The Book Of Zee Avi

Zee Performs At Mountain Jam 2012 This Sunday

Date: 3 June 2012 (Sunday)

Time: 3:00 - 3:50 PM

Stage: Awareness Village

Venue: Hunter Mountain, New York

Get your tickets here.

Mountain Jam Picks

by Carmel Holt (Radio Woodstock)

Last, but definitely not least, make a point of wandering over the Awareness Village to catch Zee Avi’s set. Zee is a pint-sized singer/songwriter from the island of Borneo, Malaysia. Originally a visual artist, Zee wrote songs as another creative outlet, and made simple homemade videos of herself singing songs in her bedroom (with her face excluded from the videos), and posted them on YouTube, just to share with friends. The videos went unintentionally viral, and Zee Avi became a virtual overnight success. Brushfire Records (Jack Johnson’s label) took an interest, and flew her to the States to sign her, and just released her second album, Ghost Bird. Compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday for her smooth voice, Zee has an old soul, with a kick. A strong creative spirit that will move you. A voice that will knock you out, singing songs that are like a tropical vacation, with a dose of smiling wisdom.

Zee Avi to hold concert in Miri

Sarawakian-born songbird Zee Avi will be returning to her hometown of Miri for a concert on July 7 at Miri Indoor Stadium.

Her homecoming concert is to meet the demand from fans to see more of the Miri girl who shot to international stardom after she was discovered on YouTube, and signed on to Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records.

Tourism Assistant Minister Datuk Talib Zulpilip said that he was impressed by how well-mannered and demure Zee was when he first met her late last year.

“After so long overseas, she has not changed. She is still a young lady of Sarawak, and a talented musician and songwriter with a beautiful voice,” he said in a press conference yesterday, adding that Zee’s brand of music appealed to all walks of life and all generations, including his own.

It was a proud moment for Sarawak when she emerged as an international artiste, Talib said.

“She is like a tourism ambassador now. People will always remember where she comes from,” he said. “We will be working with her to see how she can further help promote Sarawak.”

Tickets will go on sale online tomorrow at www.sarawaktourism.com, at RM60, RM80, RM150, RM200 and RM300.

The concert is organised by Sarawak Tourism Board (STB).

STB CEO Dato Rashid Khan said that Miri, Zee’s hometown, is the right place to hold her concert as it will attract fans from Brunei, Sabah and Singapore.

He added that Zee and her band will also be practising with Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) performers in order to introduce elements of world music to their repertoire.

Also present at the press conference were Tourism Ministry permanent secretary Ik Pahon Joyik, SEDC general manager Soedirman Aini, SCV general manager Jane Lian Labang, Malaysia Tourism Promotional Board Sarawak director Ahmad Johanif.

(Source: The Borneo Post)

Rainforest World Music Festival To Feature Zee Avi

The Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) 2012, to be held from July 13 to 15, at the Sarawak Cultural Village will feature Sarawak’s very own Zee Avi performing on its opening night.

State Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Openg recently said this would be the new approach for RWMF 2012 where local talents, globally known, would be promoted.

He said the Sarawak Tourism Board would slowly build up the festive mood from May onwards by staging performances by local arts schools and dance academy students at the Tourism Complex, Museum Garden and Kuching Waterfront.

“We want to provide an opportunity for our local performing arts students to pursue their career in music, apart from making Kuching a city of music,” said Abang Johari.

As a festival which has been recognised as the top 25 best international festivals by Songlines, a renowned world music magazine, RWMF will continue to improve by inviting world music performers.

To date, 13 bands, made up of musicians from various countries, have confirmed their attendance.

These bands include Le Trio Joubran of Palestine; the Khusugtun of Mongolia; Raiz De Cafezal, a group of Brazillian Amazonian Indians; Oreka Tx, a Basque band from Spain; La Zikabilo of France; and the String Sisters, comprising fiddlers from Scandinavian countries, Scotland, Ireland and the United States.

Apart from Zee Avi, other Malaysian musicians who have been invited to perform include Samuel Dass and Prakash, Diplomats of Drum and Rhythm of Borneo, who are from Sarawak.

Daily tickets priced at RM110 for adults and RM55 for children aged 3 to 12 are now available online.

Three-day passes for adults costing RM300 and RM150 for children are also available.

About 30,000 people are expected at this unique gathering of music with an estimated spin-off of RM37 million to the local economy.

(Source: The New Straits Times)

Click here for further details and tickets.

Sarong It’s Right

by Alli Marshall, Mountain Xpress

According to Malaysian-born, New York-based singer-songwriter Zee Avi, the ukulele is the new electric guitar. “The ukulele is becoming my main instrument,” she says. Partly because the diminutive stringed instrument is so portable, partly because it’s the perfect proportion for the diminutive musician, and partly because, in recent years, the ukulele has risen above its hokey Tiny Tim status and has been embraced by artists like Eddie Vedder, Jason Mraz, Amos Lee and Jack Johnson.

Actually, Avi is signed to Brushfire Records (owned, in part, by Johnson). She’s shared that stage with the surfer-turned-indie-rocker on a number of occasions, a standout in her flowing caftans and floral sarongs, adding her own vocal and ukulele touches to Johnson’s hits like “Breakdown.”

“Some songs are fitted for the ukulele and some songs are fitted for the guitar. I think it’s equal amounts of both the guitar and the ukulele that I write my songs on,” Avi tells Xpress. She says that she finds there’s more versatility with the guitar, but “If I’m hanging out with my ukulele and a melody comes to mind, that one is meant for the ukulele.”

Her new album, the Ghostbird (out since last August) is deceptively simple. It starts with a strummed ukulele, a kick drum and her voice. Warm and pretty, sung close to the mic, ambling between notes both low and high, with just a hint of wistfulness. And though there is more, much more, to Ghostbird, just this would be enough. Eleven beachy, airy tracks infused with Avi’s Southeast Asia home and enough negative ions (those are the good ones) to give any listener a heady happy buzz.

Not that Avi’s songs are all happy. Much of the world came to know Avi through “Bitter Heart,” the Feist-esque single from Avi’s 2009 self-titled debut. On Ghostbird’s jazzy-just-short-of-scatting track “Madness,” she warns, “The best knowledge comes with a price, a price that you have to pay for twice.”

If there’s not a thematic thread to this album, it doesn’t feel disparate. Even risks like the distorted harp parts on the slightly psychedelic “Bag of Gold” and the layered, echoey a capella beginning to “Concrete Wall” is anchored by Ghostbird’s sure-footedness. That confidence and sense of purpose is derived from Avi’s infallible voice.

As for songwriting impetus, that comes from travel. Avi says that she can’t be in one place for too long without getting antsy and she counts herself lucky to have found a career that allows her to keep moving. But, she says, she has to “practice a sort of mental strength to soak everything in” when she’s on the road.

Ghostbird was written in Florida — Avi went there to visit a friend last January and wound up staying for three months. “There was an infinite amount of inspiration from everywhere,” she says. That, and the tropical climate reminded her of home.

“As a writer, you’re affected by your surroundings no matter what you do,” she says. “It’s not like I want it to have this vibe or that vibe, it just sort of writes itself that way.”

Of Ghostbird, she says that each song differs from the next. Indeed, they vary from the quixotically philosophical to the playful. “It’s a variety of different moods that I wrote in my different moods,” says Avi. “I’m excited to see where my growth process will go and how my songs will sound melodically and lyrically for the third album.”

She’s already covered new ground on Ghostbird, singing “Siboh Kitak Nangis” (“Don’t You Cry”) in her native Sarawak-Malay language. “I think in English, I always have, but I find a certain relaxed feeling when I sing in my own language,” Avi says. “Some words can not be translated, so it’s about the delivery of emotion of a word that can’t be translated to English. People register it anyway.” She says that she listens to a lot of French-language music, and Afrobeat because even if she can’t understand the lyrics, “I feel it.”

It seems that’s how audiences feel about Avi’s music, too. “Ghostbird has taken a life of its own,” she says. “It’s nice to know this batch of stories is relatable.”

(Source: Mountain Xpress)

Next Big Names For 2012

Zee Avi

Since being talent-spotted on Youtube by Patrick Keeler of Raconteurs fame, Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi has chalked up a minor hit in the States with her self-titled debut album, and looks set to capitalize on the buzz generated by her music following the release of her second album “ghostbird” in August last year. Her ukelele- and guitar-based songs are as twee as you like – a recent cover of “Slow Hands” made Interpol sound like Jack Johnson – but she has the gorgeous voice and graceful simplicity to embed firmly into your subconscious – rare for music so laid-back.

Find out who else has made the list at theupcoming.co.uk