For lovers of live music in Macau, the weekend of October 12-13 was pretty close to heaven. The International Music Festival was in full swing with two classical operas and a free jazz concert at the Mount Fortress, and pop superstar Justin Beiber was in town to thrill his fans with a concert at Venetian. Meanwhile, outside by the Venetian lagoon, 12 great bands were battling it out over three days at the Cotai Jazz and Blues Festival competition.
Supported by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (ICM), the Festival offered the competing bands the chance to take home a share of the HK$500,000 cash prize pool – HK$250,000 for first place, HK$150,000 for second place, and HK$100,000 for third place.
Given the level of prize money up for grabs, it’s not surprising that over 100 applications were received from highly skilled musicians from around the world.
Eventually 12 finalists were chosen representing an impressive pool of international talent from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the U.S. and Australia.
The bands performed in 30-minute sets on Friday and Saturday, with the judging panel assessing them on style, improvisation, technique, musicality, performance and audience response.
A shortlist of five bands was then chosen to go through to the final showdown on Sunday.
One of the top five was Andy Frasco & the U.N. from the US. Describing their music as ‘Party Blues’ the band were definitely a crowd favourite with their great sound and wildly energetic performance – the two lead guitarists and the saxophonist even jumped the barriers on Sunday to play right in the middle of the audience.
“We’ve done 250 shows a year for the last six years around the US, so it’s crazy to be here now at our first real international gig. The competition element makes us want to do things harder than we usually do…normally we play for three hours, so with only 30 minutes we have to go ape-shit immediately!” said lead singer and keyboard player Andy Frasco.
In the end, the judges gave the top award to the Bleu Rascals, a talented young Texas style blues trio from the Philippines. Playing to a crowd packed with their home country fans, singer and lead guitar player Paul Leobrera blew the audience away with his amazing skills and showmanship.
On receiving the award, he gave some advice to aspiring musicians in the crowd: “Just play every show like it’s your last!”
Second place went to Japanese American Jazz pianist Manami Morita and her trio. Third prize was awarded to Chekov, an international ensemble based in Shanghai who combine electronic jazz improvisation, brass, rap and even the Chinese erhu.
The Main Squeeze
Last year’s winners The Main Squeeze returned to play their funky blues at this year’s festival, and lead singer Corey Frye was also on the judging panel. Following their win in 2012, the group returned to Chicago to release their debut, self-titled album, and later this year they will work with famed producer Randy Jackson. Corey spoke with CLOSER just before the winner’s of this year’s competition were announced.
“To be able to come back and play and be a part of it even though we weren’t competing was so cool. All 12 bands were so good this year, and so different, from party bands to jazz to blues. So talented!
“I really really enjoyed the Bleu Rascals and also a group that didn’t make the final the Co.Thai Project, who were phenomenal. For a group that good not to make the top five speaks to how tough the competition was. And we loved Andy Frasco, they absolutely killed it with so much energy.
“Winning the competition for us was really big because back home it’s seen as a huge accomplishment. A lot of our fan base were so proud of us that we won such an amazing competition, and to be one of the first bands that were a part of that was amazing. We paid for our new album and bought a new van, so it’s money that goes along way”.