‘Cairo Jazzing for the 5th time’

Jazz and music enthusiasts spent three days chilling to the tunes and the guest performances at the Fifth Annual Cai­ro Jazz Festival March 21-23 at both Al Azhar Park and Darb 1718.

The festival hosted bands and solos from Morocco, Brazil, Germany, Can­ada, Austria, USA, England, Bulgaria, Japan, Portugal, Holland, France, Lith­uania, Poland, Romania, and of course Egypt.

Darb 1718 is a very local area in Old Cairo, yet the entire crowd came from all backgrounds. They were either cou­ples or mixed groups aging between 25-35 or 50-65. There were a lot of foreign­ers over there too.

Dina El Kassas, a college student, says: “It’s my first time to attend a jazz festival and I really enjoyed it. I find it nice that they have several bands from different countries.”

“I like the place here, it’s more peace­ful than the rest of Cairo … I feel safe,” said Columba Martinez,” a Mexican visitor.

Samuel Forey, a French visitor said: “Darb 1718 is a great place it’s always a pleasure to come here.” Forey also went to AzharPark, he says, “I think we should have events like this more often.”

On the last day at Darb 1718, the fes­tival started at 2pm with a “Jazz 4 Kids” workshops lead by a Jazz instructor were kids sang, danced, and played on instruments. Parents also participated in the workshop to support their kids.

In the meantime, the stage was get­ting ready for the performers in the middle of Darb 1718. Technicians were adjusting sound checks to avoid any problem during the performance. The stage was located in front of a green area for the audience to relax and chill while enjoying the music.

There were three bands performing on that day; Blue Notes from Egypt, KJ Denhert from USA, and Sabrine & Doum Do from Egypt, Holland, Poland, and Romania.

Blue Notes took the stage first, around 4pm and started playing the blues for an hour. There wasn’t a lot of audience by the time they started, how­ever the number of people showing up kept increasing throughout their per­formance.

Blue Notes was formed in 2010 by Hatem Hossam, vocal and harmonica player, as a reincarnation of Blue Notes, formed a decade ago, was also formed by Hossam. Blue Notes are dedicated to blues music from Mississippi blues to Chicago blues. In October 2010, they got second place in El Sawy Culture Wheel’s Third Rock Festival.

Between every performance there was a 30 minute break, people used this time to grab a bite and check out the bazaar where they sold handmade accessories and scarves.

Later, by 5:30 pm, KJ Denhert came on stage to entertain the crowd with their music for another hour. They got a lot of shout outs from the crowd and were open to answer any questions.

KJ Denhert was named after the bands vocalist KJ who was born a mu­sician. “I picked up a guitar when I was ten and immediately I started writing music,” KJ said. In 2009 she was named from the top female vocalist for JAZZ.COM, and she won the John Lennon Song writing contest award.

By the time KJ Denhert finished it was already dark, and the crowd was off for another 30 minute break before the last performance, Sabrine & Doum Do. The break lasted longer than 30 min­utes due to problems with the sound system but it got fixed.

Sabrine and Doum Do had a relaxing and warm type of music that fitted with the slightly chilly weather. They per­formed for an hour too and the festival was over afterwards.

Sabrine and her group Doum Do are bringing the idea of oriental synthesis back throughout their project “Conver­sation with Rhythm”. Sabrine is getting the Darabuka to a new level that no other Egyptian musician has crossed before.

“I liked the festival so much, it’s a great experience for me as it’s my first time to attend this kind of festivals. The bands were also really nice, I enjoyed three different types of jazz music,” said Martinez.

“Am not a jazz fan yet I really liked the event, especially that they had shows for kids in the morning…The event lacked some organizing as it didn’t start on time,” said Ghaydaa El Markaby, a college student.

Both Martinez and Forey knew about the event through their friends, while El Kassas sees that the event didn’t have “a good marketing campaign although I found that there is a lot of sponsors for the event.”

“I would like to come again for next year’s festival but am not sure whether I’ll be here or not as am only here for a month and a half,” said Martinez.