NOIR: MaltaJazzFest by Jack Saliba

Noir is a famous Jazz Band from Malta which was created especially to perform in the Jazz Festival 2006.It comprises of Kris Spiteri, Edward Luss, Mario Borg and Alex Debono. All these four band members are expert professionals and they love performing in the important events. Kris Spiteri enjoys keyboard playing, Edward Luss is on bass, Mario Borg on Sax and Alex Debono shows is an expert drum beater.

A jazz band (or jazz ensemble in western dialects of American English) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music (http://www.maltajazzfest.com/ ). Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section. During the jazz and swing eras in the mid-twentieth century, the most successful jazz orchestras also empolyed strings and harp in expanded arrangements, but their presence on the bandstand was more for visual impact and not as a key component of the ensemble.

The rhythm section of a jazz band consists of the drums, bass, and usually at least one instrument capable of playing chords, such as a piano or guitar. Large early jazz bands such as Paul Whiteman's employed two pianos and banjo. The rhythm section is the foundation for the band; it sets the feel for the piece.

Noir, The Malteese Band is created for the special purpose of this Jazz Festival 2006 when NNG approached Kris Spiteri and invited him to show his great performance in this grand Jazz event. Alex and Kris had also experience of working onn an Original project , “The Last Seven words of Christ ( a musicial and non religious parallelism with the last 7 phrases said by the Jesus on the Cross ).This project was composed by Kris and commissioned by St.James Cavalliors in 2005. Later there was an addition of Edward who was popularly known for his fresh ideas and great enthusiasm with great inclinations of Rock/funk/fusion. Both Alex Debono and Mario Borg had already availed the opportunities of performing in the Jazz Festivals in the past with the Johann Strauss Big Band. Finally, Mario Borg was the best possible choice in the formation of this band of quartet.

For more information about NOIR visit: http://www.maltajazzfest.com/NOIR.html.

About The Author

Jack Saliba was born in Malta and grew up in the USA. After one summer as an exchange student in Greece, Jack knew that he will be spending a lot of time in the region. After graduating from Cornell, Jack took up life on the road. Now a Rome based photojournalist, he spends his time back packing through the less travelled roads of Mediterranean Europe and writing for the comparison travel section of http://www.ixs.net.