Ethno fusion music
I've been wondering what has become of the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) held every year at the Sarawak Cultural Village since 1997. This year marks their 10th Anniversary. Is it still as popular or has the attendance dwindled? I went to the RWMF twice in the early 2000s and enjoyed their workshops and nightly concerts very much. The last concert I went to was 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't like the rowdiness of the crowd. I began to wonder if people were really enjoying the multi-cultural blend of music or getting intoxicated from alcohol and delusional on "something".
One of the local acts that stood out was Tuku Kame's Jerry Kamit. During the concert, he played an amplified sape or sapeh with such agility and versatility; blending both traditional and modern tunes. Anyway, here's a music video I found on You Tube with Jerry playing to a song entitled "Our Rainforest." The song is very upbeat and catchy although I am a little bit apprehensive about him standing so near the pounding waves. Spoilers: Jerry's string-less sapeh & his tie-dyed out-fit. *sniggers* Overall, it's not bad really ;) No doubt, he's very musically talented. Ethno fusion music is pretty cool.
1 comment:
The blogosphere is truly a wondrous world unto itself. Looking at my blog stats I traced a Google search on "rwmf" to your blog and was tickled to read your comments on a festival I haven't missed since the first one in August 1998 (was there as a performer the first three years, then managed to get invited almost every year by STB to cover the event as a photojournalist, and in 2005 they commissioned me to produce a documentary on the event!) I've uploaded a couple of video clips from RWMF 2006 on my blog. And, guess what... I spent a whole year in Essex Fells as an exchange student back in the 1960s and my best chum from high school is now a lawyer in Montclair (though he owns a brownstone in Hoboken)...
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