By LIM MAY LEE
alltherage@thestar.com.my

IF you’re talking about unlikely noble causes, getting young people to fall in love with jazz has to be way up there.

But there is a team of young Malaysians, with an average age of 25, that are trying to do just that. And they’re not just setting their sights on Malaysian youth – they’re hoping to bring jazz to young people all over the world.

The World Youth Jazz Festival (WYJF) organising committee doesn’t have a single member over 30, and yet, for the past three years, they’ve managed to pull in top young jazz acts from all over the world for their annual music festival.

Eizaz Azhar, 28, is a member of the WYJF youth advisory board, having started out as its executive secretary during the first WYJF in 2012.

Eizaz Azhar, an advisor on the youth advisory board for the World Youth Jazz Festival, also plays the saxophone.

At the relatively tender age of 26, he found himself handling important matters like sponsorship and public relations for the festival.

“I still remember camping outside Datuk Aziz Bakar’s office and pouncing on him when he came out, to ask about sponsoring us,” he recalled with a laugh.

Entrusting young people with big responsibilities is the hallmark of WYJF, led by Datuk Nik Azmi, a local jazz lover who set up the organisation alongside other jazz communities like Jazz Ampang. As Eizaz said: “The youth can do anything, as long as you give them a chance, and proper guidance.”

Amirah Azman, WYJF’s chief liaison officer, heads a team of liaison officers in charge of communications between the artistes and the management. She is only 20. “I make sure my liaison officers assist their respective artistes throughout the whole event,” she explained.

But a large-scale event like WYJF is bound to have some issues. While this year proved to be much smoother than previous years, Amirah and her team still had a scare when Indonesian band Fusion Stuff notified them that one of their members might not be able to make it due to a family commitment. The team had to scramble to find a solution. “We managed to get one of our own musicians to be on standby to fill in if necessary,” she said.

Thankfully, the whole band did make it for their WYJF performance, and Amira learnt another important skill that not many 20-year-olds possess – crisis management.

As Eizaz puts it: “The youth can do it. They just need to suck it up and get the tough work done.”

Judging by the success of this year’s WYJF, we’re inclined to believe him.