guess who did i meet today, dear?

Alright! you'll never hear anything so female from my mouth. Yes, i mean in the actual audio sound produce by my tongue, throat, voice box, and whatever that's connected to this parts. Seeing the Malaysian Video Awards (MVA) schedule earlier this week, the forum of "Idea development & Story Strategies" and a talk about "How to pitch a tv animation" caught my interest. The former, is a forum facilitated by the beautiful Bernice Chauly with guests :- Ng Ping Ho - TV sitcom director. A good narrator! great in humorous sitcom with social values! Sidney Tan - Animator with witty cartoons. we're waiting for his "Blue Karipap". Tan Chooi Mui - indie short film director. Writes in Mandarin! Her "company of mushroom" is a must-see featuring indie guru pete teo and other luminaries. Eugene Foo - Experimental Animator/ Film maker. Great details in creating the bizarre visuals. The second talk was from six to seven. Maybe that explained the small audience. But speaker Steve Bristow came prepared and gave his best shots. His powerpoint presentation was very informative with keynotes. And in a nutshell, how to pitch? Bring your Bible, your best personalities and anything that helps promote your feng-shui! Not to forget, a utility bag with extension power cord, mouse, mini-jack and a great sense of humor!

Now back to the question in the title. The person i bumped into was (drum rolls, please!)... Brian! Hopefully his probation period in alldatjazz.com is over. Any promotion for this great fella with da funky hair, mr. editor eugene?

thank you.

Before you proceed to read the following, please practise your "boo..." and "ceh.." in advance if you have to detest what i'm gonna do next. Of course, this is nothing close to winning the grammy; and i hope it doesn't sound like anyone of those you seen on the emmy either. So, are you ready?!

First, i would like express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who made our previous GruvAvénue performance a great success. Thanks to Vincent, Shazzy, Clement and Charles. You guys rock! To the magnificent team (if you're reading this!) in Bangkok Jazz Thai Bistro and Heineken, your hospitality and promotion scheme work wonders! Jezza & Maya of Jazz Selecta, you're simply the best! Many thanks again... and again to our media and press for the great publicity : All Dat Jazz N' More! Kakiseni, Klue, Faces. To our wonderful friends who help in forwarding the news, especially blogger Julian, Tim, Brian and everyone whom i forgot the names since i haven't get used to this, your effort is greatly appreciated. *tears in eyes* To our fantastic audience (this is the cheesy part, ready?) - i love you. And guess what? GruvAvénue loves you too! *flying kiss*

Hmm...obviously i should rent some grammies and see how they do it. Any recommendations?

how's the gig?

That's the FAQ by friends who missed our recent GruvAvénue performance in Bangkok Jazz Thai Bistro. So here i am writing a post-mortem, trying to pen down and share as much as i could remember, especially for you all who's reading this overseas.

Vince and i arrived for sound check at five thirty. After we entered the premise, the rain started. We tried to return to the car at once to unload our gears, but it turned out to be a deluge. Soon the road right outside was flooded. "Damn!". We waited with our fingers crossed while the staff sets the table for the evening. After an hour or more, it was still drizzling. Luckily the band mates, Charles & Clement were all here already. Vince went to the car to unload the gears with a tiny umbrella which was better than none. And we started the sound check for stage monitoring with the help of sound engineer, Vignes. After much "louder...", "softer..." and sorting out other connection issues, sax man Dr Shazzy arrived with his hip loops and his horn. There's some minor problem, and luckily david had a spare 9V battery. He's my saviour! Upon finishing our sound check, we're treated with authentic thai therapy : hot tom yam soup, green curry chicken and steamy warm fragrant rice. The food were creamy and rich, live up to their slogan "sinfully yours"!

We started our performance slightly after ten when the place was packed with audience. Local luminaries DJ Jezza & DJ Maya and winners of contest during our interview in Jazz Selecta last month were here to witness the performance. Other luminaries included a HK actor with his entourage and malaysian born guess watch supermodel-you-know-who-i-mean.

We had a great time playing to a full-house. After the performance, the band mates were requested to autograph on their huge poster. Here's the evidence of them relishing their first taste of fame! The poster and banner were superb! We can't get enough of it! Zillion thanks to the tremendous effort by the competent bangkok jazz and heineken team! While i was happily packing, the band mates were given a complimentary bucket of chill heineken beers without my notice. *sigh* I was only told while we're having supper in Jalan Alor.

We're terribly sorry for everyone who came and didn't manage to secure any seats. Don't worry, we'll be having another round of GruvAvénue showcase in december. Date, Time & Venue will be announced soon. If you would like to receive our newsletter for upcoming performance, drop me a line at gruvavenue@gmail.com. I'll keep you posted. Til then, stay tune for the updates!

see that?

"Where did i see these guys before?"

Stop wondering! You can't miss this GruvAvénue banner if you're driving along Jalan Raja Chulan. It's at the Bangkok Jazz Thai Bistro, next to Eden Restaurant, in Chulan Square. Thanks to the special team in Bangkok Jazz and Heineken, we have a banner, a BIG one, for our coming feature performance this sat, Nov 19. The feeling? Absolutely mind-blowing!

the one and only...

national jazz program on malaysian air... (drum rolls, please!) JAZZ SELECTA ... is blogging! Run by the witty DJ Jezza & gorgeous DJ Maya, and patron saint of jazz (quotes Jezza), eugene from alldatjazz.com, this blog is very informative with musical facts, playlists, and a lot more with humorous sections of he says and she says. Do click here to listen live online, or if you prefer the conventional way : 90.3 in the Klang Valley, KL, Malaysia.

Warning : This is unlike any other orthodox radio format that only promotes the commercially success mega-stars. It's addictive! It's contagious! Tune in every tuesday 9:00 PM - 12:00 AM (Malaysian time laaaa!), and tell your friends about it!

sneak peek of upcoming gig.

Finally materials for our upcoming gig on this saturday are here. Sneak peek, anyone?

We got the fantastic art work courtesy of supportive teams from Bangkok Jazz & Heineken. Great Job! We got few loops courtesy of the Sax-y man, Mr. Shazee which i should address as Dr. Shazee from now on. Who? Where? When? What? and How? It goes like this:

Title : GruvAvénue @ Bangkok Jazz Thai Bistro
Date & Time : Sat 19 Nov 2005 (10 PM onwards)
Venue : Lot B1, Chulan Square, 92 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 KL.
Tickets : Free Admission
Venue Tel : 603 - 2145 8708

Synopsis :
Local Jazz Band in the ascendant – GruvAvénue will rock the house on late night. This time the group will take the elegant seduction of smooth jazz and infused it with the vivacity of pulsating drum beats. Rather than limiting itself to a purely nostalgic standard jazz music format, this performance will showcase an array of its’ musical diversities from soulful ballads, traditional swing, R&B, Hip Hop, dance beats, to original compositions from its self-titled debut album. An intimate and yet, friendly environment between the band and audience will be provided. Food and Beverages promotions will be crafted by Bangkok Jazz Thai Bistro and supported by Heineken.

Band Links : GruvAvénue
CD Available : TOWER Records nationwide and selected ROCK Corners.
Enquiry : gruvavenue@gmail.com

a musical journey (part 8)!

in the chinese believes, the auspicious number eight will bring good luck; i shall end my shanghai tour here:
We took a cab to the Ching An Si airport transit terminal. There're transit buses leaving to Pudong airport every twenty minutes, so nobody should miss their flights. There's huge clock indicating transit departure time at station. The buses were rather fast. Reaching the airport in 45 minutes or so, which should be consider as very punctual. For RMB 19 per head, this is the best and cheapest way to commune between Pudong airport and Puxi city centre.

We queued... and waited. Checked in our luggage at the check-in counters. And waited... And finally heading home! Travelling makes us appreciate where we came from. And we're proud to be the friendly malaysian. If you need help on our streets, just asked anyone. Try that in shanghai! Not recommended. And the best part, we're coming back with an EUB!

a musical journey! (Part 7)

Day 4 : Xiang Yang Market. In a nut shell, this is not a good place to buy anything! We came around elevan and had our brunch at a chinese chinese food chain, yong her. Their set lunches are good value for money; but there weren't enough chairs and tables. It's semi-self-service, meaning place your order at counter & pay, get your receipts, and wait at your seats! It's always good to have a travel companion occupying table & seats for the group. Or you might run the risk of looking around for empty seats, while your food is ready!

Xiang Yang Market is totally different from Nanjing Road shopping area. You can find many stalls selling all kinds of handicrafts and european branded stuff replicas. Definitely not a safe area to walk alone. There're plenty of guys urging the tourists to buy their goods. One guy was very persistent. He followed us, asking, begging, threatening, pushing vince's shoulders, attempting to attract us to his stall. We declined his offer. After following us through twenty to thirty stalls' distance about 15 minutes, he lost his patience, and pulled vince's hand abruptly! It's very frightening! Where on earth would you get a total stranger grabbing and pulling your hand with no reasons? Scaring of robbery or snatch thief, i panic and screamed! Everyone looked at me and the fella finally let go and left us. Since i'm on the mission of buying cute souvenirs for my female friends, we braved ourselves through the rows of stalls and found a section where the shopkeepers are not so aggresive. And again, i was slashed. but we're anxious to leave this place ASAP!

Leaving Xiang Yang, we walked further down the street to look for a place called cotton club. Now we're at building number three hundred something. so that's about another seven hundred blocks. Odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other. Divide by two. ok! it's another three hundred and fifty building. Hmm... shouldn't be too far away... we walked...

And walked...

Hold on! Can anyone tell me what trees are these? i saw plenty of this in the street.

And walked... and were lost... and headed backwards... and finally found the cotton club. Not operating by day? There's another jazz club few blocks away... We walked there and found the place! Also not operating by day. We headed back to the nearby subway, stopped by Nanjing road for my favourite dessert. Then took a cab back to the motel and sleep.

At night, we took a cab to the cotton club. The best thing about taking a cab in Shanghai is that you must be able to tell your destination in mandarin, know the road name, and intersection name, and give the driver direction! The driver was making rounds within 50m radius of our destination, and finally he asked us for direction. As i was reluctant to argue with him, i asked him to drop us. "Here!". We took a 5 minute walk to the cotton club. It's still not operating. There's a tiny notice saying they're taking a day off. We walked to the JZ Club and saw an act from Beijing and another from New York. The Beijing act was more towards rock-influenced and better received by the chinese audience while the act from NY was rather calm. Both groups were very different in their musical interpretations, but equally good in their own skins. Note : lifestyle items here often comes with a hefty tag, whether it's a cup of coffee or a glass of house pouring wine, expecting anything RMB 60 - 80 onwards.

a musical journey (Part 6)!

Still Day 3 : We walked for almost one and a half hour around the nanjing road area. Read the map, and asked a police for direction. Finally after a few alleys and across the highway (flyovers), we found the Kin Ling Lu. A street of shops specialise in all sorts of musical instruments, imported or locally made. The prices range from RMB 50 to RMB 50 thousand. wish we have something like this in KL! Instruments for everyone!

By this time, my legs were auto piloted. Thus we walked to the nearby Cheng Wang Miau. There's even more shops selling apparels and vanity accessories in wholesale and retail. We walked further and found the traditional chinese themed buildings (Yuyuan). Strictly tourists area. The place was crowded with tourists, queuing to buy takeaways, though all the food was so-so or worst. The weather was getting colder as the night fell. Stalls selling handicrafts and souvenirs were abundant. i was terribly ripped off while buying some souvenirs, but who cares? Seemed like the weather was not doing me any good!

We walked back to Nanjing Road and found out that all coffees at any cafes were RMB 50 - 60 per cup, with nothing fancy and the taste were horrible. Now i understand why the locals brought their own tea in a container! Along the way, the neon signboards were awesome! but the apparels at sale sucked big time. We walked back to the stalls near the subway and brought some egg tards for supper, since their zhong-you-ping i tasted this morning was fresh and at RMB1. The temperature was 14C. This is the longest distance i'd walked in a day through my entire life... and if you want to visit china, get a pair of good quality walking shoes. It's a about the walk. And if you want to talk the talk, pick up some mandarin! You'll never regret it!

a musical journey (Part 5)!

Here's a little photo tour.

Day 3: We reached the nanjing road about 10AM. The wind was dry and chilly. So we're very much like Rudolph. After breakfast, i tried to shop. It's a road so long that we couldn't see the end of it. Halfway through, we bumped into these outdoor fine arts exhibition by their locals. Very impressive! There's plenty of shops selling local candies, groceries and seasonal apparels. McD has five outlets throughout this area, but the sundae cone has only two flavours at one size - regular. Comparatively, we're lucky to be spoilt with more choices in Malaysia. All the shops were packed with tourists from all over the world or more likely all over china. So the storekeepers wouldn't have time for you to hesitate. They'll serve the customers behind while you try to figure out what you want. Definitely living the chinese proverbs 'time and tide wait for no man'.

After a long walk, we came to the famous peace hotel. But our attention were drawn immediately by the majestic pearl tower of shanghai. A symbol of shanghai's cosmopolitan status. There's a cruise boat specialise in Huangpu River tour for tourists. The old fashioned boat in pic was plenty as well.

As old sayings, when in rome, do what romans do. Thus we joined the sea of tourists and took the tunnel ride below the HuangPu River which was RMB 30 per head. The ride lasted about three minutes with color lightings around the tunnel. Nothing fancy but kinda reminds me of the space ship passages from 80's movies. We took the subway back which was RMB3 per head. And the walk continued...

a musical journey (part 4)!

just in case you're wondering: this is a display of an unfinished double bass we came across at one of the booths. In other words, a naked one! See the natural stripe of the wood?

a musical journey! (part 3)

Day 1. In the evening, we went to the CJW at the Bund Centre to meet up with vince's friend, L.A. based double bassist Mike Carr. His playing was very impressive and highlighted with energetic solos. Their band were awesome, with the extra ordinary saxophonist playing to the likes of John Coltrane, and fantastic drummer similar to Buddy Rich. The pianist and vocalist were equally good as well. The club is situated on the fiftieth floor, with a view of skyscrapers and neon lights. We had an unforgettable evening meeting great musicians and enjoying good music.
Day 2. We went to collect the bass, but things went wrong! The personal who handled our purchase was not around. Thus we couldn't collect the item even with their official receipt. There's also some signs of wear and tear which were not present when we placed our deposit the day before, though they offered not to let others try it as it's considered sold. So we paid for our first lesson : never place any deposit. When shop in china, always practice Cash and Carry. As it's the one and only piece, we took the instrument and arranged services from our trusted local bass-worksman. We checked out the CJW at XinTianTi which is a heavily commercial-influence club populated with tourists and expatriates. Finally got a table after 1 1/2 hour, and found out the music was not to our liking. Scouted around the area and found nothing we liked. Retired early. Looking forward to the next day.

a musical journey! (part 2)

Continue at the expo... We strolled through the whole area twice and came across few electric upright basses, but there weren't much choices. They're either too bulky, too expensive, or doesn't produce a decent sound similar to the acoustic bass. After a long day searching high and low, we finally settled on the palatino EUB. Vince tried the instrument. There's plenty of guitar amps around, but no decent bass amp. After changing two amps, hurray! The EUB manage to produce a basslike sound. And this EUB seemed to be an adorable acquisition. We couldn't hear much since there's a deafening rock guitar demonstration in the same booth. The downside : we can only collect the instrument the next day when the expo would be closed. We paid the deposit and went back to rest. *tired*

a musical journey! (part 1)

Oct 21. Day 1. Arrived in Shanghai Pudong airport at 7AM. Checked in. Headed straight to Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) for the MUSIC CHINA 2005. There was a decent rock musical performance when we arrived at the venue. The whole area was divided into few major warehouses, some white canopies as temporary display areas or food stations, and a temporary stage showcasing concent sound equipments. This expo was all about equipments! Any type of equipments : the sound reinforcement and lighting equipments, and musical instruments. Be it contemporary or traditional. Be it million dollars or few RMB. One can definitely find some good or rare buys here. Vince and i also bumped into few fellow malaysian musicians and music store owners. It definitely seemed like a music shoppers' paradise!

There's plenty of music demonstrators and shoppers testing instruments around the booths. The outcome? A massive symphony of polyphonic and polyrhythmic sound commonly known as noise. We saw a lot of XL instruments like the giant size gong, cymbals and erhu which taking picture was forbidden. Few traditional instrumentalists were very good in demonstrating, though the sales persons were generally friendlier, still taking pictures were not welcomed. I managed to snap some shots and ran away before they caught me. *grin*

what we did ...

Here's an overdue brief account for those who tried to tune into our GruvAvénue interview at the national radio program, jazz selecta on last oct 18. Weather : drizzling. Time : 10 PM - 12 AM. Content of interview : topics about playing in a band, few sensitive issues about our struggles on local jazz scene, and a sneak peek of our coming gig on nov 19 at bangkok jazz thai bistro. A complete report will be disclosed soon... so as usual... do come back for a visit, and drop me a few lines if possible.