Greenbelt 1’s Expo Exchange was packed last Friday night! It was the third Manila Jazz Festival. Featured were: the Jewelmer Jazz Band, Subconcept, Johnny Alegre Affinity, Satya and Jamie Oehlers Quartet. I have never seen a live performance by jazz artists except for the one by Majam (back in my college days).

Jazz is the kind of music that never ceases to amaze me because of the passion of the people playing that kind of music. The guitar guy from Subconcept really had his facial expressions. Seeing that was really amusing, in a sense because even though there is shownmanship, you know that there is such a love for what he is doing that simply shines through.

Johnny Alegre Affinity was awesome. Tots Tolentino was on sax and I can’t help but be in awe. The sax is something I love listening to because it sounds so soulful. Meanwhile, the bass of the Jamie Oehlers Quartet was almost getting drowned out by the other pieces but nevertheless it was quite good too.

I was with my friends that night and I love the way that we enjoyed listening to the music together. I guess that if I look at it in another way, a group of friends is like a jazz band: they listen to each other and they give each other a chance to do his/her own thing, there are times when the music sounds like there’s a certain discord because of the timing but there are moments that you could just feel how smooth everything blends. Sounds a bit weird, but I guess that this is one of the reasons I like jazz music.