front of the stage jumping and shouting. Cadenza further incited the crowd to a sweat storm, belting out songs steeped in Afrobeat tradition of chants, call and response vocals and complex, interacting rhythms. Always a favourite with the festival crowd, they played Namaste, Momo Funk and the very enduring Baja Gaja to the acclaim of the audience members.

To cool down a notch from all that funk and groove, there was a short interval with a lucky draw for five individuals to win shopping vouchers from festival sponsor, John Players. Finally the American award winning singer-songwriter, KJ Denhert picked up the jazz jamboree launching into One Day. A powerful singer and performer, she and her band command the listeners through her lyrical and poignant songs about love, family, life and destiny.

Every year Jazzmandu celebrates its success and offerings that ends in a massive jam session with all the performers getting together on stage. There was no bucking of that trend here tonight and it was an authoritative stamp of great music, unity and peace as the musicians bid the festival goodbye with fluttering solos and a final loud bang!

The next Jazzmandu will take place from November 4th – 10th 2015. See you all again next year!

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