Penang Island Jazz Festival

The Seventh Edition of The Penang Island Jazz Festival will this year be held from the 2^nd to 5^th of December 2010 and feature more than 190 musicians on one (1) Main Stage, four (4) Fringe Stages and the Big Band programme.

As in past years, the “Jazz By The Beach” Stage (Main Stage) programmes a variety of groups with different styles and this year is no different with varied musical styles being performed from a thirty five (35) piece Philharmonic to World Renowned Solo Guitar Players to Standard Jazz Trio / Quartet to an Aca Pella group to Funk / Fusion Bands to Experimental / Nu jazz / Ethnic jazz groups in an idyllic open air setting beneath the stars by the side of a beach.

Keeping in line with past editions, the performers for the main stage programme this year are a mixture of local Malaysian and International acts. They are Penang Philharmonic featuring Ray Rozells and James Boyle, Celso Machado (Brazil), SC Yun Trio (South Korea), Electric Barbarian (Netherlands / USA / Brazil), Stouxingers (Germany), Carefree (Malaysia), Roger Wang Trio (Malaysia), Boi Akih (Netherlands), Rain Sultanov Quartet (Azerbaijan), PELbO (Norway), Tommy Emmanuel (Australia) and ZHAN (Malaysia / Japan / Australia).

The afternoon Fringe stage sessions have increased from three (3) last year to four (4) stages this year – the “ORIS Stage” at Bayview Beach Resort,  the “Rock Stage” at Hard Rock Hotel Penang, “G Stage” at G Hotel and “Javana Stage” at ParkRoyal Hotel. Performances are held from 3.00pm to 5.00pm simultaneously at all four (4) stages on Friday, 3^rd Dec. and Saturday, 4^th Dec. On Sunday, 5^th Dec. there will only be performances at the “ORIS Stage” at Bayview Beach Resort.

The performers for this year’s “Fringe Stage Programmes” are Rozz & Frequency, Raggy Project, Sound of Light, Florence Koh Quartet, PRIORity, Sax Organ Project, Ocean of Fire & Dasha, JazzHats, Aseana Percussion Unit, sTrAiT sAx aHeAd featuring Russell Curtis, Reza Salleh, Clair V Rozells & Allan G. Murrilon, Jonathan Tse Trio and Winner of “Get Inspired” Competition. 

Other supporting activities for this year include the ongoing “An Evening with series” at G Spot at G Hotel and this year the featured acts for the series are Aca Pella group - Stouxingers from Germany on Thursday, 2^nd Dec. and Malaysia’s own Carefree on Friday, 3^rd Dec. The “Jazz With A Heart” Charity Dinner will this year be jointly hosted by Bayview Beach Resort and City Bayview and the “After Hours Jazz Jam” sessions will as usual be held at Celsius Pub at the lower lobby of Bayview Beach Resort.

There will be five (5) “Workshops” this year – “Brazilian Guitar and Rhythms” by Celso Machado, “Musical Unity in Diversity” by Boi Akih, “Voices in Harmony” by Stouxingers, “Boogie Woogie Piano” by Razif “Jeep” Mohd and “Finger Picking Guitar” by Tommy Emmanuel. The annual “Community Drum Circle” will once again be held at the Bayview Beach Resort Gardens.

Exhibitions being held in conjunction with the Festival this year are the Penang Musical Heritage Exhibition at the Penang State Museum from end November to end December.  The Jazz Gallery at the Bayview Beach Resort will house the exhibition of the past editions of the Montreux Jazz Festival posters courtesy of Montreux Jazz Festival and supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Malaysia, the Photography exhibition of renowned jazz photographer William Ellis, Festival’s collection of photographs, posters, paintings and percussion instruments, the ORIS Tribute Poster Collection, Musical Instruments and other exhibitors.

For the first time, the Festival will be introducing a “Big Band Programme” featuring two (2) Big Bands performing for 30 minutes each per day in the afternoon on Saturday, 4^th Dec. and Sunday, 5^th Dec. at the Grand Ballroom of the Bayview Beach Resort. The featured bands for this year are PFS Jazz Jam Crew, Northern Jazz Ensemble, Jeep Jazz Band and UPSI Big Band from Sultan Idris University of Education Malaysia.

Tickets for the “Jazz By The Beach” – Main Stage programme on Saturday, 4^th Dec. and Sunday, 5^th Dec. are RM60 per day. Ticketing information is available at www.ticketpro.com.my.

The Penang Island Jazz Festival 2010 is organized and managed by The Capricorn Connection, with Partners, Bayview Beach Resort, Mercedes-Benz Sdn. Bhd., ORIS, Red FM and supported by Embassy of Brazil, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Ministry of Culture & Tourism and Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Embassy of Switzerland, Goethe-Institut Malaysia, Penang Global Tourism, Penang State Museum, IJM Land Berhad, AmBank Group, KK Jazz Festival, G Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel Penang, ParkRoyal Hotel, Starbucks Coffee, Heineken, JS Music, Roland Asia Pacific, The Guitar Store, Homegrown Productions, LBS Music World, Penang Philharmonic, Danai Spa, Tree Monkey @ Tropical Spice Garden, Little Penang Street Market, Penang Jazz Community and GR8 Music.  

For more information on the Festival, please visit the Festival website at www.penangjazz.com

a-JAYS Heavy Bass Impact Earphones Review

We had the pleasure of testing out Swedish headphone manufacturer latest offering, the a-JAYS earphones for a few weeks now. First impressions, once you get past the stealthy elaborate packaging, is the coolness of it all. We’ve seen earphones between the RM100-RM300 price range hanging on the shop racks, claiming to provide sound clarity, enhanced bass, sonic boom and more but the packaging was just not convincing or matched the luxury pricing.

For a consumer, first impression counts if one is going to splurge on premium earphones. There is no way for one to test or compare the product and it’s not enough for product packaging and description to convince the wallet unless it is through product experience.

That aside, plug it into any sound source, and we did, laptops, iPod’s, phones, stereo systems to test for consistency and fidelity and the product just handled it with ease. As a DJ, producer and sound engineer, i am highly particular about sound detailing and clarity of instruments and heavy reliance on monitoring headphones such as the Sennheiser HD 25-1, which by far, over the years have been pretty tough to beat in terms of the abuse and benchmarking. Yes, this would be an unfair advantage to the a-JAYS but strangely, it held its own and came in a close second in overall sound quality, even compared to the Sennheiser CX series earphones too.

I shall not delve into how great the earphones are. Take our word for it. It is amazing and worth every cent. From the coolness of the flat tangle free cables, to the sound staging and depth in your ears, to its ability to stay calm and collected in the most complex of sounds, and not crack under pressure of high volume and various equalization settings. Not to mention the simple, elegant minimalistic design of the ear piece.

The a-JAYS, beautiful aesthetics aside, does what it claims on the box. Heavy bass impact! What a generous booty helping at that. Other earphone models tend to falter at high volumes, cracking and unable to handle the low frequencies with tight resolution capturing that big room sound. To test this, we went through a very diverse playlist from House, Jazz, Hip Hop, Bossa, Lounge and Latin plus a whole set of equalization settings on an iPod. This test also took place mostly on the road in a loud car to test sound isolation and noise reduction abilities. No issue there either, especially with the five rubber ear sleeve sizes provided in the box.

On a general note, and i hope a-JAYS takes the lead on this, I do have an issue which a lot of other off the rack portable earphones has not been able to address, specifically the ability of the earphones to stay in the ear, despite the various ear sleeves sizes. The problem is over time, it starts to slip out and when that happens, you lose the intensity of the bass and the same song sounds empty and hollow like cheaper alternatives. Maybe it is just my ears. I know that this affects how the physics of acoustics is designed to allow the sonic vibration but on a product level, one would think there would be an industrial design solution for this like how foam ear plugs snugly expand and hug the ear canal.

The other issue of cable flexing at the phono jacks. Durability of earphones on portable devices is subject to the habit of wrapping the cables around the devices and the strained area is where the cable flexes and over time, there is bound to be fractures. With the a-JAYS flat tangle free cables, we do foresee that this could be the only design flaw, especially at the jacks. Yes, the a-JAYS comes with a handy travel hard case to store the earphones but seriously, some people are not going to be as anal about storage in their pocket.

We also heard that the latest a-JAYS Four iPhone (available in black and white) also handles calls, music with purposed built buttons for functional features. Overall, for those who are in the market for aftermarket earphones that does what it does well and has that solid built quality, great sound dynamics and stylish looks in an all round package, this is a highly recommended product. We loved our test unit so much, we bought one.

Contents:

a-JAYS One earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes).

a-JAYS Two earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes), Airplane Adapter, Stereo Splitter.

a-JAYS Three earphones, Silicone Rubber Sleeves (XXS-L sizes), Airplane Adapter, Stereo Splitter, Travel Case.

Specifications:

Driver: 8.6mm dynamic driver

Isolation: JAYS Sound Isolating System

Sensitivity: 97dB SPL @ 1 kHz

Impedance: 16 Ohm @ 1 kHz

Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 22 kHz range

Cord Length: 115 cm (45 inches)

Weight: 14 grams

Plug: Gold plated 3.5 mm stereo mini plug

2 Years Global Warranty.

www.jays.se