Jazz artist Mishka Adams and house music DJ Erwin Edralin are two more local talents confirmed to participate in the fourth edition of Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival next month, says festival director DJ Miro Grgic.
They will be sharing the stage with legends Roy Ayers and Lonnie Liston Smith, as well as widely known and respected musicians José Gonzalez and Mad Professor.
At a press lunch yesterday in Sofitel Philippine Plaza, the 34-year-old Croatian-Australian sound engineer and manager behind the festival, staged annually with the beautiful Mount Malasimbo near Puerto Galera in Mindoro as backdrop, said that this year’s highlights is not necessarily about big names.
It’s about performers who stay true to the festival’s origin as a roots and reggae event, and music that will complement the grass amphitheater venue. “We tried playing rock music there before but it didn’t work,” explained Grgic.
Lineup
“We know you all want Erykah Badu, but this is the closest we can get to her,” he joked as he announced the participation of 73-year-old Ayers, vibraphone player and pioneer of Neo Soul who has been a major influence on Badu’s music.
Another performer, American jazz pianist and Grammy winner Robert Glasper of Robert Glasper Experiment, has been producing music for the American singer-songwriter and actress.
Joining Ayers is his contemporary and fellow soul-jazz fusion pioneer Lonnie Liston Smith.
Other crowd drawers include indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist José Gonzalez (Sweden), vocalist and spritual jazz and jazz funk pioneer MBE Omar (UK), downtempo guy Jordan Rakei (Australia) and rasta dub musician Mad Professor (Guyana).
Also peforming are Osunlade (US), Greg Wilson (UK), Mark de Clive-Lowe (LA), Low Leaf (UK), as well as June Marieezy and Heavy Boogie, both based in Manila.
Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival was first staged in 2011 to a crowd of 1,500 music lovers. This year, the organizers are targetting 6,000 attendees, 1,500 more from last year. It will last for five days, compared to last year’s three.
One of the festival’s firsts is a “Boracay goes to Malasimbo” travel package to lure in tourists in the famous white beach, with live-aboard accommodations.
Another one is a collaboration tent which will have a recording studio, a place where local musicians can work with foreign perfomers.
Grgic released one record under the newly found Malasimbo Recordings label last year and “we hope to release a compilation featuring this year’s artists and have it available at the festival,” he says.
One of a kind festival
Malasimbo is the only music festival of its kind in the Philippines because of its location and four-pronged program: music, arts, environment and indigenous people.
“So far we’ve had about 30 artists exhibiting at Malasimbo ever since Year 1 in 2011. And the family is actually growing,” notes the young Filipino-French artist and designer Olivia d’Aboville, who is the art curator of the event.
To help preserve the indigenous culture of the Mangyan tribes of Mindoro, the festival will have a life-size Mangyan Village exhibit. “I want the people and the Filipino that has never seen a Mangyan hut or house to understand how people live,” says Hubert d’Aboville, who has been living in Puerto Galera since 1977 and is president and co-founder of the festival.
Heritage workshops are also part of the lineup, as well as performances by the T’boli people of South Cotabato, Mindanao, showcasing their various traditional music instruments. T’boli items will also be sold on festival grounds.
“I don’t want the concert lineup to be the reason why people come to the festival. I want people to come because of the Malasimbo experience, which is not just about the music but the culture, the arts and the environmental part of it,” says Grgic.
READ: Interview with Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival’s Miro Grgic
Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival runs from Feb 27-Mar 3 in Puerto Galera, Mindoro. For tickets and more information go to www.malasimbofestival.com.
