YouthJazzOrchestra @ KBU

Friday, 6 April 2007

It was my first live Jazz Orchestra, and it was free; thanks to the sponsors – KBU International College and The Goethe-Institut Kuala Lumpur.

The YouthJazzOrchestra (YJO NRW) exists since 1975. North Rhine Westphalia was the first Federal State to establish and support a YouthJazzOrchestra, with much help from the former State President Johannes Rau.

Though I’m not a fan of Jazz, I enjoyed the performance. It was not just instrumental all the way. There was live singing too by 2 female singers. The conductors were pretty humorous. They even celebrated one of the band member’s 21st birthday by playing a birthday song. The birthday boy actually played the saxophone solo for his own birthday song!

The programme consists of 2 sets:

1st Set
Black Nile
Cantaloupe Island
Monk Bunk And Vice Versa
Canon
Footprints
Bye Bye Blackbird
Groovin’ High
Going Home
Rasa Sayang (This is cool! The Germans actually sang this Malay song.)

Intermission

2nd Set
Black Power
Kein schöner Land
Hurtig
Morello
Besame Mucho
Pep Talk
Goodbye Porkpie Hat
Ugly Man
Dat Wasser von Kölle
Rasa Sayang (Encore)

11:30 pm Concert Ends

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For each song, various soloist performed – piano, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet, bass and drum. The drummer was cool! I would probably love to see Jordan playing the drum one day. He just loves to bang everywhere.

Who did I go with? Sahaya came to pick me up. Then, we met up with Pei Lu and her 2 friends at the College. Okay! Okay! I felt bad that I sat in between the Couple. (I got scolded by some people for spoiling their date. :p :p). Promise, no more next time. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Next question, where were Seng Chor and Jordan? They were in the church for Prayer & Praise. The performance was a good opportunity for me to have a night on my own. I hardly had any chance to leave the house at night. But...that night, both of them came home after me! They had supper at McDonald's with my sis-in-law (Seng Chor's sister) and hubby. Jordan was still pretty much wide awake!

Overall, it was a good night for us.