"There's no place like home," said Dorothy from the wizard of Oz. There sure is "no place like home" for over twelve homegrown bands and solo artists, who took to the stage in the Timbre Music Festival 2008, right here in Singapore.
Melissa Tham, Michaela Therese and Sara Wee, sang their hearts out for All That Jazz, Bossa, and R&B on 27th September, against the backdrop of the proud Sir Stamford Raffles and the Old Parliament House.
I was just in time to hear Michaela Therese sing "I Only Have Eyes For You". She may look like just any other Singaporean, but the moment her voice resonated in the air, you knew she was more than ordinary. With only the drums as her other accompaniment, she played the keyboard and her voice twirled around the words, "Are the stars out tonight? I don't know if it's cloudy or bright." Somehow, this new and upcoming singer from our little red dot, puts a new tune to the old song that was previously sang by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and the other jazz greats. Michaela's music popularity has certainly grown up, from lunchtime concerts in 2006 to her first solo ticketed event in 2007, "My Favourite Things".
The other two soloists that night were Melissa Tham followed by Sara Wee, who also managed to jazz the night away. While Melissa Tham is currently working on her debut album, Sara Wee is currently in 53A with her ‘other limb', Alvin. She is learning to break out of her usual mould of pop songs and into the world of jazz and beyond. As both of them put it, ‘life without music would be boring', and they sure did manage to make music sound fresh and original.
As I look at the number of artistes who are involved in performing with Timbre Music Fest, it is certainly inspiring. For all who said that Singapore will never fully develop its ‘artistic' side, this is definitely hard evidence that we are getting there, albeit slowly.
With platforms like Timbre (Arts House and Armenian Street), our local artistes can break out into the performing circle. In fact, the only thing left, is for us, who really love Jason Mraz or KT Tunstall and everyone else who is from somewhere else, to support these local lungs, and break out of the ‘arts very CMI (cannot make it) in Singapore one, la' attitude.
As I walked away from the softly-lit, white topped tents and comfortable lounge chairs, into the gentle breeze along the Singapore River, I knew that our talents are not that far behind ‘the big wigs' in the music scene. We have our own style, our mix of tones, our own rhythm. There is really nothing stopping us from just being comfortable in our own voices and jazzing it our style, coz' anyway, it's our own, home sweet home. HOOKED.
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Damn missed it!
Written by Guest on 2008-11-17 11:55:19
I conveniently missed it, but well covered. When is the next fest?
Mahesh |
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