BEYOND BOUNDARIES IN KOTA KINABALU Featuring Roger Wang & re:mix, Singapore's premier crossover string ensemble
Matinee Concert Date: 6 September 2009, Sunday Venue:Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort &
Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia Time: 2:00pm to 3.30pm Price: RM80, RM50 & RM30 (For students 18 years old and below) Contact:bunyigitar@gmail.com
Charity Dinner Show Date: 5 September 2009, Sunday Venue:Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort &
Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia Time: 7:00pm to 10.30pm Price: RM200, RM250 & RM300 Contact: 088-327871
Roger Wang will join forces with one of Singapore’s newest classical
music sensation, re:mix, to give a
truly memorable performance during a charity dinner in aid of Seri Mengasih
Centre on Saturday, September 5, 2009, said organizers Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru
Resort and Spa and RAM Production. In addition to
the charity dinner, Wang and the petit string ensemble, re:mix, will also perform at a matinee the next day, September 6,
2009, from 2:00pm to 3:30pm. Songs performed
during the "Beyond Boudaries" concerts include Classical Gas, Aquellos Ojos Verdes, Getaran Jiwa and Mama Mia. Wang & re: mix will perform a piece consisting
of a medley of songs written by Carlos Antonio Jobim specially arranged by the
famous Singaporean musician Iskandar Ismail. Wang will also give a preview of
some new songs written for his new solo project. Tickets for the
charity dinner, held in aid of Seri Mengasih Centre, are priced at RM200, RM250 and
RM300 per person and matinee tickets are sold at RM30 for each student, RM50
and RM80. For more information, please contact 088-327871 / 088-218395 or go to www.rogerwang.net. As Malaysia’s
most renowned finger-style master guitarist, Wang produces brilliant and
exhilarating music with just six humble steel strings of an acoustic
guitar.Wang is an “audio-visual”
wonder, watching and hearing his deft finger work usually leaves his audiences
awestruck. re:mix comprises
of Singapore’s finest local and international chamber musicians who prides
themselves on creating new variations of Western classical music. The group
redefines the music of popular culture yet maintains the demanding performing
standards of the classical musical ensemble. The Singaporean group
is led by violinist Foo Say Ming, who is a familiar face in the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra, Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO), the National
University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
and LaSalle-SIA. He has also performed with Switzerland’s Orchestre de Chambre
de Lausanne. Iskandar is one
of Singapore’s most accomplished composer, producer, music arranger, music
director, conductor and orchestrator who has composed and arranged music for
local and foreign artistes of leading record companies, including Dick Lee,
Jimmy Ye, Jacintha Abishegenaden, Andy Lau, Sandy Lam, Chang Hui Mei and Aaron
Kwok.
Seri Mengasih Centre is a special
developmental centre located in Kota Kinabalu providing a comprehensive range of
training programmes for the intellectually disabled and services for their
families.
Miri International Jazz Festival 2009
Double
Take opened the 4th Miri Jazz Fest on May 8, 2009, with aplomb, much to
the giddy delight of the sleepy oil town. Held at the ParkCity Everly
Hotel, the festival was a lively combination of noisy brass
brigade, jazz duo, reggae and....
Music
Toxin Xpress (MTX) Inaugural Issue March 2009
Roger supports the new MTX, an independent music magazine published by Musictoxin
Production that offers a channel for non-mainstream and indie artistes to introduce
themselves...
A PDF
version of the magazine can also be downloaded here.
Roger's
latest performance with Singapore's newest string ensemble,
re:mix, at the Esplanade at the island republic, was a major
success. Tickets for both afternoon and evening shows on December
21, 2008 were sold out. The audience, awed by the melodies the marriage of classical music and jazz produced, demanded for
encore.
AN EVENING OF MUSIC & MAGIC Date: 22 August 2009, Saturday Venue: Convention Hall, Financial Park, Labuan, Malaysia Time: 7:30pm Price: RM90, RM60 & RM40
Contact:genie_in_the_lamp@hotmail.com
Genei Wong (013-8972888)
Jenny Chong (019-8820535)
BEYOND BOUNDARIES
Featuring Roger Wang & re:mix, Singapore's premier crossover string ensemble Date: 6 September 2009, Sunday Venue:Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort &
Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia Time: 2:00pm to 3.30pm Price: RM80, RM50 & RM30 (students) Contact:bunyigitar@gmail.com
******
Look for Roger in:
LATEST
NEWS
MAY 2009
Miri International Jazz Festival 2009
Double
Take opened the 4th Miri Jazz Fest on May 8, 2009, with aplomb, much to
the giddy delight of the sleepy oil town. Roger and Mia Palencia didn't
disappoint fans with their rendition of "Man in the Mirror", Beatles hits and
the wildly-popular "Bila Larut Malam",
Held at the ParkCity Everly
Hotel, the festival was a lively combination of noisy brass brigade,
jazz duo, reggae and international sounds.
Roger and Mia
Palencia were the sole Malaysian act in the two-day line up which
boasted of world-renowned groups like Bombay Baja Brass Band from the
United Kingdom, Alamode from Australia, the French Dites 34, Steps
in Time featuring John Neptune from Japan, African Jeff Maluleke, the
Canadian jazz and salsa band Rumba Calzada and finally Thomson Big Band
from Singapore.
Music
Toxin Xpress (MTX) Inaugural Issue March 2009
MTX is an independent music magazine published by Musictoxin
Production to offer a channel for non-mainstream and indie artistes to introduce
themselves. The magazine is bilingual (English and Chinese) and will be out every two months.
Roger supports the cause of this magazine by contributing
articles relating to his experience and knowledge on the guitar. On this issue, he
writes about guitarists that have greatly influenced his music and career. There is
also an interview of him talking about 2V1G.
You will also get a chance
to win a chance to attend the 3rd Kota Kinabalu Jazz Festival where you can watch
Nah Youn San, Double Take and other great performers. Besides the admission ticket
to the 2-day festival, the winner will also receive a return air ticket to Kota
Kinabalu (from Kuala Lumpur) plus hotel accommodation. Contest details are all in
the magazine.
Hardcopies of the magazine will be available for free,
starting 4th march 2009, at major record stores in Malaysia where Interglobal CDs
are sold. That includes all branches of Victoria Music Centre and CD Rama. A PDF
version of the magazine can also be downloaded here.
Roger's New Year 2009 greetings Firstly, I wish all of you reading this a Happy New Year! 2008. A Year of Change. It was a good year for me. The year started with me and my wife finding a new house. After
3 months of planning and renovation, we finally moved into our new home
just in time to celebrate our daughter Sara's first birthday.
Musically, things started to get busy in July with the launching of
2V1G's debut album. Being a Chinese album, this project was a new
experience for me. Even though it started out with the audiophile
market in mind, it has successfully crossed over to the mainstream
market in Malaysia and Singapore. It was even "Pick of the Week" on
Hong Kong's Metro Radio for 2 straight weeks. This was followed by 2
sold-out shows at Kuala Lumpur's premier jazz club, No Black Tie.
Double Take returned to Equatorial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, for the 4th
Summer Jazz Series in August. It was good to see familiar faces as well
as a lot of new ones too. It went so well that we came back in November
for another round, this time with a tribute to one of our favourite
band, The Beatles.
This year really turned out to be a year of new collaborations. In
December, I was invited to perform in Singapore. It's been 4 years
since my last gig there, this time I perform with re:mix, Singapore's
hippest string ensemble.
These are some of the highlights of the year for me. Even though 2009
may seem to be gloomy for a lot of people, I have a feeling it has a
lot of exciting things in store for me. 2V1G will start work on our
next album in March. After that, Farid Ali and I should be getting back
together for another guitar/gambus collaboration. Double Take will be
performing at the Miri Jazz Fest on 8 & 9 May.
If all goes well, I may be getting my hand on a harp guitar this year!
I am not sure how well I can adapt my playing to the harp guitar, but I
have always wanted one and I am excited with the possibilities that the
extra strings can offer. Watch this space for more updates, or join my
mailing list below.
Thanks for listening.
Roger Wang
Roger at home with 20-month-old daughter, Sara, in November 2008.
Picture courtesy of Louis Pang
DEC 2008
Breaking boundaries with re:mix at Singapore
Roger's
latest performance with Singapore's newest string ensemble,
re:mix, at the Esplanade at the island republic, was a major
success. Tickets for both afternoon and evening shows on December
21, 2008 were sold out. The audience, awed by the melodies the marriage of classical music and jazz produced, demanded for
encore.
"re:mix
mixes new beats, new rhythms, and quotations of canonic music in a new
way but at the same time, maintains the demanding performing standards
of the classical musical ensemble," said its leader, Mr. Foo Say Ming.
He continued, "re:mix is also a call to local composers to think this
mixing-up of tradition and mixing of genres for the petit ensemble and
looks forward to performing such works."
Click here to see the newspaper review (New Straits Times, Singapore, December 23, 2008) of the performance.
Roger and Mia Palencia joined forces for the second time in 2008 to take on the Beatles at Flo Lounge, Equatorial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. 'Double Take Pays Tribute to The Beatles' ran three nights from November 27- 29 and attracted both Double Take and Beatles fans. Armed
with just vocals and an acoustic guitar, the duo did justice to the
wildly famous British band from the 50s to 70s through numbers like I Feel Fine; Here, There and Everywhere; Obladi Oblada; And I Love Her; Hey Jude and Here Comes The Sun.
Catch a glimpse of the performance on YouTube, courtesy of marcomalaysia.
Guitar
enthusiasts in Melaka flocked to Roger's guitar workshop and later,
adjourned to a vibrant charity concert held at the Huai Xuan Hall, Pay Fong High School. The concert held on November 22,
2008
featured other Malaysian musicians like Ika Huang, William Kok, Kok Jia Ming and Yong Wee Chan. Concert
organisers, City Music Melaka Sdn Bhd and Music Element, said that the
concert was held in support of the Handicapped and Mentally Disabled
Children Centre, Melaka. Anyone interested in offering help to the
centre and the children can contact Mr. David R. Farimanalan at
019-7888224.
It may
have been the trio's first ever concert together but tickets
for both nights'
shows were sold out more than a week before the show!
Roger,
with Regine Tai and Winnie Ho, played to a full-house at Kuala Lumpur's
No Black Tie on Oct 7 and 8, 2008. Their repertoire included six songs
from their new self-titled album, some Malay, Chinese and English
favourites. Both artistes and audience enjoyed the show so much,
everyone's wondering, "When's the next show?" Stay tuned! (pictures
courtesy of Wong Horng Yih)
Just a month
after it was officially launched in Kuala Lumpur, 2V1G's self-titled
debut album
was chosen as Hong Kong's Metro Radio as "Pick of the Week"! For two
consecutive weeks! Needless to say, producers and artistes of the album
are ecstatic.
2V1G,
which stands for Two Voices, One Guitar, features Roger with singers
Winnie Ho and Regine Tai. It was officially
launched on July 18, 2008 at Kuala Lumpur's Central Market. The trio
and the album producers, Leslie Loh and Chow Kam Leong, released the
self-titled album at a
press conference attended by a select few.
Pictured here are (L to R) Leslie Loh, Regine Tai, Roger, Winnie Ho and
Chow Kam Leong at the press conference.
Double
Take in Equatorial Hotel's Summer Jazz Series 2008
It
was all sunshine and smiles when Double Take returned to Equatorial
Hotel's Flo Lounge for its Summer Jazz Series IV. Roger and
Mia
Palencia joined forces again to delight crowds of fans at the hotel
from July 30 to Aug 2, 2008.
Performing two sets every night, Roger and Mia did not disappoint fans
who have been waiting for months to watch the reunion of this
magnificent duo.
From
email Roger sent out to his mailing list on July 3, 2008:
Sometimes the only way to discover new places is to let someone else
led the way. That's basically what happened with this new album.
Early last year I got a call from my friend Leslie Loh. Leslie is an
avid audiophile who owns a local Hi-Fi publication, AV Xpress, and a
very popular blog, Desirable Audio Boutique
(desirableaudio.blogspot.com). I have known Leslie for a number of
years. He has been a supporter of my music ever since my early gigs at
No Black Tie. He told me that he wanted to produce an audiophile
standard Chinese acoustic album featuring just the voice and an
acoustic guitar. It would be a minimalist approach to Chinese classic
love songs of the 80s and 90s with high resolution recording. If
successful it would be the first Chinese audiophile pop album produced
in Malaysia. He had me in mind for this project from the very beginning
and wanted to find out if I was interested. I liked the idea and told
him to count me in.
Leslie also recruited producer Chow Kam Leong as well as Winnie Ho and
Regine Tai on vocals. He named the project 2V1G which stood for 2 voice
1 guitar. It was suppose to be a temporary name, but since no one was
able to come up with something better, it eventually became the name of
the group and album.
Once the songs were selected, I began work on the arrangements which
turned out to be harder than expected. You see I have never taken much
interest in Chinese pop music, so all this was new to me. Ironically
this was one of the reasons that I has chosen for this project. Coming
for a different musical background, Leslie felt that I should be able
to look at these songs with a fresh perspective. Winnie and Regine on
the other hand come from a strong background in singing Chinese pop
songs. Winnie is the winner of Astro Talent Quest 2000 (an annual
Chinese singing competition in Malaysia organized by ASTRO Wah Lai
Toi). Regine, meanwhile, was already an established Chinese
recording artiste and actress.
This meant that I needed to bring my guitar arrangement closer to what
Winnie and Regine were used to and at the same time give it a fresh
interpretation!! ..... I had to rethink a lot of my approach to this
project. A lot of my usual playing style just didn't work in this
context. I had to bring myself out of my musical boundaries and get
closer to what would work better with the singers, the songs and the
vision of the producer.
The guitar recording took a total of 12 days that was split into 3
separate trips to KL. It was a bit of a struggle at the beginning, but
towards the end I began to get the hang of it. We managed to come up
with a nice selection of 12 songs. Besides the standard heartfelt
Chinese ballads, there are also a few songs that were arranged in a
style that was closer to home for me. There should be enough variety
without being too safe.
On the technical side, the recording was done in high-resolution
24bit/192Khz DSP using the legendary AKG C12VR tube microphone. The AKG
is famed for its warmth and beautiful timbre, especially for human
voice. Special high-end power conditioning system was also used to
power up all the recording equipment in the studio for cleaner and
purer power supply.
The recording and mixing was done in Kuala Lumpur by
MusicToxin’s
(the label and production house) in-house engineer, Vong, while the
all-important mastering is done by Keith Yip, the audiophile guru from
Hong Kong, who owns the audiophile music label Rock In music, who is
also the former boss and recording engineer of Audiophile Diva Susan
Wong. The CD is pressed in Hong Kong by Sony DADC, one of the top CD
duplication factories in HK.
The album will be officially launched on July 18, 2008 and will also be
distributed in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and possibly
Thailand.
I just received the album a week ago and heard the final product for
the first time. I must say the whole production team did a great job.
Not many singers have the guts to expose themselves and sing with so
little musical instruments to hide behind. Winnie and Regine not only
managed to pull it off, but their vocal performance really stood out.
My guitar playing came out really different from anything that I have
done before. It felt refreshing, familiar and a bit foreign all at the
same time ... but in a good way.
All in all, I enjoyed the whole experience. I got to discover new
musical territories, tried things I normally will not do on my own,
worked with a wonderful team and gained a deeper understanding of
Chinese pop music as well as a few kilos from all the pork they feed
me!!
Thanks for listening.
For more info about 2V1G, you can checkout the blog maintained by
Leslie at http://2v1g.blogspot.com
Here's
a whole new side of Roger no one's ever seen nor heard before! The
album, "2V1G" (2 Voices, 1 Guitar), simply combines the sound of a
perfectly-played guitar, two beautiful female voices (Regina Tai and
Winnie Ho), the production
and mastering genius of a well-known producer and mastering engineer
and voila! Malaysia's first. Leslie
Loh, the brain behind 2V1G, cautions, "Those who buy 2V1G because of
Roger Wang, please don't expect the same flamboyant and "busy" style of
guitaring as Roger did in Double Take and No Strings Attached. As I
have said before, Roger Wang has evolved into a more versatile player.
In 2V1G, he plays in a mellower and heartfelt manner more suited to
Chinese ballads. It is a new Roger Wang like you have never heard him
before."
