The Danish funk big band, MI22, was warmly welcomed at the Hué Festival 2010, where they received great acclaim after their 3 performances at the festival’s western stage.
Funk and jazz music enveloped the old Citadel in Hué during the 3 performances of Denmark’s oldest funk big bands, MI22. The band, which consists of both professional musicians and students from the Rhythmic Conservatory of Copenhagen, performed original music and new arrangements of classic pieces such as ‘Dancing in the streets’ and ‘The way you make me feel’ made by band leader Gustav Rasmussen.
MI22 was only one among more than 30 contemporary performances from 21 countries performing at this years’ festival which, under the theme “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development”, took place for the fifth time. All of the bands’ 3 concerts were scheduled as the final act of the evening at the festival’s western stage but, despite the late hour, the audience seemed thrilled with the performances and all concerts were well attended with people clapping and dancing to the music. The band even attracted the attention of the 2 well known Vietnamese artists, Dao Anh Khanh and Tri Minh, who was so impressed with the skills of the band, that he invited them to participate in a jam session at a private event.
Besides performing at the festival, MI22 also found time to hold a workshop with a group of students from the Hué Academy of Music, which resulted in the band performing a Vietnamese music number on stage at their final concert together with one of the students to the delight of the Vietnamese television who later broadcasted it in a report from the festival.
All in all, a lot of contacts were established during MI22’s visit to Vietnam which was realized through the support from the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund under the Embassy of Denmark. The band hopes this will only be the beginning of a long line of future collaborations with Vietnamese artists and institutions, and that they in the future will be able to participate in other Vietnamese music festivals and further nurture the newly established relationships.
