Thailand Jazz Festival

[Lois Gilbert]

As a long time royal resort and now a permanent residence of HM the King, there could be no better choice for Thailand's annual Jazz Festival than Hua Hin. It is thanks to the presence of His Majesty King Bhumibhol Adulyadej that jazz is no stranger to Hua Hin.

Known internationally as an accomplished jazz musician and songwriter, His Majesty has for decades made the palace of Klai Kangwon the venue for his Saturday late night jazz sessions with musical friends. It seems appropriate, then, that the royal resort should be the setting for Thailand's annual celebration of jazz by the sea.
The free music-by-the-beach festival that kicks off today showcases a dozen Thai jazz acts as well as a Grammy-winning artist from New York.

Now entering its fourth year, the Hua Hin jazz festival starts today at 5 pm and already the town is alive with the sound of the kind of music you get when bands are setting up and sound engineers are tweaking the equipment.

Some veterans in the the music biz are hoping it won't be long before the beachside festival will rival the world renowned, lakeside Montreux Festival in Switzerland, but the Hua Hin setting has its own distinctive charm.

The festival was intially conceived by the Hua Hin Hoteliers Club, an association of the town's eight leading hotels. The community-scale, free music event aimed to help promote local tourism and to put Hua Hin on the international map. (Isn't this how Montreux's festival started?)

The first year's event was a public tester rather than a sudden hit. Despite some complaints about the sound quality and the inconvenient distances between its seven stages, the Hua Hin Hoteliers Club was praised for its smart and courageous effort. And before the second festival came up, Heineken took the seat as the event's title sponsor.

With experience, audience feed-back and a larger budget from a sponsor which has seriously linked itself to music events worldwide, the festival in the following years has been polished up and has now been listed as one of the Tourism Authority of Thailand's Grand Festivals.

Last year's event drew a reported 20,000 to 25,000 people _ an interesting mix of Bangkok hi sos, politicians, jazz aficionados, students, music industry people and ordinary families as well as tourists from all over the world.

"For our third year, getting over 20,000 visitors was probably an extremely good effort," said Heineken Thailand's commercial director Jeffrey Alan Kimble. "We think the response from the Thai community, the co-sponsors, the TAT, the hotels and the tourists down in Hua Hin was better than expected. There are not many events around that can draw this many people, especially in a small community."

This year the festival, dubbed "Heineken Jazz Festival Hua Hin 2005", promises three evenings that will delight jazz fans with performances by a dozen Thai groups and three international performers. Among them are The Infinity, All Star Jazz, Denny & Friends, Stone Head, Crescendo and Apartment Khun Pa from Thailand as well as two time Grammy Award winner John Pattitucci from New York, Cannonball from Australia and Randy Cannon from Seattle.

Although there are fewer foreign jazz artists performing this year, Kimble said that it was not the number that counts but the quality.

"For this year we think if we are going to have international artists let's get a little bit closer to what people would consider to be original or true jazz," he said. "And if you look at John Pattitucci, he is one of the leading original performers in the world having won two Grammys and been nominated for 15 Grammys. He is a household name among jazz lovers. He is a headliner. I think this is the first time a Grammy winner will perform in Hua Hin."

Kimble also noted that, as the organiser, he wants to emphasise that the Hua Hin jazz festival is a Thai jazz festival with international stars _ not an international festival.

The venue in downtown Hua Hin stretches from the beach along Damnernkasem road to Pone Kingpetch Park. There will be only two main stages where big names perform this year: the park stage at the Pone Kingpetch Park and the beach stage in front of the Sofitel Central Hua Hin hotel. A smaller stage at the 200-table beer park at the end of the street will feature low-key jazz artists and DJs. Along the strip are food and drinks stalls, activities booths, arts and crafts stores, foot massage services and several music workshops.

The overall event is guaranteed to be better than ever, with a superb sound system, nicely set concert venues, a huge video screen and a unified performing concept.

"Having a concert with world class musicians on a beach is a little bit difficult because it's windy, there's lots of sand, lots of water, you don't know what's going to happen," said Kimble. "We've really put a lot of effort and a lot of our budget to make sure that the quality of the equipment and the sound is the same as the quality of the musicians that we have here."

Kimble also added that to make things go as smoothly as possible for the audience, a large video screen has been installed at the beer park. "We've tried to connect everything a little bit better this year because there are three different locations and it's nice to know what is happening at all three of them," Kimble said, adding that the video screen will show all of the action from the beach stage. "If you want to grab a bite to eat or enjoy a beer you can still follow what's going on at the beach stage"

And his last words for the the audience?

"There is going to be a big surprise just like every year. Keep your eyes open."