Jazzed Up in Opensim

Poppy Fields and Forest Azure organizing a Jazz and Blues Weekend and it's coming up on September 9 and 10. It's sponsored by Masala Estates, (thank you Unadecal!) and will be held on a dedicated sim, HG Jazz & Bluesfestival. It will cover both Euro and US-friendly hours, 11am - 3pm on saturday, 11am - 5pm on Sunday, for your listening pleasure.  

The full lineup of performers is: Rez Rezzal, Icky and Sum, Charice Singer, Acidicloop, Ruud vandeSande, Clan's Band, and Poppy and Forest themselves.

September is still a month away, but preparations are already well in hand, with this stage, built by Poppy Fields, featuring a great dome in dark blue, filled with stars and some album-cover style photos of the Jazz greats, including two of Forest's favorites, Nina Simone and Diane Krall.

Poppy Fields

The idea for the festival came back in April, when Forest, who sings with a combo in RL,  performed for the Safari at Kashi Takeshi's Jazz club on Virtual Worlds Zone. We later went to Nyx Breen's monumentally gorgeous Jazzland build over on Pangea, and you can read about that visit here. Why a Jazz and Blues event?

Forest Azure

Forest Azure: well, I think Jazz is the kind of music that best goes with my voice. I always thought I can't improvise and I was in a band, long, long ago. I wanted to do the Midnight Rambler but there is a harmonica part in it and I thought: oh, I can do that! but I could not! So, with that harmonica, i found that i followed the tune, but then I did a singing workshop, and one evening we did jazz and lo and behold ... I could improvise after all! So that is how it started. I did a couple of workshops and sang in a combo, which i still do. I once joined a jazz choir, but you can't sing jazz in a choir, People are counting, and I never do. I sing on my ears, and I can't read notes either. Counting destroys the swing feel.

The stage and dance floor are a giant turntable

It wasn't easy to put together a festival in opensim, let alone a music event focusing on specific genres. The field of possible performers proved to be quite small. 

Forest Azure: There seem to be  very few, I had to look hard for them, but some do sing a bit of jazz/blues, and the festival is both, jazz and blues. It was hard work organising -  a lot of checking them out on events, because most of them don't have a sample on their profile. But we have 6 singers and 2 DJs. Acidic has a looped kind of jazz/blues. I'll sing more like standards. Icky Thumb will  sing the blues, I expect. Charice... I don't know, she has a lot of songs.

Forest Azure and Poppy Fields

Final question for Forest and Poppy - how important is music in virtual worlds?

Forest Azure: well, that is a hard one, because in OS it is about all there is, event-wise. People want to go dance at night, and that's it. So, I think music is important in any world but here it is overrated... maybe they would do more other things if there was less music here.

Poppy Fields: I think music is important in both worlds, but it's something that works well in virtual worlds. It brings people together more than any other kind of event.