According to José Sales Marques, president of the Macau Jazz Club and organiser of the festival, the aim of the programme for this year’s event was to present a diversity of jazz music and to bring a richer mixture of jazz to town, not limited to just the standard styles.
Kicking off the festival were two very different performances from the Sizhukong Quintet from Taiwan and Stefano Bollani from Italy.
The Sizhukong Quintet presents a refined blend of jazz and traditional Chinese sounds. For the founder Yuwen Peng, “Jazz is more than a music style, it’s a spirit to share and communicate with each other.”
The incorporation of different languages also makes their music unique.
“When we move to different places, we have different lives and I think the music is influenced by the language. Traditional Chinese music, such as folk and opera are all connected with the language. Because of the language, the way we sing the songs can be very different. That’s why Chinese swing is different from others,” she adds.
Though there is an increasing number of jazz fans in Taiwan, Peng confesses that jazz musicians still need to “fight to survive”.
On the same night the Italian jazz musician Stefano Bollani performed solo. Compared with the situation in Taiwan, it seems that these days Italy is definitely in the mood for jazz.
“Jazz music is very popular in Italy nowadays. For the first time in our lives, the concerts are full of people, newspapers are talking about jazz and even television sometimes,” notes the pianist.
The Mingus Project, a young five-man band from Portugal were also in town for the Festival. Bass player Nelson Cascais says: “When I listen to Charles Mingus, I feel ‘wow’. Jazz really touches me.”
The young musician thinks that jazz is not just about the music, but also about people’s thoughts, and these days can even deliver important messages about human rights and politics.
“Not only in Portugal, but all European countries are in economic crisis. It’s our responsibility to play music, to communicate with people; music is about sharing”, Nelson adds.
Closing the two-day festival was Fred Wesley with the New JBs. This old master is known as the world’s funkiest trombone player. From his perspective, jazz is a “universal technical thing”, that everybody can enjoy and learn.
“Some Europeans get jazz, some Americans get jazz…It’s not about ethnic background, it’s about who gets it. It’s not about money, it’s about who can learn. That’s why we have different forms of jazz,” he explains.
José Sales Marques is satisfied with this year’s performances and believes the quality of the shows and the technical aspects were all very good. He is also confident about the next edition. “I think that after this return of the Jazz Festival, in future we will be able to return with higher numbers of audience members.”