It was a 2 day event, 17th and 18th May, but I only attended the first day, 17th May.
Upon arriving, I was given my volunteer tag and their T-shirt, which said KL International Jazz & Arts Festival 2013 :S
In UM's toilet LOL
Anyway, Emad and I were assigned to Experimental Theater.
When we got there, it was around 1pm.
They were still setting up, even though they were supposed to do that in the morning :o
The sound guys told us that they've been trouble shooting problems since the morning.
While they are still setting up, I checked out how they mike up the drums, piano, amplifier etc.
The piano there was C.Steinbert, and holy shit the moment I pressed the first note, I was drawn. Completely drawn. As if something was sucking me to it.
I've never felt such an awesome piano before. The clarity of it, the touch, the feel.
Sigh. One day, I'll get a piano like this!
And oh, when the sound guy asked who can play the piano, without thinking I just raised my hand up and shouted ME!!!!!!!
Then I played on the piano a while for them while they check the signals and everything.
Sigh, it was so beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.
After that, I just hang around until the first band that were supposed to soundcheck arrived.
The stage manager brought Emad and I to the main stage to check out others performer soundchecking. At that time, I was lucky to have heard Keiko Matsui's soundcheck.
I was completely blown by how she performed, even though it was only a soundcheck. She was playing "Dream Seeker" at the time. After a while though I have to go back to Experimental Theater cause the soundcheck there was about to start.
Lisa Young Quartet was the first band, followed by Niccolo Faraci, and then it will be performance time.
During the soundcheck, there was quite a lot of problems :S
The sound guys were rushing about, panicking while Emad and I just looked at them and kind of..Facepalm. They have no clue what they're doing, I won't go into details about what is happening since I didn't really communicate with them, but I remember one of them finding out that a cable is actually not plugged in, after HOURS of troubleshooting what went wrong.
.....And another case is, Lisa requested more higher mids for her mic channel, the sound guy was like "The highs?" Lisa kind of looked confused for a moment, then she said "No, the higher mids."
Then the sound guy just increased the volume. ....................Yeah, I'm kinda speechless.
Anyway screw their problems, it is not my problem lol.
I was kinda like an extra since I'm volunteering under SAE. There is nothing much for me to do except see to what the artists wants. One of them even asked me to go get his jacket lol, but seriously other than that I was just standing backstage enjoying the performances.
Most of the time I roam around the place, checking stuff out.
This is the soundroom
View from the room
Niccolo Faraci Trio
Lisa Young Quartet
And erm...no idea who's this.
After the event finish in Experimental Theater, Emad and I roamed around more, checking out other stages.
Later in the evening, we just sat and chill with our seniors at the CD booth.
Until I heard Keiko Matsui playing in the other hall.
We went in to watch her performance which was MIND BLOWING. The atmosphere was awesome, and her band sounds so well balanced. It did not focus entirely just on her, other instruments got some awesome parts too.
After her performance, she headed out to the CD area where we were chilling for her autograph session. And the whole time, I was standing behind her, photo bombing everyone that is taking a picture with her x'D
And I'm not sorry :p
Keiko-san selfie-ing with a random dude haha
We waited for about an hour of so (?) before there is no more crowd left, then I asked for her signature and a picture with her. She's very friendly and nice! She even thanked me for volunteering when she signed on my "volunteer" tag. :')
And oh, when Emad told her he would like to play alongside her one day, she looked at him, and genuinely asked what instrument he played! :O
We did not expect that at all.
Hahahaha I selfie with her www
Emad taking a proper picture lol
Sigh. I would love to attend her live again someday, and hopefully worked along side her as well.
Meeting Keiko Matsui and playing the Steinberg piano is the only experience that I really enjoyed. Other than that, it wasn't that fun :/
One of the performer (quite famous pianist) was arrogant, and pffffffttttt his music wasn't even that great. I expected his music to be good since he was quite arrogant, but when he performed, all I can do is try not to laugh. I don't find emotion in his music, and his band wasn't balanced, I felt like the members were trying to outshine each other.
Funny thing was, he's so arrogant backstage, but on stage he pull on a "Oh I'm a great guy, look how funny am I" type of attitude. It just kind of disgust me :/
It's like there is no sincerity?
Oh well.
Keiko Matsui is still the best :D
Humble and nice person, and her music truly inspired me.
To the point I get kind of emo, cause thoughts like "Why didn't I continue with a music course?" "Why did I choose to go backstage instead of onstage?" starts to bother me.
But oh well, I'm not really regretting, knowing all these audio stuff is great too. I did not regret picking up audio engineering. And it will never be too late to take up music as well :3
Well, I guess that's all.
Hope to meet more awesome musician in the future!
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