Borneo Jazz Festival 2015

Having brought in numerous world-renowned jazz artists and performers, the Borneo International Jazz Festival is always out to surprise audiences with local and international artists.

Borneo Jazz Festival Review

Jazz lovers should not miss this opportunity as for the 10th anniversary of the BIJF, there should be something special lined up for visitors. 

After party jam sessions are also performed at the hotel’s lounge bar where performers get together and just play it out.

For the younger generation, the organizers have included a DJ session after each night of the festival where locals and foreigners can party away until the wee hours of the morning.

Update: Borneo Jazz Festival 2015 10th Anniversary Performers announced in February 2015. Check out who is performing for this year’s BJF 2015. 

A food and drinks bazaar is also set up at the venue for the hungry visitors where selections range from local to international cuisines. Beer and soft drinks are sold at reasonable prices too. 

The festival always opens with a local school marching brass band which plays some jazz numbers at about 6.00pm before the main acts take the stage.

This also takes place in the evening before the sunsets by the sea in the back. The last Borneo Jazz 2014 saw the Chung Hua Marching Brass Band open the festival followed by local Malaysian artist Diana Liu and her band which was well received.

Beautiful sunset on Brighton Beach at ParkCity Everly Hotel in Miri

Vocal Sampling from Cuba

Interesting Performances

One of the much talked about acts for the Borneo Jazz Festival 2014 was actually Anthony Strong from the United Kingdom.

Apparently, word went around that this was the next up and coming jazz retro-contemporary superstars from the UK alongside Michael Buble.

Anthony Strong

Anthony is also hailed as UK’s new jazz superstar with multiple hits around Europe and has played alongside top international names.

With all that credential, I could only wait for his show here in Miri and, I was impressed. Anthony was a true performer and entertainer, not to mention talented too.

Overall, he got the ladies all worked up with his boyish looks while the men were swaying to his music.

After the festival, I met up with Anthony at the Miri airport en route to Kuala Lumpur. He was such a nice and humble person, easy to talk to and super casual.

I asked him about his experience at the Borneo Jazz Festival and his respond was that he absolutely loved performing here due to the people and was even surprised that he had fans all the way here in the rainforests!

One of my favorite acts for Borneo Jazz 2014 was actually a Malaysian band called JunkOFunc which consisted of 12 members from Kuala Lumpur.

Having not heard of them before as they are not mainstream, I was actually very impressed with their performance here.

Not only did they look good, but they also played and sang very well for an international festival. They were lively and very entertaining and the crowd just loved that at a festival.

JunkOFunc gets my vote for being the most impressive act for the Borneo Jazz Festival 2014. I hope that for 2015, we will see more entertaining acts like this.

JunkOFunc performs on stage at the Borneo Jazz

Russel Curtis, lead singer of JunkOFunc impresses the crowd at Borneo Jazz

Iriao from Georgia take the stage with their Georgian Folk and Jazz music

Levan Abshilava from Iriao plays a traditional Georgian drum

Best Visual and Creativity at Borneo Jazz 

YK Samarinda, an ethnic jazz band from East Kalimantan easily stole the show in my opinion. Sporting the traditional Dayak of Borneo costume complete with headgear, I was taken aback with how they fused traditional with jazz.

YK Samarinda from East Kalimantan opens with a Sape instrument

Honestly, when YK Samarinda walked on stage, I was clueless on what was going to happen – was it a traditional performance as he was holding a Sape, traditional Dayak guitar or was it just for show.

However, when he opened the show on day 2 with his Sape, you could see the look on the audiences where eyebrows raised.

Guests were as lost as I am until he broke into a modern jazz rhythm and then changing guitars.

Jazz and Ethnic – A very unique combination

YK Samarinda gets my vote for being the most creative and impressive performance at the Borneo Jazz 2014.

This kind of surprise is great, especially when you have a festival running for 10 years, it is always good to have something fresh and unexpected.

Anyway, I have always loved the music from the Sape as it is a very interesting musical instrument.

In general, you do not need to have your dinner and then come here, you might as well have it here. Tables and chairs are set up around the festival ground too.

Traditional Sarawakian Craft on sale

For the drinkers, fear not as there is always the main sponsor like Strong Bow Beer who will have their booths here.

Bottled beer is priced around RM10 to RM15 per bottle sold at the booths or from the beautiful promoters they usually have walking around the festival grounds. 

Guests at the after party of the Borneo Jazz Festival

While younger adults make up a good percentage of the audience, an after-party was held on each night after the Borneo Jazz Festival.

For 2014, the top radio DJ from Traxx FM Malaysia – DJ Round Head was spinning to the crowd here.

Tree planting with the artist and school children

From the media side, usually, we get in a day before the festival takes place and on the main day itself, a tree-planting ceremony takes place in the morning where the performing artist is invited to each plant a tree for conservation purposes.

After that, a media press conference is held with the artist and organizers where we get to ask questions about the artist and also about the festival. 

Here, the CEO of Sarawak Tourism and possibly the mayor of Miri will welcome the artist and media with speeches and presentation of souvenirs to the artists.

Welcoming dinner held at the Meritz Hotel in Miri

For Borneo Jazz 2014, the welcoming dinner was held at the beautiful Meritz Hotel in Miri town.

This hotel was selected due to the beautiful views of Miri city from the rooftop cafe while I managed to catch a lovely sunset here too.

For anyone heading to Miri, I would easily recommend staying here as the location is a mere 10 minutes to the Borneo Jazz venue.

Media from around the world are invited to cover this event and mainly music media from magazines like Song Lines and other publications are seen here.

Questions sometimes exceed the press conference as the international media always has interesting questions, unlike the local media.

Borneo Jazz media press conference at the hotel

Two media sessions are held over the two days in the mornings where we have the chance to ask questions to the various artist performing.

My main question to the performers, especially many of them who are first-timers in Sarawak – How do you like Sarawak so far, and always, I get a very positive reply of how beautiful Miri and Sarawak is and how the artist plan to come back on their own to further explore Sarawak, Borneo, and Malaysia.

Part of the Borneo Jazz organizing team with some Kayan ladies in traditional outfits in Miri

Also for your accommodations, you should book them early and a few recommended places to stay at are;

Hotels in Miri


ParkCity Everly Hotel Miri – The main event venue
Miri Marriott Resort and Spa – Just next door, 5 minutes walk
Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club – 10 minutes drive
Meritz Hotel – 15 mins drive from the town center
Imperial Hotel Miri – 15 mins drive from the town center

Borneo Jazz Festival Tickets are reasonably priced where two-day passes are;

Tourism In and Around Miri

As Miri is one of the main gateways for tourism in this part of Sarawak, you should take the opportunity to explore this area.

The places include the Mulu Caves which is one of the most popular attractions at the Mulu National Park, the Niah Caves at the Niah National Park and also the Lambir Hills National Park.

All these parks require some traveling and are awesome for nature and outdoor lovers. There are also accommodations at some of the parks above.

Diving in Miri – For scuba divers, Miri is home to some of the most beautiful untouched and un-commercialized coral reefs here.

Located in the Miri-Sibuti Coral Reef National Park, only one main dive operator takes divers here which is Coco Dive located in Miri city.

Professionally operated, there are local and Caucasian dive instructors and masters that will lead your dive trip.

For me, I managed to do some diving in Miri during one of my trips here and overall, it is awesome due to not seeing other divers around.

Kolo Mee, Red and White Types

Food in Miri is also something to explore, only if you are a foodie as this place showcases some pretty amazing experiences in local and ethnic foods.

For me, I personally enjoy walking around Miri old town to try the local hawker scene in search of the Kolo Mee (Kolo Noodles) and also the Orang Ulu Traditional Food which is one of the most unique ethnic foods I have tried to date.

You can find the Orang Ulu food at a restaurant called Sumit Cafe in the Centerpoint Area of Miri. This also is an acquired taste as it is very different.

Exploring Miri is a great way to see the town, especially on foot. The best places to visit in the town are the Miri Handicraft Center where you can find all kinds of Sarawakian traditional and ethnic handicrafts.


The Miri Wet Market where it is divided into two interesting sections and I would recommend you try the Ethnic Market or ‘Pasar Khas’ to see the unique items being sold.

Among my favorite are the choices of different types of bananas sold here as the colors are pretty wild.

Other places of interest around Miri include the Miri Chinese Temple on the old town area and also The Grand Old Lady of Miri, the first oil well in Borneo.

Amazing banans colors at the Miri Wet Market

Airlines that fly to Miri

There are a number of airlines that fly into Miri include AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines and MASWings from Kuching.

In total, there are seven flights a day into Miri from 7.00 am till 9.00 pm. Connecting airports will be Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah or Singapore if you are flying from overseas.

Otherwise, you can also transit to Kuching Airport or Kota Kinabalu Airport. Note Miri is a one hour flight from Kuching, 50-minute flight from Kota Kinabalu and a 2 hour 15-minute flight from Kuala Lumpur.

Driving into Miri is usually done by the locals or expatriates that live in Brunei. Usually it takes an estimated time of 30 to 60 minutes from Brunei and 2 to 3 hours from Sabah and a whopping 8 to 10 hours drive from Kuching.

Note the border crossing can get super congested on weekends and public holidays so it is recommended you arrive very early or a day before the event.

You can take a look at more photos from the Borneo Jazz Festival which was equally interesting with a great line up of musicians which included The Nylons and Hazmat Modine.

For the jazz lover and enthusiast, I have come up with a list of Jazz Festivals in Malaysia that you can follow as they are spread around the country in states of Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Conclusion

For music lovers who are visiting Sarawak anytime, you can refer to this list of Music Festivals in Sarawak which is spread out throughout the year.