Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Friday night I went to the Chiang Mai Jazz Festival, primarily to see one of my guitar heroes, Martin Taylor. Strangely, it was held at the Promenada Resort Mall, a huge ultramodern shopping mall about 14 kilometers outside the old city. Fortunately, shuttle buses from the major hotels run hourly, otherwise it would have been a really long walk for me.
When I entered the concert site, I was amazed to see mats laid out directly in front of the stage. On the mats were little padded recliners for the comfort of the concert goers. There were also a bunch of tables with chairs where you could sit to eat and drink while watching the concert as well as the usual rows of folding chairs further away from the stage. When the gates opened, there was no rush for the recliners, in fact many remained unused well into the evening.
The first band, The North Gate Big Band, hit the stage at 6:00 sharp. As the name implies, there a big band comprised of musicians from all around the world along with a few locals. They were good and tight and their tenor and baritone sax players were standouts. They also had a Swedish female vocalist that was pretty darn good.
Next on stage was the CM Jazz Band, an electric quartet with all Thai musicians. The bass player and guitar player were the best of the lot, and despite a heavy accent when singing in English, the guitarist had a really good voice.
At 8:00, Martin Taylor hit the stage with female vocalist Alison Burns. I've been a fan of Taylor for many years, but I'd never heard of Burns before. Martin was the reason I went to the festival as I had seen him once before in Ste-Therese about 8 years ago and was totally blown away. On Friday night he didn't disapoint. He plays flawless solo guitar covering the bass lines, rhythym parts and melody/lead runs simultaneously with what appears to be complete ease.
He did a great solo version of "They Can't Take That Away From Me" to open the show and then brought out Alison Burns to join him. She has a beautiful voice, reminiscent of a young Ella, without the ever present vibrato. Like Ella's work with Joe Pass, Burns was the prefect foil for Martin's virtuosity and the two played off each other all night.
I'll post a few of the videos I filmed later on this site to give you all an idea as to how good the playing was.
After his solo encore, Martin and Alison went to the autograph tent at the side of the stage to sign copies of their new Christmas album. The groupie in me prevailed and I couldn't help myself from buying a copy and gushing on to Taylor about how great I think he is. Oh well, it's not every day you get to speak with and shake the hand of someone you admire so much, so in the end, no regrets.
There were still two more acts to perform, but my evening was complete. I managed to grab a soongtaow to take me home, where I went to bed with my new CD under my pillow.
OK, not really, but I though it made a good ending to my story.
And to all a goodnight.
- comments
mabel Loved your pretend ending! LOL..