Hot Days, Hot Nights, Hot Jazz

What place do you think of when you think of jazz? Maybe dim blue clubs in New York City, smoky cafes in Paris, the rollicking streets of New Orleans?

How about a colonial seaside town in Sri Lanka?

Before I went to Sri Lanka, the only thing I definitely wanted to do was ride trains through tea country. But after spending only 45 minutes in Galle during TBCAsia, I knew that returning to this charming seaside town would also be a priority. With its clear blue water, quiet streets lined with colorful colonial buildings, and historic fort, the city was exactly the sort of place that tempts me to linger—it reminded me of Penang, the Malaysian island I chose to stay on days past my planned departure.

Lucky for me, there was an opportunity for four of us bloggers to cover the first Galle Jazz Festival, which coincided with my last two days in Sri Lanka. I jumped at the chance. To return to this town AND listen to live jazz for days sounded almost too ideal.

Jazz has been gaining popularity in Sri Lanka, especially in the underground clubs of the capital city Colombo, where jazz shows happen more and more frequently. Jazz Unlimited, a monthly jam at the CR&FC club in Colombo, is the nucleus that the Sri Lankan jazz scene revolves around; jazz scene veterans and up-and-comers mix, meet, and play for enthusiastic audiences. Eager to draw in tourists, The Galle Fort Hotel brought the jazz scene to the coast. They certainly had a lovely backdrop at hand: Galle’s UNESCO-designated Old Town is wrapped inside sturdy fortifications and displays its colonial heritage clearly; the architecture calls back to the Portuguese, Dutch, and British occupiers who have called Galle theirs. The old city is a calm and easy tourist destination, lined with boutique hotels, shaded cafes, and artisan shops.

The festival itself came out of the desire to promote cultural tourism in Galle in an innovative way. Five years after the end of a long civil war and ten years after a devastating tsunami, Sri Lankan tourism is growing rapidly; bringing the Sri Lankan jazz scene to Galle adds another layer of charm to an already charming city. The festival featured both local and international bands: from the old-style swing of the French band Olivier Franc Quintet to the fusion jazz of the young Sri Lankan band Noctua. I met the lead singer of Noctua, Eshantha, in the van that took me from Colombo to Galle, and we chatted about the jazz scene in Sri Lanka– I had no idea that there even was one. “Jazz has always been around in Sri Lanka, and just like the metal scene, it has its own crowd,” he told me.

The Galle Fort Hotel put us up for the event in beautiful and airy accommodations. Many of the musicians and media were also staying at the hotel, which made the lobby feel like the backstage of the whole show. The central location allowed us to easily explore the rest of the fort area; even though the weather shifted quickly from blue skies and sunny to rainy gray and back again, Galle was endlessly delightful to wander around. I was particularly interested in the fact that there is a large and visible Muslim presence in Galle, with many mosques and cultural centers throughout the city. There are also plenty of churches, left over from the Dutch and Portuguese colonization of the city. I love cities where the layers and layers of history are so visible and accessible. And over all of this was layered the temporary jazz celebration, a most modern innovation and addition to the city.

The streets around the main square were blocked off from traffic for the duration of the two-day festival and the crowd grew even as the first day was plagued by intermittent drizzle. The Olivier Franc Quintet played exuberant Bechet on soprano saxophone through the rain; the crowd huddled under tents and trees but didn’t leave. The magnetism of the band and the swooning swing of the songs kept the energy high despite the inclement weather. Friends clinked beer bottles and noshed on beef rotti and spring rolls and swayed their hips to the beat. The center of Galle Fort, which should have been empty as the day became more dreary, was instead lively–  the jazz festival created a community of slightly damp but very enthusiastic audience members.

As night fell and the square lit up with twinkling fairy lights and purple-blue strobes, the locals, the tourists, and the musicians danced wildly at the foot of the stage. Jazz didn’t seem out of place at all in Galle. As a way to build up the prestige of the Sri Lankan jazz scene and drive cultural tourism to the country, the Galle Jazz Festival was a swooning success. In Sri Lanka, “the appreciation for jazz seems not to be contained within a certain age group,”  Eshantha noted. “The crowd consists of young and old, which is good for the future of jazz.” Good for the future of the Galle Jazz Festival, too.

My visit to Galle and press pass to the Galle Jazz Festival were thanks to the Galle Fort Hotel. I visited Sri Lanka as part of the TBCAsia conference. My stay was made possible by Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts and Sri Lankan Airlines, as well as the Professional Travel Blogger Association. All opinions are my own, naturally.