Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ready.. AIM.. Fire!!!

No, it's not target practice! Just a nice way to put the AIM acronym in..

Me and Eddie, along with Lilian on trombone, will be working with reknown musical director Aubrey Suwito for the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards show this Saturday night. AIM is like the local Grammy Awards, blah blah blah. I honestly don't really give a hootz about it, but it's a good gig that we can work with Aubrey. We hardly ever get to work with him, and I would personally love to work with him more, especially on the more creative level. But Aubrey hardly ever gig outside like most of us... it would've been really interesting! The last open show, or specifically, a jazz show that featured Aubrey, was at the Sunrise-Mont Kiara Jazz Festival a couple of years back, maybe in 2003, I think.

Tomorrow's a full day rehearsal from afternoon, and a full dress run at night. Saturday's the show itself. If you have the right mind and interest to catch US, and not some of those fellas trying to sing on stage, then watch NTV7 at around 8.30pm, I reckon. I think it'll be shown "live".

Of course, there'll be some good artistes as well, such as Siti, Noryn, Sean Ghazi (good luck Sean!), Aishah, Reshmonu... the rest ahh??? Mmmmmm...

On another note..

I got a letter from Queens College sometime last week.. boy was I excited!! But it turned out a bit of a damper, they received my application, but couldn't fully process it because they didn't have my previous university transcripts!

WHAT??

I thought I had them sent from Curtin? Well, maybe they did, but it could possibly be that I didn't follow up with my application after I made that request to Curtin. So it's possible the Admissions department in Queens might have misplaced it. That was like, a quite few months back. Oh well. I called up Curtin again on Monday, and requested them to send another copy. And they did, as they sent me an email. I hope Queens get it, and process my application fast! I really need to make necessary arrangements to go pretty soon... applying for visa, plane ticket, blah blah blah. I don't want to end up waiting for another semester to go!

Wish me luck...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Breathless...

... that was what Friday night was...

... the band came together really well last night... and we played hard! Really hard!

... the crowd was great!!! It was almost so surreal.. a real jazz crowd... they were listening, and they were appreciative (even if they're not sure how to react to David's original tunes)... not like them poseurs that frequent a nearby restaurant about 5 kilometers away who knows bollocks about music and the people who make them.

... there was BIG crowd too!! My fingers crossed for the Room to really open up and have more people coming in for some good music, and good jazz bands playin'!!

... even with some "boo-boos" (and a disgruntled mate), but overall the band was kickin' butt...

... Mike Vee was there... Jeremy Monteiro was there (and even jammed two songs.. crazy!).. just WOW! Such a pleasure and an experience to jam with Jeremy for the second time. Wonder if I'll ever get to do anything on a more serious level with him, it would be something I will look forward to at some point!!

... it's one of those rare moments... you play your butt off like there's no tomorrow... the presence of awesome musicians on stage... and awesome music..

... I was flat out when I got home. Another satisfied customer.

... I hope we will be ready by 11th May!

MIRI, here we come!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Gig updates - April 2007

**UPDATE:**

If you missed our show last week, don't forget to come to The Top Room this weekend, for one night only, on Friday. This will be the last show before we head to Miri next month.

Admission: RM20 nett (free crackers!)
Time and date: 20 April 2007, Friday, 10.30pm onwards

See you at the TOP! Where everything is swingin'!!

SUPPORT LIVE JAZZ, SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC!!

* * * * *
Hey all,

It's been a while since I really posted any gig updates, but since I do them on Google Calendar, I don't really have to post it like this, especially if I'm really short of time. But anyway, here's a gig update... a one that deserves special mention:

The David Gomes Sextet (Feat. Junji Delfino) @ The Top Room

This Friday the 13th [and next Friday, the 20th] come and bask in the solid good swinging sound of The David Gomes Sextet! Not one to be fazed by superstitious beliefs [touch wood], this hard-bopping, swinging band o' six is ready to show off its mettle as it gears up for The 2nd Miri International Jazz Festival come 11th & 12th May at the Pavilion, Park City Everly Hotel, Sarawak in East Malaysia.




The David Gomes Sextet features David Gomes on piano, Charles Wong on drums, Vincent Ong [not in picture] on bass, Thomas Theseira on tenor sax, Julian Chan on alto sax & Eddie Wen on trumpet.

Founded & led by the one & only David Gomes, The DG Sextet is currently one of the few jazz outfits who actively perform home-grown jazz music, courtesy of DG himself. View a snippet of one of his tunes featuring the horn section here [courtesy of Brian the doinkster] taken during one of their performances in KL.

And to add spice to this already suave ensemble, Ms Junji Delfino joins them for another enchanting evening... only at The Top!



Cover charge is RM 20nett for 3 sets of solid good music. First set starts at 10:30 p.m. The bar closes at 2:00 a.m.

See you at The Top!


Friday, April 13, 2007

Welcome back..

... Chee Meng!!

Look forward to hang out and play some music together... saxophones rule!!!

Me on Silky Girl Ad..



No... I'm not *IN* the ad. I recorded for the ad.. I played soprano and tenor sax on this one. I'm kinda proud of this one... I could get a clarinet-ish sound on soprano rather than the oboe-ish Kenny G tone! Ahahha.. yay!!

Thanks to Jinx for this baby!

PS: Don't even bother looking at the vid, unless you're a Sharifah fan.. I am.. but MAH-WEE spoils everything. Listen to the music! Eheheh..

Enjoy.