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Im sure well have fun!

That was the first remark that strikes me when we greet the Bavarian State

Youth Jazz Orchestra at the gate on 5 May 2014, a day after they had

performed to standing ovation at the World Youth Jazz Festival at Putrajaya.

What were to come the rest of the day made that comment the

understatement of the year.

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Herr ??????, the music director of Bavarian State Youth Jazz Orchestra, had

trained his young musicians, aged between 18 and 25, to be a man first, then

a musician. He had asked all the musicians, including Aswara student-

musicians, to introduce themselvesa normal practice. What made it

unusual was the personal warmth, lack of pretentions and general openness

that fills the air-conditioned Orchestral Hall. The young people were shaking

hands, laughing and talking in Englisha second or third language for all.

You can see that was not a problem at all, not for what follows.

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We had expected the visitors to be very good. Like, they would have

practiced and rehearsed hundreds of hours before they start the tour.

However, what we heard when they started playing was beyond our

expectation. Tone, groove, colours, and most of all, the ensemble playing

the playing togetheris outstanding. They had started the session with a

piece that includes demanding passages in the saxophone section, and theylaughed out loud at the end when they failed to pull it off to perfection. This

happened while the Aswara student musicians were watching and listening in

awe. Then, they took their instruments and walked up the stage to join the

visiting musicians. Like the saying goes, the rest is history.

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What history are we talking about? I mean, we get a whole lot of visitors

each year anyway. Whats so special now? You see, Herr ??????, through

the coordination of Goethe Institute Kuala Lumpur, has requested that we

prepare Malaysian music for the concert in the evening. How open, how

humble, how friendly, how securefor a touring band to want to sight read

and interpret the music of the host organization, or the host country. I cannotresist the opportunity to tell the Malaysian storieswe want to share works

that include Malaysian traditional instruments in the big band.

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Jazz orchestra, or commonly known as big bands traditionally include

saxophones, trumpets, trombones and rhythm section. The Europeans and

Americans routinely add flutes, clarinets, flugelhorns and French horn to vary

the colours of the orchestra. We, on this occasion, had added caklempong,

rebana, and accordion to the line up.

We wrote and shared MUYA HAYO, a Terengganu folk tune, AYAM DEN

LAPEH, a Minang tune, and MAS MERAH, an aslitune sung by Edie Nazrin.

The pleasure of the German young musicians, at getting the Malaysianpieces at the end of the evening, adequately justifies the frustration suffered

earlier in the day. The Aswara musicians, as well as the concert crowd in the

evening, on the other hand, loved PRICE TAG sung by ????? and ?????.

The visiting big band had also performed I WISH YOU LOVE, a vocal piece

with a beautiful piano solo introduction, and HARK I HEARD THE HERALD

SING, complete with German classical choral writing and modal improvisation

passage.

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Fun, indeed we had. The Aswara student musicians and the German young

musicians had inadvertently created a history of a kind in playing music,

exchanging ideas and building friendships. And that in the end is the fun.