Hua Hin Jazz Festival 2008
If there is a downside to living in Bangkok for Westerners, it's the lack of quality live music. While Tokyo pulls in just about every major act and has one of the world's best jazz scenes Bangkok has to make do with the occasional third-rate mainstream show. It's hard to fathom. Although the international music scene here is certainly immature, on the odd occasion a quality act does slip through the net and perform here, the response is usually enthusiastic. A saving grace for a while was the annual Hua Hin Jazz Festival, held every June in the royal resort town just two hours from Bangkok. Now in its seventh year, the festival on the beach attracts thousands of people from Bangkok, all heading to the town to sit on the beach, chill out to the jazz and eat good seafood. The last two years, however, the line-up has been simply dreadful (with the exception of Bill Bruford's Earthworks brought in by local promoter Mark Bolam http://www.enlightenedplanet.com/). CM Organizer who have a three-year contract to stage the festival have missed all opportunities to turn the event into a festival of international standing.
After a lack-lustre 2007 which was panned in the press and has seen the main sponsor Heineken pull out, CM Organizer is trying to repair the company image by bringing in two huge international names that will see true jazz fans return to the beach. The highlight of the free festival is undoubtedly the Kenny Garrett Quartet. As the Washington Post said of the alto/soprano saxophone, "Someone should post a storm warning prior to a Kenny Garrett concert." The Mike Stern Band featuring Dave Weckl on drums and Chris Minh Doky on bass is set to be another stunning performance at the two-day event. Stern is a jazz guitar icon with a pedigree stretching over three decades.
Having clearly blown a significant part of the festival budget on these two sensational acts, the rest of the festival line-up is typically dull featuring a string of mediocre local acts. The Thai ska band T-Bone make an appearance and although the band are great fun live and extremely competent performers they hardly fit the bill for a jazz festival. As with any Thai event, food plays a significant part in the festival and the beach will be lined with stalls selling tasty treats. Indeed, it must be said that for most Thais attending the festival the attraction is not the music but the opportunity to get out of Bangkok and sit on the beach eating with friends.
If you are a jazz fan traveling in Thailand over the festival weekend, it is definitely worth heading down to Hua Hin for Kenny Garrett and Mike Stern. The Hua Hin Jazz Festival is a free event held on June 13-14, 2008. Be sure to book your hotel or guesthouse in advance as thousands of people descend on the town.