KUCHING, Monday 6 May 2013 – HAZMAT MODINE is a New York-based band that has been touring internationally in over 30 countries world wide for the past six years. They will be one of the 8 award winning bands performing at Borneo Jazz this coming weekend.

The band plays a hard-edged blues and jazz fusion driven by a pair of dueling harmonicas, backed by tuba, drums, guitars, and a horn section.  They recently completed their long-awaited follow-up to their first CD 'Bahamut'.

KUCHING, Friday May 6 2013 – Let’s literally jump for joy at Borneo Jazz 2013!. Yes there will be popular high-energy entertainment with a strong New Orleans flavour when Swedish band, Jump4Joy performs in Miri, Sarawak Malaysia Borneo this year.

There will be feel-good, energetic and toe-tapping sounds. Two of the musicians, Ulf Sandstrom and Bo Gustafsson, have been nominated for their contributions to Swedish blues by the Scandinavian Blues Association for the Janne Rosenqvist Memorial Prize and in 2008, Bo received the prize.

Musicians, managers, record labels, music venues, music professionals, cultural ministries, entrepreneurs, technology companies can register themselves through BWME website.

KUCHING, Tuesday – Tickets for the upcoming Borneo Jazz in Miri are now on sale at Visitors Information Centres in Kuching, Sibu and Miri, Sarawak.

Tickets are priced at RM60 for single entry and RM100 for a two-day pass. Children under the age of 12 years will enjoy 50% discount on each ticket. Borneo Jazz tickets are also available online at www.ticketcharge.com.my.

KUCHING, Tuesday – From Down Under, comes Lisa Young Quartet who will perform at this year’s Borneo Jazz. The award winning quartet is well known to jazz and world music listeners as an ensemble of creative improvisers incorporating Indian and African elements in their work.

The quartet features the intuitive musicality of Ben Robertson (Double Bass), Steve Magnusson (Guitar) and Dave Beck (Drums). They bring to the Borneo Jazz their most recent work ‘The Eternal Pulse’, a song cycle which layers Indian elements, rhythmic textures and ensemble dialogue using varieties of meter and subdivision.

Kuching, 9 April 2013– A total of 175 passengers and crew sailed into Kuching yesterday on the MS Caledonian Sky, as part of Noble Caledonia Expedition Cruise, UK. This cruise ship was on its 17-night “A Circumnavigation of Borneo” journey around the island; commencing from Sandakan, calling on various towns of Sabah, and then to Sarawak through Tanjung Puting National Park and Similajau National Park before sailing back on to Sabah.

The passengers on board the cruise were from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA, Canada, Ireland, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

KUCHING, Saturday – Three hundred and fifty Germans sailed into Bintulu, Sarawak recently on the MS Europa, part of the Hapag LLoyd Cruises. The cruise ship was on its 17 Days “Hong Kong to Singapore” journey commencing in Hong Kong and cruising through the Philippines, Sabah, Brunei, Bintulu in Sarawak and ending in Singapore. This is the 2^nd cruise ship arrival for 2013.

On arrival the visitors were welcomed in typical Sarawakian style courtesy of Sarawak Tourism Board. They also had the opportunity to go on a city tour and paid a visit to the historic Niah Caves.

Total visitor arrivals to the state have increased 7.2% for the first time reaching the 4 million mark at 4.07 million tourist arrivals as of 31 December 2012. This was compared to the same period in the previous year. German arrivals alone have increased steadily at 21% during the same period.

KUCHING, Thursday – Winners of the T-shirt design competition for both the Borneo Jazz and Rainforest World Music Festival 2013 were today presented with their prizes at a simple ceremony held at the Sarawak Tourism Board.

The winners were picked through a public poll conducted on the 22 to 24 February 2013 at a popular shopping mall in Kuching.  These winning designs will be printed on T-shirts to be produced as merchandise items for both the Borneo Jazz (BJ) and Rainforest World Music (RWMF) Festivals 2013.

Chris Mega ak Gani from Lim Kok Wing University was selected by the public as the winner in both categories. For the Borneo Jazz category, Siti Zawani Bt Ibrahim and Suraida Bt Usman both of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) came in second and third place respectively. In the Rainforest World Music Festival, second and third placing went to Fenelia Joan Robert and Muhd Sukarno bin Abu Samah both also of UiTM Sarawak. All winners received tickets to the festival and a certificate of participation. The winning universities were also commended with a certificate of participation

KUALA LUMPUR, Saturday:  Sarawak  once again participated at the annual MATTA Fair which is currently being held at the PWTC, here until March 17.

Sarawak features its  promotion of  adventure lifestyle holiday packages covering wildlife safari, adventure caving, ethnic longhouse tour, jungle resort to beach resort holidays with the element of culture, adventure and various nature based experience.

The  Sarawak booth located at Hall 3 at the PWTC is shared by tour operators and hoteliers mainly from Kuching, Miri and Sibu promoting many attractive packages at unbelievable prices.

Sarawak packages features  from as low as RM160 per person for 3-days  2-nights inclusive of airport transfers and also various tours in Sibu, Food and Culture packages at only RM432 in Kuching city, as well as adventure in Miri and Mulu National Park offers at a very attractive prices.

Sarawak heavily features its varied adventure attractions, in line with the tagline of ‘Sarawak, Where Adventure Lives’, and among others  featuring its iconic musical event, the Rainforest World Music Festival  which will be held on 28-30 June 2013.

KUCHING, Monday – Sarawak Tourism Board today announced the full line-up for the 8^th edition of Borneo Jazz that is set to take place at Parkcity Everly Hotel in Miri, Sarawak from 10-11 May this year. This year’s festival will be the most diverse in term of musical genres that would cater to all types of jazz fans.

Dubbed to be among the prestigious Jazz Festival in Malaysia and set to draw bigger number of festivalgoers this year, the festival will see for the first time, the energetic spicy groovy funk group from Germany, Mo’Blow who are described by Berliner Zeitung as “one of the hottest live bands”. The other international act confirmed is Hazmat Modine from the East-Coast of USA. Their song “Bahamut” will be used on the Fox television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”.

The other international acts confirmed for the Borneo Jazz this year include, the energetic and toe-tapping music by Jump4Joy from Sweden that is popular energy entertainment group with a strong New Orleans flavor. A capella jazz group from Canada, The Nylons well known for their slick performance and most heralded vocal groups in the world with seven gold and platinum records. Represented by members from Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand, The Asian Jazz All Stars Power Quarter is the big names of the Asian jazz circle, which consists of the most innovative and exciting drummers to emerge in the Asian jazz scene. Scott Martin Latin Soul Band from West-Coast of USA has performed all over the world with many artists but best known for his successful tenure winning a Grammy. Last but not least, the ethno jazz musician and artist from Australia, Lisa Young Quartet the winner of “Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album 2007” and was re-nominated in 2012.