Jamming with jazz stars
As Freespace Jazz Fest returns next week with some of the brightest stars on the firmament of contemporary music, Mariella Radaelli asks participating musicians and scholars if the festival can help raise Hong Kong's profile on the international map of jazz.
The Freespace Jazz Fest returns to the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) on Thursday for its sixth edition, with a lineup that's perhaps more stellar than any other jazz event Hong Kong has seen in recent years.
The American jazz musician and composer Herbie Hancock, who performs on Oct 27, is probably the hottest ticket in this star-studded program. Members of Hong Kong's live-music community are understandably elated at the chance to hear the 84-year-old legend perform live. "It means a lot, as he is one of the last jazz giants to come out of the golden era of jazz," says violinist and composer Kung Chi-shing who is also head of contemporary performance at WestK.
Also performing on Oct 27 is four-time Grammy-winner Antonio Snchez, one of the most masterful drummers on the international jazz scene today. In Birdman Live, he plays the drum score from the soundtrack of Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu's 2014 film. Snchez composed the furious jazz score of the Academy Award-winning dark comedy. For the live show, he improvises and riffs on the score,responding to the film playing on a large screen with his energetic drumming, as he alternates between steady, pulsating beats and soft tremors.
