Music for Change

I've lost a few of my articles.. so i post whatever i have la :p

Enjoy!

UCSI School of Contemporary Music Concert ~ Music for Change

The UCSI (University College Sedaya International) annual music concert was a great success when Juan Pablo De Zubiria (guitarist, composer and vocalist), the limelight of the concert that day and Gruvavenue, the guest band, performed their heart out and astounded the hall of a quarter full audiences in 21st March 2008.

The theme of this year’s concert is ‘Music for Change’, where the music that was played during that night suggested an artistic reflection of the paradigm shift experienced by the new generation as it strives to assert its identity in a world hindered by misconceptions and unnecessary divisions.


The concert started with three original songs performed by the guest band, Gruvavenue. Gruvavenue is a well establish jazz band in Malaysia consist of artists who come from a wide range of jazz backgrounds. The members that performed that night was Tay Cher Siang, the pianist, Martin Ngim, the drummer, Vincent Ong, the bassist and Shazee Ishak, the saxophonist and vocalist.

Personally, I like the way they arranged their songs and wrote them in an unconventional way. When Shazee Ishak started rapping their new song named Elephant Vanishes, the crowd started cheering excitedly and Ishak encouraged the audiences to dance along with the music, which they did!
After the three songs by Gruvavenue, Juan Pablo De Zubiria’s band, the New Contemporary Ensemble was next, presenting 11 songs, which 7 of them was written by Pablo himself. When the band members were walking to the stage, I was stunned by the numbers of performers in the band, and also the people that were involved in this performance. There were more than ten members in the band, but most importantly, it’s a mixture of classical and contemporary players! The band members were mostly from the faculty of UCSI contemporary music, and also a few from classical music department. There were a few students and graduated students as well. To me, it looked like an international music festival because the performances were from many different countries including Mauritius, Columbia, and Bangladesh.

Juan Pablo

When the band started their first song, they threw the audiences off their seats, and it continues to amaze us until the end of the concert. This is mainly because the songs were uniquely written, without any stylistic restrictions by Pablo where he plays around with different styles of music including world music, rock music, jazz and classical music. All bounded together by a unified musical vision. Most importantly, it is fun to listen to! The song that gave me the deepest impression is Origen, where Pablo claimed that he wrote this for the girl he met and fell in love with after he came to Malaysia. Indeed the message was clearly brought out by the song as it was a sweet, smooth song written in bossa nova style. The applauses and cheering were non stop throughout the whole performance, until the last song, Monkey See, Monkey Do were played.

If I had three thumbs, I would say that this is no doubt, a 3-thumb up performance because this is the best contemporary music concert (so far) I’ve been to. Although the music industry in Malaysia is relatively small, it’s definitely growing rapidly. Furthermore, it is thrilling to watch it grow and involve in the process. I’m definitely looking forward for more performances in future.