Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Defining what jazz is supposed to be is a losing battle, but bringing some of its most enlightened, satisfying and least generic virtues into focus is not.
During the Mercedes Benz Colombo Jazz festival, which played last weekend, festival goers who listened to the music in its multiplicity of guises could sense what bridges them all: diversity, spontaneity, a performing zone in which a balance of the planned and the unplanned (like the unfortunate torrential rain, which didn’t dampen the festivals success or spirit) tips from one moment to the next and the music’s disregard for borders, languages or creeds. 
The stars who played showcased brilliance and if anybody still thinks jazz is only for sagely nodding silver-haired old -timers, they’re really out of touch.
The event pulled musicians from a range of styles, but with an emphasis on the contemporary. “We always look for a balance and try to put in some traditional artists, some blues artists, vocalists, some New Age people,” said festival founder Gehan Fernando
The two-day event began on 18 February with festival goers enjoying the music, food offerings, wines, PR designers market, pop up spa and shisha lounge all set up on the lawns of the beautiful Galle Face Hotel.
Incognito who were headlining the festival have been labelled as everything from pop band to Latin jazz ensemble, from ‘70s-styled funk crew to an acid-jazz collaboration. They were one of the highlights of the weekend. If sceptics claim jazz is all about avoiding tunes you can sing, they’re the antidote. The audience were singing their tunes long after the encore, after witnessing the work of a band who have produced over 16 hit albums.
Geoffrey Fernando of Purple Rain fame finished his set to thunderous applause and up and coming stars like Sannie Fox, described by The New Age as “belting out the blues like she was born in a Louisiana swamp” and Major Minor ( who will play at 41 Sugar till April) were extraordinarily good.
Mud Morganfield, who was musically staggering and absorbing transfixed the audience with his soulful Chicago blues, intensity of stage presence and catch phrase “take it slow”.
Marco Menoza and El Trio scorched the stage as the finale act for the weekend which closed to the audience begging for more!
Jazz is a genre that evokes such powerful and varied emotion, Gehan Fernando and Mainstage Events, the organizers of The Mercedes Benz Colombo Jazz Festival captured all that diversity, all that makes this art form so beautiful, in a weekend of performances. Jazz is symbol of openness and inclusiveness and if the festival has a message, it can only be to hang on tight to the preciousness of that idea.
- Pix by Ruwan Walpola
