Letter to the Editor | ‘Bring back Macau’s International Jazz Festival’

Dear Editor,

Last Sunday I ceremoniously buried my promotional tee shirt for the 6th Macau Jazz Festival of 1988. The day was chosen carefully.

Solemnity was called for, so I trekked to the top of Altinho de Coloane – the big hill on the island, from where the whole territory was once easily visible.

I wrapped the shirt together with eight one-pataca coins for good luck – in keeping with Feng Shui and the auspicious ‘88 year of the festival.

The shirt’s once bold motif and band lineup was barely visible after the thousand and more washes of the treasured, soft and threadbare cloth.

I laid it in the earth and buried it there. Walking back down, it struck me again that the faded shirt was a sad metaphor of the same fading of jazz from the city and the decline of the very special Macau Jazz Club.

But what an astounding array of talent came through the jazz festival’s humble doors in its not so short a life! Spanning from 1979 to the last in 2002, the Macau Jazz Club presented jazz musicians from Europe, the U.S., Japan, Australia and neighboring S.E. Asian countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and homegrown Hong Kong and Macau.

U.S. musician icon Tom Harrell (quartet) with his trumpet and flugelhorn; Ray Anderson, no. 1 jazz trombone player at the time, Dave Parker/ John Stubblefield Quartet, Ric Halstead and One Finger Snap. From Japan: Toshinory Wondo Ima, Shigeharu Mukai Quartet; from Portugal and elsewhere: Maria Joao, celebrated jazz singer, Rao Kiao, Saheb Sarbib Trio, and many, many others.

What’s more – that talent came for the love of jazz, and so did our audiences, our volunteers and our dedicated (if oftentimes quarrelsome) committee.

It was real – and we all felt it. Those that experienced it, they want that feeling back. And those that haven’t yet – well, they might not know it, but they need it too.

So. On this international Day of Jazz [April 30], I appeal to all lovers of real, soulful and above all live jazz – of all ages and backgrounds:

Let’s get the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macao Foundation and any other understanding parties something real to get behind, and give this ‘International Tourist City’ a festival we all deserve.

Bring back Macau’s International Jazz Festival.

As for me, I have high hopes.

After all, I buried that treasured emblem of Macau’s jazz scene on a date many hold to be a day of miraculous rebirth. Joe Rosario, Macau