Thailand International Jazz Conference

While Nakhon Pathom’s winter breeze whistling harmoniously with a rendition of George Gerhwin’s ‘I Got Rhythm’ by a big band from Oval Stage, we were drowned in delirium to see some of the finest names in jazz hanging out for afternoon tea nearby the little canal of Mahidol University’s Salaya Campus.

Dazzled by the radiance of this occasionally jazz star-studded moment, we quickly held ourselves together and looked for Omer Avital, the critically acclaimed Brooklyn-based Israeli composer and jazz bassist. We needed to welcome him for revisiting Thailand International Jazz Festival for the second time.

As Avital enjoying his cup of coffee in the café of Mahidol University’s College of Music, the grassy courtyard surrounded by modern concrete-look architecture, he reminisced about the first time he was here joining Aaron Goldberg Trio in TIJC 2010. “It has changed so much from the way I had visited nine years ago.”

Established in 2009, TIJC 2019 celebrated its 11th anniversary by exhibiting musical excellence with an array of edutainment activities through its 5-day conference. They offered jazz lovers, music appreciators, festival-goers, students and the public the composition of music knowledge and exhilarating shows via the series of profound enjoyments, including live performances which featured world-class jazz musicians and a great number of local and regional talents, master classes and workshops instructed by jazz masters from all over the world, solo competition assessed by internationally recognized adjudicators, as well as the Jazz Camp which young jazz musicians nurtured by the top jazz masters including Russian trumpetist, Alex Sipiagin.

“It’s very good to be back here, there’re a lot of great musicians that I know from New York, the States, and Europe. The students are very high-level as we have noticed. Audiences are very appreciative. And the organisation is very, very good.” Avital revealed when we asked about his impression on this second visit of TIJC so far. Apart from his band ‘Omer Avital Quintet’ being the headliner for Saturday night show at the Main Stage, he was one of the judges for this year’s TIJC Solo Competition as well as conducting his Bass Workshop.

After asked Avital to throw us some total must-listen jazz records for our next digging, we could not help but ask what are the surpriseswe should expect from hisband’s tonight performanceapart from his signature happyfacewhile performing. “We have been working on the new album, so there’re going to be some new music and older stuff. And we’re going to interactive with the audiences, the point is to get theirspiritsup, getting everybody involved in the making of music.”Avital left us with the clue of tonight’s promising excitement.

“Welcome to our jazz education laboratory!” The greeting from Dr. Prangcharoen was as lively as melodies playing outside the Dean’s office. We were struck by the term ‘jazz education laboratory,’ so he extended more on why TIJC positioning themselves to be the laboratory for jazz education in Thailand. “Our college has altered our initiative from outcome-based education to competency-based education. So, we have tended to encourage our students to not cultivate the music knowledge from regular courses only, but also seed their set of skills, in which, they can practice by co-organising this annual jazz conference for the university.”

“TIJC is one of the pilot programmes initiated from our objective on being a competencybased education institution. This international conference is a perfect laboratory for them to participate and learn on how to manage large-scale music event. You can see that all of our students have been the workforce behind the whole production, they have also
performed lives for the event, joined master classes and workshops taught by many worldclass jazz masters.” Dr. Prangcharoen continued to reveal more.

When asked about the benefits that TIJC contributed to Thailand’s music education industry, he went on to proudly explain on how TIJC has become a creative space that students from across the country visiting for musical inspiration. “Thai jazz students are very talented, but once they see peers from their generation putting an all-out effort performing
on TIJC’s stages, they will assess their own competences and find the way to earn higher skills in music. This year we included over 50 bands to perform on the Oval Stage. It is a oneof-a-kind experience, to let Thai students from nationwide universities taking over our stages is a great platform for them to be recognised by the world’s jazz geniuses who
attending this year’s event.”

“We can distribute more to the society, not just for our college, and I’m talking about the benefits for Nakhon Pathom Province.” Before wrapping up our session with him, Dr. Prangcharoen magnified his opinion on how TIJC can contribute further to the society. “We can also become a cultural tourism spot, it would be an innovative tourism strategy. Jazz enthusiasts or music lovers don’t need to fly across the globe to attend gigs from sensational artists in New York as we keen to invite them here every year. This kind of music will boost our country’s economy, so we wish to see more supports from the Government and private sectors.”

While the time for the first Main Stage show on the last day of TIJC approaching, we first greeted Ajarn Noppadol Tirataradol, who pausing his event patrol from stage to stage to have a conversation with us, with the compliment for his ‘Pomelo Town’ band and Alex Sipiagin jamming along to Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance on yesterday
evening. “That performance was very exclusive because you can’t see jazz clashing orchestra performance very often, so it’s a surprise dedicated to our conference attendees this year. It was mesmeric to see a virtuoso like Alex oozing frenziedly on his custom trumpet and frugelhorn.”

“We have held this conference for 11 years straight. This year’s event was well-supported as many embassies sponsoring us by inviting many bands to join us here, including Spain, Germany via Goethe-Institut Thailand, as well as Isarel.” Tirataradol expressed the gratitude from the international collaborations. After exchanging admirations for the bands playing at TIJC for the whole conference, he left us with his vision for TIJC in the future. “We have planned to encourage more children to engage in our conference. What do you think if we arrange kid jazz camp or a show for kids aged under 10-year-old bands to perform?” Tirataradol left us jazzily with the promising idea for the next
TIJC which will come back again in every last week of January.

THAILAND INTERNATIONAL

At the end of every January, Thailand International Jazz Festival, or TIJC, will come back with its commitment to enlivening the jazz scene and music education industry in Thailand by collaborating with the national universities as well as the global musician network.