Saturday, December 22, 2007

Global Jazz




Jazz musicians from different parts of the world - Taiwan, Cuba,
Britain, Australia & Singapore come together and create music in
Singapore in a club called Blujazz - is this Singapore jazz? Not
quite; more like global jazz since Singapore is only the venue
for the performance.
But something new is certanly brewing when these musicians get
together - the important ingredient is the igniting force or the
creative force if you will. In this instance - at a performance of Omniform that played at Blujazz recently - the
creative force is saxophonist Greg Lyons of Britain leading
a motley crew comprising: a trombonist originally from Taiwan who
developed his penchant for jazz while studying in New Jersey,
an amazingly accomplished & versatile Australian saxophonist who
heads the jazz division at LaSalle in Singapore (Tim O'Dwyer),
Chok Kerong, a marvellously fluent keyboardist based in Singapore,
a Cuban on the concert flute, an excellent alto saxist from
Singapore (Fabian Lim), an electric bassist from Australia &
a drummer perhaps Australian as well...
Greg Lyons' compositions had enough complexity without being
(mired in obscurity) to bring out the creative juices from each
player in the form of solid, inspiring, improvisational solos
from each of them in the course of each work...
The solos from Tim on the baritone sax were particularly intense
in their imaginative execution and Fabian Lim showed how sweetly
lyrical the alto could sound in the hands of a skilled player...
Three cheers to Greg for his tuneful contributions on
the soprano sax & the tenor & in the form of the
compositions that made Omniform a night to remember.
Where else in Singapore can you get such a creative sampling
of global jazz?

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