10/12/05

Echos of Sunday's Haitian Jazz Fest


  • So I missed the show but feedback --obviously to be taken with something of a grain of salt-- has trickled in from the show's promoter Papa Jube and from Mozayik, one of the bands who performed-- they kick ass, by the way.
Untapped Market
  • SOB’s Haitian events promoter, Papa Jube, emailed his take in his weekly mailing to SOB's French Caribbean events list:
  • “[I]n all of our years of promoting Haitian music, this was the first time a Haitian show sold out in advance, where there were no tickets available on the day of the show, ...the caliber and age diversity that came out to support this festival showed clearly that there was a solid untapped market that all the promoters out there have been neglecting, ... we thank all the artists that came from all over (Haiti, Canada, Belgium) ...to take part in this event, and we also apologize for the thousands of fans who were not able to get inside SOBs ...since this event has never been done before, we didn’t know what to expect, but next year, rest assured that we will have this festival in a much bigger venue to accommodate everyone…And perhaps this will be a consolation for all fans!!!!!
  • Mozayik, a favorite of mine, had this to say on a mailing to its fans: "To those unfortunate fans who were not able to secure tickets in advance or gain entrance, it is our sincere hope that this event marks the beginning of a new era of support and appreciation for the Haitian jazz genre...Let the resounding success of this event serve as testimony that there IS INDEED a most appreciative audience, ready to come out in support of events such as the Haitian Jazz Festival."
SOBs to Release CD
  • And the kicker, In Papa Jube's words: “SOBS is planning to release a state of the art CD/DVD of the “FIRST HAITIAN JAZZ MUSIC FESTIVAL” LIVE AT SOBS soon, stay tuned for more details on this upcoming Release…”
  • (He also mentioned that Sweet Micky's on this weekend, but sadly I'm out of town. He didn't elaborate on MTV Live's involvement with the show although his message's title mentioned the TV station.)
Photos
  • See photos of Mozayik's performance courtesy of mozayik.com. You'll notice that Wyclef Jean, as always, made a cameo appearance.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this info about the Haitian Jazz Festival. It was an amazing event, and we do look forward to participating in the next one. And i for one, am holding my breath for that DVD!!

Alice B. said...

Thanks Markus. Are you Markus Schwartz from Mozayik? Clicking on your name leads to the Mozayik website.

Anonymous said...

Se mwen menm.

Alice B. said...

Good to know, Markus. Needless, I'm quite honored; I've been a huge fan of you guys for a while. Mwen kontan we nou te gen sikse plis foul! Kontinye feraye.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your support of Mozayik, and also helping to spread the word about the Haitian Jazz Fest, even though you didnt get tickets :(

In this case - you CAN believe the hype. The festival was pretty amazing. Started almost on time (ou konnen fet Ayisyen nou...) all the artists got a chance to do their thing, the audience was REALLY into it, and there was magic in the air. Mozayik received an email from a new fan, who said she literally had tears in her eyes, she was so moved by the event. There was a line going around the corner, even though it was sold out in advance, and as people left (no re-entry) folks kept trickling in all night.

Nice blog space.... i will drop in again!

-Markus

Alice B. said...

Hey Markus,

Please come back!

Believe it or not I was in that line of last minute folks that went around the block. At one point though, we were told there was no hope and that we would not get in. Had I known there was a chance to get in later, I might've stuck around. How was the after-party BTW? Did Mozayik go?

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice,
I didnt hear too much about the after-party(s) - think there were two which might have caused some divisions.... but the event itself didnt end until some time around 2:30am. Mozayik went back on stage at the end of the night, to back up a great young Haitian sax/flute player named Jowee Omicil.
By the time we were packed up and ready to leave, it was 4am!

Hey - are you related to Felina Backer by any chance? She is a wonderful singer who i had the opportunity to work with a few times.

Alice B. said...

Hi Markus,
Good to read you again. 4am! What a show! I'm reserving tickets now for nest year! LOL. That aftershow was supposed to start at 11pm and people turned away were encouraged to just go straight there. I was tired so I passed.

Felina Backer is not a relative that I know of but you never know!

Any updates on the DVD?