Chijazz Festival 2007

Michelle is exhausted, but high on great music this Sun!! :) Service @ Riverlife church was brilliant once again. The band was in top form as they led us into a time of rousing praise with Israel Houghton's version of "You are Good" and "I am free". Andrea said the band spent 1 hour on "You are good" alone during rehearsals. Their labour of love certainly paid off on Sun.

The band was super tight...the congre just embraced the new song and it was incredible how the atmosphere soared as we sang "I am free". Marcus and I were just blown away. :) Awesome stuff! Something really happened in church today...it wasn't just musical hype/excitement....it was a real, authentic, full on God-encounter. :) It was amazing to see the church unite in worship like that. So exciting lah! :)

After lunch with Marcus, Muffin boy...who entertained me with his happening stories about NUS/hall life...I headed down to HMV, Citylink. I left with 2 CDs: Incognito's latest (i think, cos i cldn't find anything newer) "Bees + Things + Flowers", and Lifehouse's new album, "Who you are". I almost bought Josh Groban's new Christmas album, the new Stereophonics' and Matchbox 20's albums too. But I held back, cos I remembered I already had Jeremy Camp's Live album in my bag (Andrea helped me buy that). Why are all the new CDs coming out now???? Die....it's a conspiracy as Marcus says. Now I dunno wot to listen to. haha! I still have the new Casting Crowns, Parachute Band and Paul Baloche albums in my iTunes library.

Anyway, later in the evening, I met up with Jon, Belinda and Audrey for the Chijazz Festival @ Chijmes. It was a fun, refreshing change in activity for a Sun evening. The fabulous mix of live jazz, funk, soul music certainly inspired, excited and refueled me.

The first band....i THINK they were called "The Mighty Chief" or something. haha! Tim O'Dwyer was on sax, Josh Wan was on bass, and Kerong was on keys. Can't rem the drummer and guitarist. They played some really exciting funk music for us. A great way to kick off the festival.

Kerong was insane on the red hot Nord! arghh. And of course, next to him we have the genius Josh Wan.

A view of the audience on the lawn. It was a lovely, breezy night. Love the twinkle lights on the trees.

The 2nd band...not very memorable. But check out that interesting double bass!

Probably the highlight of the night....the "Funk, Soul Brothers", an ensemble of some of the best musicians in the local music scene. My gosh, were they on fire tonight as they played energetic soul, funk numbers from the likes of Tower of Power, James Brown and such!! Apparently, they only meet once a year to perform for Chijazz. So it was quite a treat what we saw. I've certainly not seen a local ensemble like this in S'pore before.

The "Funk, Soul Brothers" kicked off their act with the Tower of Power number, "Soul with a capital S". The sax and horns sections were a feast for both the eyes and ears...with their coordinated movements and mind-blowing instrumental solos. Josh Wan was on keys.....and I can't stop saying how genius that guy is! What impressive finesse and feel! The crowd went mad for this band....and they finished their set with a well-earned encore.

Thank you God for great music!!!! :) :) Michelle is a happy, satisfied girl from her fill of sweet, soul music!