A weekend in Lithuania

As you may know, last year I competed in the 9th International Jazz Voices competition, held in Lithuania, which I won.  I had a really amazing time there and wrote an interesting blog about the quirky little town we stayed in and its love for - almost obsession with - jazz.  Read about my experience here:
http://sarahellenhughes.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Anyway, one of my prizes was to perform a 'victory' gig at this year's competition.  I was really looking forward to going as two friends of mine from England were competing - the wonderful Fini Bearman and Paola Bottomley.  Unfortunately, I wasn't there for any of the competition! - I was flown in on the Friday night just after the semi-final had finished, then I had a gig on the Saturday which was rehearsal day, then was flown out again early on Sunday morning before the final began.

So Friday night my new Lithuanian experience began...

Friday 1st April

After my Ryanair flight (never again!! - I had to squeeze my handbag into my backpack so as not to incur the extra luggage charge for two bags (this seemed to be what every passenger was doing), only to take it out again once on the aeroplane - what was the point of that?!  Also, I have never before been on a plane where the passengers break into a round of applause on touch-down - was this irony?) with no water provided and no allocated seats, I had a 3.5 hour journey in a bus to Klaipeda.  This was quite a hairy moment - I had expected to be greeted by someone at the airport, which is what happened last year - but with no-one to greet me and no-one speaking English, I somehow managed to find a bus to Klaipeda which had my name on the passenger list.

The bus driver's choice of radio station was 'POWER FM.'  Wow!

It was a shame that we were travelling at night because I would have liked to have spent the bus journey seeing countryside out of the window rather than pitch darkness and the occasional street lamp or road sign.  However, when we approached Klaipeda I started to recognise things which was amazing!  I didn't expect feeling such fondness for this town, nor delight in being back.  I was escorted to my hotel (a different wing to last time that wasn't quite so elegant, but didn't have a strip club occupying the second floor).  By this time it was about 10:30pm so I raced down to the jazz club where I was greeted by several Lithuanian girls I had met last year, a plate of dinner, and the news that my rehearsal was at 10am.  Given that my body was saying it was half midnight, I hit the hay.

Saturday 2nd April


Now it's daylight I can see that the town is full of pictures of me!!  Evidently, each year's competition winner is the face of the following year's competition, and because the Jazz Voices festival is a highlight of the town's calendar, posters are everywhere.

My gig that night was with a Polish band I had never met so we got to work at 10am.  Not a minute too soon, because at this point I was told we were supposed to do a gig at lunchtime (7 hours earlier than I was expecting) to perform to the sponsors of the competition, as they were treated to a buffet lunch and drinks reception.  During the afternoon, more revelations came - my gig that evening was actually two hours long at least ("You can play for as long as you like!") even though I had been told to prepare 50 minutes of music.  So I started stressing about the lack of tunes I had brought, only to be told later that the first set would be performed by a Lithuanian singer.  None of this was a problem, of course, but an indication of how chilled the organisers were in terms of giving out information!  (At this point I wondered when I would find out about my transfer arrangements for my flight the next morning - which I knew from the journey here that it was at least a 3 hour bus ride to the airport.  I was informed at 11pm that my pick-up time would be 6:30 the next morning.  Just in time.)

So anyway, the band was great and I really enjoyed the performance at lunchtime.  Here's the guitarist picking through a couple of my more tricky arrangements in front of a gigantic video screen which was the backdrop to our gig.



We were always well-looked-after and at this point I realised I hadn't spent a single lita (I hadn't actually taken any as I was only there for 2 days and you can't get litas at the post office for a value of less than £100 or something).  They kept us so well fed and watered that I had no expenses by the end.

Here is a sample of the lunch we were provided with... I have no idea what it was, but Mattheus (guitarist) suggested that it was "good dog."  I hope not!

A1 poster on window of jazz
club.  They're everywhere!

My gig that night was in a gorgeous new concert hall which hadn't been available last year - a shame, as our concert hall had hole-in-the-floor-toilets with no paper.  Not good for a desperate wee before you go on stage!

The gig was wonderful - excellent musicianship, great sound, and a really appreciative crowd.  I sold all of the CDs I took (good for my return luggage weight; not good for the exchange rate on my few litas afterwards).  I was more nervous about the performance than I expected - the expectation on me to deliver in front of a crowd of singers, with the title "Last Year's Winner," wasn't something I'd thought would affect me, but in fact once the gig got started it went great.  The night ended with another hang at the jazz club, and looks of surprise when I announced my bedtime at 12:30.  These Lithuanians like to party!

Sunday 3rd April 

An early bus to the airport.  Roads covered with snow on the way and thick fog... I started to worry about my flight but everything left fine.  I can't wait to go back next year!


To find out the results of this year's competition, click here.