Samui Summer Jazz Festival - May 2nd to 7th, 2023

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written by Expat Life

 

May 2nd to 7th, 2023  6 nights of freestyle jazz

 

In early November I was invited by SKAL Samui, the largest of the six SKAL clubs in Thailand, to visit the beautiful island at the end of the month where they were announcing the dates for the ‘Samui Summer Jazz Festival’ from May 2 to next year. 

 

May 2023

 

• 01 Labour Day

• 02 Samui Summer Jazz (through to May 7)

• 04 Full Moon Party (Koh Phangan)

• 20 Samui Regatta (through May 27)

 

They had invited Alexander Beets, Saskia Laroo and members of their bands from the Netherlands to announce the event and give a quick preview to the media and VIP guests. 

 

The driving force behind SKAL Samui’s organisation is a slight, delightfully modest German lady from Munich Jani Sorgel (Jane) who has been in Thailand for over 20 years married to a Thai man. Her committee on the island relaunched the Samui Summer Jazz Festival in June this year after an 8 year hiatus, and it is once again growing in reputation thanks to Jane’s long term friendship with Alexander Beets who organises the main event in Holland, the Amersfoort Jazz Festival – www.amersfoortjazz.nl

 

Santi Wongwasat a celebrated Thai chef and restaurateur on the island who owns the popular Phensiri restaurant group – along with Jane and their committee organise this event under the banner of SKAL International Koh Samui on a voluntary basis, without corporate ownership and with limited local sponsorship, and it is a wonderful spectacle!

 

I am not a jazz aficionado but this wasn’t jazz as I knew it. This was a highly motivated group of talented artists getting together and making the palm trees and the floor rock. 

 

 

At the dinner table at the Santiburi a wonderful 5 star plus retreat on the island, was an 81 year old American who when the rap/hip hop artist from Surinam, now resident in Rotterdam, started his jazz rap sequence, very quickly had everyone dancing on the sand including 81 year old Patrick who admitted he “doesn’t even like hip hop or rap”.  The energy emanating from the stage was contagious!

 

Full story: https://expatlifeinthailand.com/samui-summer-jazz-festival/

 

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life in Thailand 2022-12-14

 

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