As part of Sarawak Tourism Board’s transformation and continuous improvement, the organizing of this festival is geared towards a commercial basis to bring it to greater heights. As such the organization of the festival for 2011, will be undertaken by STB Leisure & Properties, a subsidiary of Sarawak Tourism Board (STB). STB however will continue to focus on the marketing and promotion of the event itself.

Under the transformation, new initiatives have also been planned, among them, the Internship and Volunteers Program whereby STB, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, will collaborate with the academia as part of an industry advisory platform in enhancing the quality of graduates that is relevant to the need of the industry. The intent of this program is to provide a unique learning experience for international volunteers and interns whilst at the same time being exposed to the product experiences of Sarawak’s culture, nature and adventure on the island of Borneo. The aim is to have 70% of students participating in this programme from outside Sarawak. This is another step towards bringing the festival to the international arena.

The Board is also collaborating with private sectors to design packages to attract visitors not only from Peninsula Malaysia, neighbouring Brunei and Singapore but also from the region and overseas, eg in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia & Europe. With these packages, visitors would be able to attend the festival at night and during the day, they can visit places of interest or participate in the local activities.

Next year’s Borneo Jazz will be an exciting one with its extension to a 3-day event. The festival will see new features around few venues in Miri, Sarawak. It will kick-off with the Opening Night on Friday, 12 May 2011 which will be opened to the public. There will also be musical meetings during Saturday afternoon of the festival followed by a Sunday Matinee. Tickets will be offered for sale to the public. Featuring at the festival is the headline act, Grammy nominated Maria Muldaur from the United States. Sharing the stage will be Cunha & Piper from Brazil, Les Doigts De L’Homme from France, SIU2 from Hong Kong, State of Monc from Holland, Miri born, Victor Yong and the Electric Carnival from Malaysia/Canada and Yuichiro Tokuda’s RALYZZ DIG from Japan. They will feature a range of jazz genre from gypsy jazz to traditional jazz.

As in previous years, previews will also be held and may be extended even to KL and Singapore.

For 2011, the Board hopes to attract 4,800 visitors from outside Sarawak. This will augur well for the local business community and also contribute significantly to the arrival figures to the state as a whole.

Daily tickets priced at RM60 for adults and RM30 for children aged 3 to 12 are now available on-line at www.ticketcharge.com.my. For purchase/booking/enquiries please call TicketCharge Hotline: +603-9222 8811 or at TicketCharge @ No 42A-1, Jalan Metro Pudu, Fraser Business Park, Off Jalan Yew, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tickets will also be available at Visitors’ Information Centres in Kuching, Sibu and Miri, Sarawak from March 2011 onwards. Watch out also for ticket specials.

Besides the good music and great company we will also have stalls selling a wide variety of local and fusion food and beverages as well as festival memorabilia at the venue.

Look out for more new and exciting initiatives for the coming Jazz festival!

For more details, kindly log on to www.jazzborneo.com

As in past years, the “Jazz By The Beach” Stage (Main Stage) programmes a variety of groups with different styles and this year is no different with varied musical styles being performed from a thirty five (35) piece Philharmonic to World Renowned Solo Guitar Players to Standard Jazz Trio / Quartet to an Aca Pella group to Funk / Fusion Bands to Experimental / Nu jazz / Ethnic jazz groups in an idyllic open air setting beneath the stars by the side of a beach.

Keeping in line with past editions, the performers for the main stage programme this year are a mixture of local Malaysian and International acts. They are Penang Philharmonic featuring Ray Rozells and James Boyle, Celso Machado ( Brazil), SC Yun Trio ( South Korea), Electric Barbarian ( Netherlands / USA / Brazil), Stouxingers ( Germany), Carefree ( Malaysia), Roger Wang Trio ( Malaysia), Boi Akih ( Netherlands), Rain Sultanov Quartet ( Azerbaijan), PELbO ( Norway), Tommy Emmanuel ( Australia) and ZHAN ( Malaysia / Japan / Australia).

The afternoon Fringe stage sessions have increased from three (3) last year to four (4) stages this year – the “ORIS Stage” at Bayview Beach Resort, the “Rock Stage” at Hard Rock Hotel Penang, “G Stage” at G Hotel and “Javana Stage” at ParkRoyal Hotel. Performances are held from 3.00pm to 5.00pm simultaneously at all four (4) stages on Friday, 3 rd Dec. and Saturday, 4 th Dec. On Sunday, 5 th Dec. there will only be performances at the “ORIS Stage” at Bayview Beach Resort.

The performers for this year’s “Fringe Stage Programmes” are Rozz & Frequency, Raggy Project, Sound of Light, Florence Koh Quartet, PRIORity, Sax Organ Project, Ocean of Fire & Dasha, JazzHats, Aseana Percussion Unit, sTrAiT sAx aHeAd featuring Russell Curtis, Reza Salleh, Clair V Rozells & Allan G. Murrilon, Jonathan Tse Trio and Winner of “Get Inspired” Competition.

Tommy Emmanuel

Other supporting activities for this year include the ongoing “An Evening with series” at G Spot at G Hotel and this year the featured acts for the series are Aca Pella group – Stouxingers from Germany on Thursday, 2 nd Dec. and Malaysia’s own Carefree on Friday, 3 rd Dec. The “Jazz With A Heart” Charity Dinner will this year be jointly hosted by Bayview Beach Resort and Bayview Hotel Georgetown and the “After Hours Jazz Jam” sessions will as usual be held at Celsius Pub at the lower lobby of Bayview Beach Resort.

There will be five (5) “Workshops” this year – “Brazilian Guitar and Rhythms” by Celso Machado, “Musical Unity in Diversity” by Boi Akih, “Voices in Harmony” by Stouxingers, “Boogie Woogie Piano” by Razif “Jeep” Mohd and “Finger Picking Guitar” by Tommy Emmanuel. The annual “Community Drum Circle” will once again be held at the Bayview Beach Resort Gardens.

The 6th Edition of the Festival saw a gradual growth in participation of more than 100 performers from 12 countries in all its’ activities and over 4,000 audience attendance from all over Malaysia and countries from around the Region.

Exhibitions being held in conjunction with the Festival this year are the Penang Musical Heritage Exhibition at the Penang State Museum from end November to end December. The Jazz Gallery at the Bayview Beach Resort will house the exhibition of the past editions of the Montreux Jazz Festival posters courtesy of Montreux Jazz Festival and supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Malaysia, the Photography exhibition of renowned jazz photographer William Ellis, Festival’s collection of photographs, posters, paintings and percussion instruments, the ORIS Jazz Legend series Poster Collection, Musical Instruments and other exhibitors.

For the first time, the Festival will be introducing a “Big Band Programme” featuring two (2) Big Bands performing for 30 minutes each per day in the afternoon on Saturday, 4th Dec. and Sunday, 5 th Dec. at the Grand Ballroom of the Bayview Beach Resort. The featured bands for this year are PFS Jazz Jam Crew, Northern Jazz Ensemble, Jeep Jazz Band and UPSI Big Band from Sultan Idris University of Education Malaysia.

Tickets for the “Jazz By The Beach” – Main Stage programme on Saturday, 4th Dec. and Sunday, 5th Dec. is RM60 per day. Ticketing information available at www.ticketpro.com.my.

The Penang Island Jazz Festival 2010 is organized and managed by The Capricorn Connection, with Partners, Bayview Beach Resort, Mercedes-Benz Sdn. Bhd., ORIS, Red FM and supported by Embassy of Brazil, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Ministry of Culture & Tourism and Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Embassy of Switzerland, Goethe-Institut Malaysia, Penang Global Tourism, Penang State Museum, IJM Land Berhad, AmBank Group, KK Jazz Festival, G Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel Penang, ParkRoyal Hotel, Starbucks Coffee, Heineken, JS Music, Roland Asia Pacific, The Guitar Store, Homegrown Productions, LBS Music World, Penang Philharmonic, Danai Spa, Tree Monkey @ Tropical Spice Garden, Little Penang Street Market, Penang Jazz Community and GR8 Music.

The festival was initiated in 2007 with the aim of promoting Kota Kinabalu in the international musical scene. The inaugural event was held at the Jesselton Point, a renowned waterfront establishment in KK.  By its second edition in 2008, KK Jazz Festival attracted international talents such as Greg Lyons from the United Kingdom and Denise Mininfield from the United States of America.

Apart from promoting KK as a tourism destination internationally, the festival has also successfully raised public awareness of the local community towards such popular music genre. With near a thousand local attendees, the festival is an excellent platform for learning and interaction between the local music enthusiasts and the international artists.  The expected turnout is 2000 people.

The KK Jazz Festival is now a signature event in the Sabah’s annual calendar of events, and is also a key component of the Kota Kinabalu Arts Festival.

Performing Artists:

• Nah Youn San (Korea)
• Son2Nos (UK)
• Double Take (KK)
• Jonathan Tse (KK)
• And the followings:
• Junk Unit (Hong Kong)
• Six to Eight (KL)
• SIA Jazz Syndicate (KK)

Date : Jun 19 – 20 2009
Time : 6.30pm to 11.00pm
Venue : Tennis Area @ Sutera Marina Club
Sabah
Organiser : Rotary Club Kota Kinabalu & Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu
Contact : Mike Tang, Maxx Media Sdn Bhd
Phone : +6088-719787, 719987
Email : sparksmalaysia@gmail.com
Website : www.kkjazzfest.com
Admission Fee : RM30-student 1 day pass, RM50, RM100 – 2 days pass
Category : Arts, Culture and Entertainment

To be held on May 9 and 10, 2008, next year’s edition will see inclusion of new things to infuse change for the festival. The performers’ line up will also see more varieties in jazz genre, to spice up the already exciting festival.

Promised to be another signature attraction for Miri’s tourism calendar, MIJF 2008 will be liven up by renowned jazz performers from Australia, Philippines, Korea, Cuba, Japan, Holland, USA, France, UK and Canada. Nearer to home, we will see performances from bands from Sarawak and Sabah, taking centre stage among the foreign performers. Their genre of jazz include blues and fusion jazz with a tinge of Latin, Caribbean and oriental music.

Habana Sax, one of the performers from this year’s line up will also make a come-back at next year’s festival, after the crowd voted the band as their favourite.

Parkcity Everly Hotel in Miri will still play host for the venue of the festival, which had attracted more than 4,000 guests over the two nights last year. Last year’s crowd turn out had increased by almost two folds as compared to more than 2,000 guests in 2006.

Looking at the steady increase in the crowd turn out, MIJF is set to become an icon for Miri and in line with STB’s aim at boosting the city’s tourism industry.

Parkcity’s management has also indicted its plan to expand the Pavilion where the main stage is located, to provide more room for the increasing number of audicences.

Looking at the steady increase in the crowd turn out, MIJF is set to become an icon for Miri and in line with STB’s aim at boosting the city’s tourism industry via events and festival.

Ticket the festival is priced at RM60 per person per night and RM30 per child between three and 12 years old, is available online at www.TicketCharge.com.my from December 12, 2007.

Apart from enjoying the good music, guests can also savour the wide variety of food and beverages at the stalls set up in and around the venue.

For further enquiries, kindly contact the Visitors’ Information Centre at Lot 452, Jalan Melayu in Miri (tel: 60 85 434181, fax: 60 85 434179) or log on at www. Mirijazzfestival.com. Email contact: info@mirijazzfestival.com.

Miri is located in Northern Sarawak and has, in 2005, gained its Resort City Status. Often known as the Northern Gateway to Sarawak, the city is a popular base for visitors to explore the nearby National Parks including the Niah, Loagan Bunut and Lambir Hills while Mulu is only a 45- minute flight away.