Jazz on Grass – Danish Bangkok Embassy opens garden for music in the moonlight

Fredrik Guy Hoff Sonne, scandasia.com

Ambassador Winther image from article

Excerpt:

If it wasn’t for a Grammy-awarded singer and a peacock the grass lawn of Embassy the would have been empty. Keithen Carter is setting his voice free, crooning as he strolls across the grass towards the scene, where the ambassador and the rest of the band are already busy adjusting their instruments. Outside the crowd is waiting to be let in.

It’s Saturday evening February the 13th and the Royal Danish Embassy in Bangkok has opened its garden for a night with Jazz on the Grass. An event that took off last year as an initiative by music lover and Danish Ambassador in Bangkok, Mikael Hemniti Winther.

“The idea behind is of course of a public diplomacy matter. I want to meet all kinds of people, and I want to do it in an informal and non-hierarchically way, as this is a very Danish thing in my opinion”, the Ambassador explains and adds: “This is why this event is targeted as much to the local Thais as well as to the Danish expats”. ...

The band consists of a bunch of Danish and International jazz musicians, that all have a special bond to Thailand; Frank Herrgott, Jakob Dinesen, Bong, Keithen Carter and Yasmin. Bandleader on the keys, Frank Herrgott, takes the microphone:

“Okay, I want you all to follow what your body tells you to do. If you feel like clapping or standing up or meditate, just go with that feeling, but be careful that you all will not levitate”.

Levitation was left to the bats and the insects, but clapping and singalong was all part of the crowd’s repertoire this evening, where the band merged genres as jazz, bossa nova and blues. And as some insiders would have expected, the Ambassador also grabbed his electric guitar and joined the band.