One of the most fascinating things about jazz is its openess that makes it has a ‘habit’ to absorb the local music wherever it’s landed. That’s why you can find different sound of jazz from different part of the world. Imagine when jazz landed in Indonesia, a nation that has tens or even hundreds of thousands of different tribes, where each of them has their own specific traditional music. Imagine what jazz would do when encountering this situation. So many different hybrid of jazz would emerge, and the good thing about it is that there’s no end to it. You have heard ethnic jazz many times, yet there’s always something new. There are many still waiting to be discovered, there are still many possibilities to explore.

This month we dedicated the 62nd edition to celebrate the Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia differently based on what we mentioned earlier. Yes, unlike before, we are bringing three bands or group who has the ethnic music streaming inside their veins. They all came from different places – from the upper west to the lower east (one is even from USA) – bringing a fusion between jazz and traditional musics from particular region.

We start with the mind-bending interpretation of gamelan music using modern, western instruments, courtesy of two mad ‘jugglers’. They are Indonesian Jason Limanjaya on keyboards and American Otto Stuparitz on bass. The group is simply named after theirs: JASON & OTTO.

Otto is American originally came from Los Angeles. But when it’s about gamelan and even the Indonesian music history, he understands it more than most of us. Through years of researching – probably much more than the amount he needed to finished his paper “Balinese Gamelan Pedagogies, Value and Time: The Co-Existence of Punctuated Time and Capitalism.” at the Ethnomusicology at the University of California – he masters not just the notes and melodies that shaped the gamelan music for ages, but also the platform, principal, philosophy and even pirit. As an academic he’s been digging this subject and interestingly connected it to his other background, a bassist.

Meeting Jason is pretty much a destiny. Jason is a young piano virtuoso who wowed us from the first time we met him, as a part of The New Equinox. He plays like none other. Never predictable, innovative and expressive, if the word bombastic feels to much. He rose fast soon after, from being with Nayra Dharma, establishing his own trio, achieving huge success with New Blood, making a couple of funk projects, then some duos, currently with Vidya in Rasa Karsa. One thing’s really interesting is that he’s been showing his passion in exploring the world of pentatonic for the past several years.

Jason told us that he’s been having ideas to play jazz with pelog for at least two years, but not until he met Otto, who is an expert in it he could finalizing it. We brought them in last month and stunned by the music they were presenting. They make two worlds – the ancient traditional from the east and modern western – collide, creating a new musical dimension where the combination of these totally different musics exists as one hybrid. It’s so realistic, that makes us feel that if jazz and blues were born in the island of Java or Bali instead of New Orleans, their music would be how it would sound.

Otto is currently in Indonesia to finish his Ph.D degree. We heard that he’s wrapping it up and will go back to LA for good. Of course we would love to have him and the duo as many times as possible while he’s still here. Lucky for us, this month we celebrate the Independence Day with the ethnic jazz fusion theme, naturally a perfect habitat for him and Jason.

Like two jugglers these dudes threw the notes nonstop, in pelog scale with high precision. Yes, they threw them all, but amazingly nothing’s wasted once so ever. It was in certain pace, they effortlessly made what once seemed impossible, possible. Look at how they began with “Bapang Selisir”, a straight-forward, steadily moving song that’s translated from the gamelan-based ancient Balinese musical form with unique scale/mode. Directly they lured people with their captivating music. Non-stop running, naturally pelog flowing inside the jazz veins. Thunderous applause were given to them in the end.

For the second song they brought in familiar tune especially for elders. It’s a Bing Slamet’s big hit from exactly 60 years ago, “Nulela”. Unlike the Bing Slamet’s version that has Malay-Minang feel or any other covers throughout decades, Jason and Otto made it as if the song was made fully with pelog scale, uniquely with still keeping the fun, playful nature of the original. These dudes made it so believable that many people would buy if we told them that that’s how it was made in first place. Had Bing Slamet still alive, we are sure he would love this version and gave props to these men.

Since they are in Bandung, how about injecting some Sundanese into their pallette? That’s what they did next. They called in Farell Uwa, a traditional flute player for their last song, a pelog twist of Sound of Music’s famous tune, “My Favorite Things”. Once again it takes a genius to change the atmosphere of this very well known song far more than anyone could ever dream of. Farell Uwa blended in marvelously, chewing all the crazy concept without any problem. From two to three, from transforming the gamelan music into keyboard-bass connection to having Sundanese added through the sound of bamboo flute, they forced us to add ‘omg’ in describing their version. Simply put, it was beyond believe.

Louis Armstrong once said, a jazz musician would never play anything the same way twice. Tonight Jason and Otto showed that jazzmanship. Eventhough they played the same songs, their spontaneous improvisation made each song appeared differently. We don’t know how many in the audience realized the magic of new sound they heard from Jason and Otto. Think of it. How often do you hear or see musicians playing jazz and blues by fully using pelog, with the spirit of open source – meaning that the song could progress everywhere and land just about anywhere.

This act had so many ground-breaking moments, presented really playful. They had their eyes connected, many times they kept teasing each other and the other times they built the song cohesively. The presence of Farell gave more color into their already vibrant These dudes has opened a new world by colliding two totally different dimension. It might look simple, but trust us, it’s far from that.

We dont know if we still have chance to bring them in again, but if we have, we would like to have them in one final chapter. As we have mentioned many times, in the wildest or weirdest dream, had jazz was originated not in USA but in Java or Bali, Jason and Otto’s music would define how it would sound perfectly. We never knew we would ever get the chance to hear it, thanks to these mad men, we had our wonder answered.

Lombok island provides one of the best surf spots in Indonesia, also a favorite destinations for those who are looking to spend their holidays, beach way. Just like other places, this island also has its own traditional music, which is still not yet exposed like the Javanese or Balinese. And of course, as far as we know, there was no band that play jazz fusion with the traditional music from this particular area. For the first time we featured the Lombok music fused with jazz, brought by originally swingin’ jazz guitarist Adya Amru. The name of his project is ADYA AMRU BOYAQ BASE.

Amru is a proud Lombok son who studied jazz guitar in Bandung with Mr. Venche Manuhutu at the VMS. We knew him first as the guitarist of pop jazz band Chakraborty, a band where he served for quite some times. In 2017 he told us that he would leave Bandung and go back to his main land, because he felt the calling to learn his own traditional music and exposed it to the world. He spent time there digging the music by visiting many traditional studios. It wasn’t easy, but later on he managed to get some supports.

From Amru the traditional music of Lombok is starting to be exposed. From him we hear that here are many kinds of traditional music of the Sasak tribe, from the old to new, that has to go against rejection from the chieftains. The first thing he learned is the root. Basically, the traditional music is rooted from other regions such as Java, Bali and Bugis, also from the Middle East, South India (Bangladesh) and the Turk Usmani from centuries ago. There are Gendang Beleq, Musik Cilokaq, Musik Kebangru’an, Tawaq Tawaq, Musik Tarian Rudat, Musik Tarian Sireh, Gamelan Sasak, Gamelan Wayang Sasak, the still-in-controversy Kecimol, just to mention a few.

About the music type, just like how the music from the other part of the world is, the scale holds a major role. Because of the influence from Java and Bali, the dominance of Pelog and Slendro is clearly felt. Pentatonic scale is found among the music. Other than that, the influence from the Middle Eastern music could also be noticed, such as minor harmonic. “What’s interesting, and important to mention is that the ‘sharpness’ of the tone here is not as exact as the western music that has the agreement for A musical note with the 440 Hz frequency, using the pattern from math logarhythm. As we all know, chromatic scale represents all notes in modern music with all the note from A to G.” Amru explained. “In Middle Eastern music, Kamal Musallam once told that there’s one tune that he called representing Arabian music, which lead the Ibanez to make a special guitar with such frets that enables him to have 13 tones. The same goes to Sasak music. There are tones that can’t be played by modern instruments no matter how hard you try to tune it, which makes me come to a conclusion that there are tones outside the chromatic scales that are existed in Sasak’s traditional music.”

Amru named his project BOYAQ BASE, which means ‘Language Searching’. We agree with him that music is a universal language, and that language has to be ‘spoken’ wide. Amru builds this project with 3 high skilled musicians from West Java Syndicate and Gita Bawana. They are Zahar Mustilaq (drum), Yopi D Nafis (keyboard) and Luqman Hertanto (bass).

Amru started just by two accompanied by Yopi, playing his composition called “AL Liwa'”. This smooth glorious beauty was inspired by Amru’s imagination on gamelan while playing guitar. According to him, the song is about longing for justice. Al Liwa’ means white flag where the Kalima Tauhid written on it.

Then Zahar and Luqman jumped in. It’s interesting to see Zahar’s drum set that got extra tom-toms and crash cymbals. Right after they appeared full team, they presented a song with a very unique beat unlike what we have ever heard before. The song is called “Irama Bangket”.

Amru wrote it inspired by the rhythm of Gilang Ramadhan’s project named “Rhythm Sawah”. FYI, the word “Irama Bangket” literally means the same too in Sasak Language. Amru found the song and noticed that the rhythm was actually identical with the one found in Sasak music. He got the confirmation from the elders too. So he asked permission from Gilang to adapt the rhythm and the song came into existance.

Zahar charmed us with his ability to capture the multi kendang party with his modified set of drums. Amru ran all around it with his Sasak-spoken jazz, working hand in hand with Yopi on keys. Luqman sounded his bass in such uncommon way. Together they created a jolly outburst that’s totally different than the music usually found on jazz stage. It was wicked!

For the third song they played “571 M”. This song commemorates the birth of Prophet Muhammad SAW. In other words, this song has another title, “Maulid Nabi Muhammad SAW”, said Amru. This is an epic song that’s written with full of gratitude. Grand, glorious yet adventurous at the same time. Should be really challenging to play since it’s far from easy, but it’s not hard to listen too at all. This song will be available in the upcoming Jazzuality compilation album which is still in the making process. We can’t express enough how much we appreciate this song being picked by Amru to be in it.

Amru still got one last party. As the final song he presented “Oncer”, an original composition of Sasak tribe, made from “Gendang Beleq” style. In Lombok, this song is often played in the welcoming ceremony, and also believed to adress the soldiers to go to war in the old days. Today this music is used to be the mandatory song whenever there is “Gendang Beleq” competitions (in Sasak language: “Sekahe”). once again we saw the transmission of kendang to drums, which came to reality by Zahar’s amazing skill. Then, as if it’s not enough, look at Luqman who used his bass to bring the gong sounds. Spectacular and inspiring, pushing us to the edge from start to finish.

We always eager to discover the traditional musics from more and more places in Indonesia, because we realize we have hundreds of thousands of different tribes spreading across the archipelago. Lombok island is one of the place we hadn’t discovered just yet, and from Adya Amru finally we could listen to the beauty of it, not just the sound, the melody and captivating rhythm, but the historical and social aspects of it. Amru has made some singles involving this music from his own land, that’s great. But what’s cool is that he’s not over yet. He is still continuing his research out there. We hope to bring him again whenever possible so we can find out more about the music of Lombok island and its connection with jazz.

For the final act we invited back the great band that’s also ground-breaking. If the first was from the Java island then we continued further to the east reaching Lombok, now we went far west and up, until we found the West Sumatra province, the land of Minangkabau tribe. The Minang music has a distinctive sound and familiar to Indonesian, actually it was became the trend a few decades back. But when it comes to jazz, it’s still extremely rare, at least in term of being exposed to public. We didn’t realize that we could meet a band that does that right here in Bandung. When we met the band introduced by Zahar, we were excited to introduce them and their creativity to everyone. Led by woodwind maestro originally from the Payakumbuh city, Maspon Herizal, here’s PALANTA LINE ART.

The Minang music is different than the traditional Javanese. The music from this part of Sumatra is built upon the diatonic scale, has a typical beat and equipped with many traditional instruments. Palanta Line Art uses these aspects in playing music. They are good in doing it traditionally, but they are surprisingly great when twisting it in jazz fusion. They can bring the traditional into the contemporary music, they can play jazz songs using the traditional instruments. Established in July 2012 by traditional Minangkabau woodwinds virtuoso Maspon Herizal. the band clearly has the passion to explore wide and try new stuffs, like jazz and beyond, amazingly without losing their grip on the traditional Minangkabau music at all.

Different than the previous formation that we are familiar with, this time Maspon new formation with more instruments involved. Other than Maspon Herizal (traditional woodwinds), there are Arts Fiaris (guitar), Yopi D Nafis (keys), Kiki Septian and Gempur (talempong), Edy (bass), Frahma (violin) and Zahar Mustilaq (drum). They are ready to bring the contemporary style of traditional music by fusing the Minang music and jazz.

Just as we let them sail, they surprised everyone by playing Chick Corea’s masterpiece, “Spain”. Those who just knew this band didn’t expect the kind of song coming from an ensemble with traditional instruments like talempong or bamboo woodwinds, they gave loud applause with wowed expression painted on their faces. They did fine tutti, which wasn’t easy since there were traditional flute, two sets of talempong besides the modern instruments being involved in it. Zahar gave provoking Minang beat that pushed everyone to the edge of their seats. We have seen them playing this marvelously, but now with the young lady Frahma added the violin tunes in it (by the way she plays really, really well), Palanta Line Art’s version sounds even much better. Big round applause once again was awarded to the band in the end.

Next Maspon led the ensemble to play a medley of old Melayu-Minang songs including “Babendi-bendi” and “Sansaro”. Smooth sailing ballad tunes sounded dreamy and mesmerizing yet infectious. So infectious, that one couple in the audience couldn’t help themselves not to dance. They started dancing on the right side of the stage, then we brought them towards the front. The music and dancing? What’s not to be loved from that. The audience agreed as they cheered the beautiful moment happening in front of them.

The song we consider a masterpiece from Palanta Line Art became the final song. It’s “Andalas Raya”, a song that offers a musical voyage through the beautiful valleys and hills of West Sumatra. This song is truly epic. It began with pure Minang traditional music courtesy of saluang played by Maspon, calm like preparing us to fly, then they took our mind flew like watching the magnificent landscapic nature of the province. Interestingly, in the middle they suddenly gone swinging without losing the grip on Minang traditional music once so ever. A true masterpiece brought in spectacular treatment that sealed this edition triumphantly.

The new formation proved to bring better formula for the Minang’s spicy jazz fusion. It feels fresh without missing all the winning ingredients this band had before. For us Palanta Line Art always stand as a ground-breaking band that knows how to bring the mesmerizing beauty of Minangkabau ethnic music into the modern world. The combination of ancient, traditional instruments combine with modern, western ones, having jazz served with diatonic turned chromatic tools, the eye-cachy stage presence, all serve landscapic musical voyage that only Palanta Line Art can give. We sure hope to be able to bring them in again in the future. And we do hope the band to keep running, for what they do is important.

Since we still had a little time left, we opened up the jam session. Participating in it were Erick Gabe (vocal), Joe Bastian (bass), Adya Amru (guitar), Gempur Sentosa (talempong), Yopi D Nafis (keyboard) and Zahar Mustilaq (drum). To fit the theme, they chose “Indonesia Pusaka” presented in never-before-done version. Why not? First of all, talempong was there, which gave such unique sound. Then Zahar did it using Minang beat. Erick went rockin’ and rollin’ with his voice. The audience who were still there watching the jam gave them big applause in the end.

Presenting the beauty and richness of Indonesian ethnic musics to celebrate Indonesia’s 74th freedom declaration aka independence day hopefully will remind eveeryone of how wonderful our nation really is. Also giving up strong statement of the openess of jazz in welcoming just about any form of music to blend within. We thank all bands to make this special edition appeared grand, thanks to all supporters and certainly the audience. We will be back again in September with another batch of artists. Make sure you won’t miss it. Dirgahayu RI, long live, be prosperous, may we all always be united in harmony.

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Reporter & Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan .

The Braga Jazz Night #63 was successfully held on Thursday night, 19 September 2019. This edition came right after we celebrated the Indonesian Independence Day a month earlier. Unlike usual, because our regular spot was unavailable, the stage was moved to the atrium, the place where we ran the early editions.

In this episode number 63 we featured three groups with diffferent story, also presenting the different side of jazz. There was a duo with wide musical exploration (and expression), a blazing quartet and for the first time, a sextet who brought the graduation recital of its band leader out from the campus to public.

We kicked off with something somewhat interesting in a different way. It’s the second appearance of a group established by a young female pianist from Palembang, Sheira. The group is called PLAN B PROJECT.

We knew her not that long ago, but it didn’t need a long time for us to notice her talent. Our first impression is, this girl has much more than meets the eye. That’s before we learned that she actually had a successful group named Plan B back then in Palembang before she moved to Bandung to pursue her formal education.
We then asked her to build her own band where she can show who she really is, musically speaking.

She brought that band in the 60th edition and surprised us with the combination of wicked arrangements, fired-up play and clean, tight execution. She led her team play around with cool tuttis and a lot of twists and turns which created both ear and eye-catchy show. What we found out later is that she was preparing her graduation recital with almost the exact team. It was done just three weeks ago with a great result.

A graduation recital usually attended by just family and close friends. We thought, why don’t just bring it out to public so more people would enjoy it? She agreed, and lucky for us, the whole team were available too. So we set this second apperance of the band to be a ‘graduation concert’.

For this special occasion the band came in complete team. The lineup are Sheira (keyboard), Jordan Nathanael Yuristiawan (drum), Arya (bass), Arbiyasa Witha Pramara Adhi (guitar) and Valent Angeline Gumolung (vocal), plus a saxophonist that’s failed to join before, Yanuarius Raditya P Verstegen.

Sheira began with a part of her recital, a unique interpretation of Sherina’s song from right before the turn of the millenium, “Persahabatan”. Most of us still remember this hit, but in the hands (and brain) of Sheira, the song sounds totally new. With her keyboard and synthesizer she remakes the song in fusion, and amazingly it’s really believable, as if the song was made originally that way. As she got so many friends and family who came to support her, she bagged loud applause from them.

The saxophonist then took a break, leaving the band in quartet formation. A captivating solo from Sheira worked as the intro of her winning composition titled “Fusion Cruize”. She warned us that the song’s going to be rockin’, and it really was. The progressive fusion spirit of this original song pushed us on the edge of our seats. The sharp drum-banging by Jordan, the non-stop bass swaying by the ‘rubber’ bassist Arya, the rocking guitar of Biyass and Sheira’s killing key-ploration took us into the fusion cruise of a life time. According to Sheira, this composition actually has a neo soul part, but she had to cut it for this time because it would be too long and it needed a drum pad which was unavailable. What’s left was more than enough to see how talented this girl really is both in playing and writing.

Raditya came back with his sax together with the vocalist Valent to bring their two final presentations, two Isyana Sarasvati’s songs in medley, “ECho” and “Mad”. Again, she rearranged the songs for fusion trip with high pitch soulful vocal vibes giving us special treats.

Great composition, great rearrangement and great execution shows that Sheira is indeed a talented musician, so do her mates. Wicked, or probably ‘sadistic’ improvisation packed in such sharp performance. They were like a pack of young lions having fun together. We captured a lot of smiles and laughters, also their body gestures indicated that they enjoyed their moment fully. Plan B Project and of course its leader deserve the attention.

The second act was the duo, RASAKARSA. This duo consists of key-wiz Jason Limanjaya and vocalist/pianist Vidya. This duo is considerably still new, established just a couple of months ago, yet they surprisingly move rocket fast not only in live performance but also recordings.

Jason is surely not a stranger to us. He’s been bringing many groups in different concepts for the past 3 years, either as the band leader, one of the team, half of a duo or sessionist. We love him in New Equinox, with Nayra Dharma, New Blood, not to mention some short-lived projects and duos, especially when he opens up our eyes that there’s a different dimension of jazz when played with pentatonic scale, as shown in his group with Otto Stuparitz. He is a mad jazz pianist, great in composing/arranging (his deranged brain could create interesting pieces inspired by ‘odd’ things). Other than that, he is expressive while performing. As for the other half Vidya, we never met her before this event. But we know that she is the kind of girl who’s always connected with her heart while singing, someone who has deep emotion attached in each note and word, like a singing poet.

A pair like this can of course be surprising. No wonder they move fast like we said earlier. They landed here just before they participated in the Rawayan Festival, something that’s surely will be taken as a milestone in their career.

They directly took us back in time visiting the old Betawi (Batavian) town with the folksong “Kicir-Kicir”. Vidya didn’t just sing but dance too, something that she occasionally does throughout her performance. We have seen how Jason exposes the ancient pentatonic world by using jazz, this time he wowed us again when he took his jazz wheels into the distinctive and authentic Batavian music.

Still with vintage feeling, they introduced their original titled “Mahligai”. The classy nature of this song quickly reminds us of the soundtrack from 70’s cinematic experience.

Next, vidya took a recent controversial hit written by Billie Eilish, “Wish You Were Gay”. Originally a slow-burning track with lush melodies, Vidya made it as if her own by placing her spirit into it. Her chemistry with Jason is so strong, so strong that we would believe if they were a real couple.

Their interesting song choice became even more evident on the next one, “Amin Paling Serius” (Sal Priadi/Nadin Amizah). This song is phenomenal, as it’s been heard more than a million times on Youtube just within 15 days of its release. Jason says he’s not surprised with that fact, since for him this song should easily be listed in the Indonesian songbook in the future. “In other words, it’s going to be a future Indonesian classic”, he said. Its beauty is mesmerizing and glorious, it’s an epic. Jason did a unique arrangement of another folk song, “Tokecang”. They played around with melody, tempo and body gesture, making this song appeared in a whole new way.

Speaking of epic, their last drop was another original called “Pulang”, which for us is undoubtedly their winning song. Not just that, Pulang seems to be the most important song for both of them too since it’s meaningful to them in different way. For Jason, it’s about his personal experience when he came back home to Indonesia after years of study in Singapore. For Vidya, it refers to coming back to someone she loves. Step aside of those backgrounds, this song also become a material for Jason and Vidya to experimenting on pelog. Other interesting fact, Pulang was used as film scoring. The film is “Nusa” by Lukman Hoedi. They wrote a really beautiful ballad. It has beautiful melody, deep lyrics and the way the delivered it with full emotion created a wonderful moment as well as a perfect ending.

Rasakarsa has a unique music concept that’s naturally wide. They have a unique way of telling stories in heartfelt delivery. While their talent individually is unquestionable, the chemistry between them is extraordinary. It’s naughty, at other times romantic. Sometimes it’s playful, but then they got a deep, heartfelt moment too. Rasakarsa is preparing their debut single and of course album, and we have no doubt they will continue their journey on many stages. A really great duo this one is. We expect them to keep going and achieve everything they are targeting at.

Face it, life isn’t always pretty. There are times when we face the kind of reality that doesn’t go our way, feeling down and suddenly doubt whether we have taken the right path or not. Feeling down can happen to anyone. The question is, what should we do in times of trouble? Should it stop us to chase our dream, or can we turn it to our advantage, in other words, make something good out of it? And, if you are a musician, what could, or should, you do? The final act is about that.

There’s a phenomenal young jazz guitarist named Anjuan Julio. Lately he feels the difficulties of being a musician. We know that he’s been serious about taking this path, and he’s sure a great one. Very talented, passionate, creative and love his moment on stage. He has many successful moments in his career, which is remarkable considering his age. But just like us, he has some down moments too. And he’s experiencing it.

Here’s the good thing. Instead of letting it taking him over, he decided to step out of his comfort zone. Keep on being creative, establishing a team where he can unleash all his anxieties, go wild on stage turning every negative things to positive. Freedom of playing, freedom of expressing, or even just the word ‘freedom’ becomes really important here. That’s why he name this group as ANJUAN JULIO FREEDOM QUARTET.

It could look like an intermezzo, but Anjuan is actually serious about this. In this quartet he brings in some of the best players from his friends’ list. They are Kevin ‘KJ’ Jonathan (bass), Gafie Garcia (saxophone) and Shallom Tangki (drum).

“This is not a performance but a chance to know me. Who I am, what I think… my life story, my struggle, my wishes and dreams.” Anjuan said before the gig. Since that’s the occasion, Anjuan told them all through 4 original songs that we think brilliantly capture the important milestones in his life.

The quartet started with “What Do I Think?” . This song is telling the things that are filling up his mind. It gave us the chance to enter his mind which seems to be complex yet electrifying. From the composition we got the idea that despite of all the anxieties, he’s still able to think positive and optimistic as the song goes with power rock punches over jazz.

The joy of improvisation continued on with “2,5”, telling the story when he was diagnosed with autism at that exact age. It’s a rollercoaster wild ride, emotional and challenging. That diagnose might have affected his life, but we say it’s for good reasons, as how we see who this really amazingly talented young guy is today.

Anjuan Julio Freedom Quartet then moved to ‘lighter’ subjects, that said without losing their vicious grip on jazz rock at all. “Chit Chat Here” is the song where Anjuan shares his way to feel better, that is by going to friends to talk to when he’s feeling down. This song is much slower than the first two, but it has lethal funky dose that moves the blues jazz to its strong grip. This song probably is the most captivating one since it has all the joy of jazz playing. Look at the funky power house bassist KJ did his role on infecting us with his toe-tapping funk chops. His bass slapping stood out high and tall. This song also has mad solo runs and cool call and response action when Anjuan traded punches with Gafie’s sax-ecution. Shallom was busy sketching variety of beats on his drums, reminding us once again that he is one of the remarkable young drummers we have at present time. Anjuan also inserted many famous melodies here and there, making this song the most playful one from them.

The last song’s called “Rochu Dechu” where Juan tells he’s optimistic that he will find his soulmate someday. Melody-wise, this song is the most interesting one for its rich texture. This song contains splashes of pentatonic scale, they also twisted the mid part of the song with reggae. Can punchy funk jazz-rock fusion be cute? This song proves it can.

You see, life doesn’t always be good. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re down. It may not easy, but Anjuan shows that even in the lowest moment of your life, there are still great things you can do. For a musician as he is, you can still being creative in making songs, creating concepts and throw away all the things that’s been bugging you through music. This show is merciless, edgy and sharp. It’s like they are throwing those funky jazz-rock bombs to explode us in extacy. For us, a band like this is interesting. Not only they give us lesson to learn, they also deliver one helluva entertainment through both music and appearance.

We thank the bands/group and everyone in them for giving us a rock-solid performances. They really brought their game, proving that a quality shows don’t existed only in big festivals but could also in a small community event like this. We also send our huge appreciation to all supporters and the audience, for without you this event would never be existed. We will be back again next month with a different batch of talents taking on the different side of jazz. Thank you once again and see you then.

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Reporter & Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan .

The Braga Jazz Night is our monthly jazz community event in cooperation with Braga CityWalk. Our basic plan was simple. We wanted to contribute to the regeneration of jazz players in our hometown, which hopefully would give impact to the Indonesian jazz. On the other hand we wished to introduce the rich variety of jazz to public, letting them know that there are so many hybrids of jazz more than anything they could ever think of which in the end would counter the stigma that jazz is old fashioned, difficult to listen to and too expensive to be affordable.

Since it’s started running, we have listened to many success stories by those who began their career from this event. As the story goes, we are thankful that not only newcomers came to gain benefit from playing here, the successful (super)stars, seniors and legends have been coming to share their experiences too, amazingly not just from our nation but also from the overseas including Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia, USA, Mexico and France. This facts always energizes us to keep going, and before we realize it, we are now in our 5th year in service.

The Braga Jazz Night #64 took place on the beautiful night of October 24, 2019. This edition was featuring all young lions showcasing their creativities and skills, resulting set of jazz that’s catchy both for the eyes and ears.

This 64th edition started with a one man band living in Majalaya city, Rian Ahmad Fauzy, better known as his stage name taken from his initial, RAF.

To us, RAF is different. Not only he has his own style of fusion which could have some ethnic touches here and there, he is also the kind of musician who’s still going eventhough he has to play alone. Think of it, an electric jazz fusion guitarist playing all by himself. Many other players would skip the gig when they have no one to play with, but not this young man. That’s a remarkable musicianship attitude, which for us is becoming one of his major plus point. Other than this, of course he is highly skilled, passionate and creative in making songs.

We met him in a jazz competition last year where he played as one of the SavaSika. It wasn’t difficult to notice him as a talented musician. Shortly after that he made his debut in this event. Yes, he’s no stranger to our stage, but it was already a year ago. So it’s time to bring him back in again. When we invited him, he told us that he’s actually staying away from gigs to focus on his album. Fortunately he’s making an exception for us.

RAF kicked off strong with “Jessica”, a very catchy song with strong taste of Latin. Other than the catchy nature of the song, the way he demonstrated his skill climbing up and down the fret became a big magnet dragging everyone to watch him play. This song perfectly introduced him, his style, his skill and his wide coverage of playing field. He grabbed huge applause with this cool opening.

RAF then carried on with “Berkebun” (in English: Gardening), his first single where again allowed his magic fingers to explore the fret. In this song he talks about the fun of gardening which won’t happen anymore if people let the global warming continues on. Interestingly, while he’s still powered by rock and jazz, the song has infectious disco beat. So if you ever wonder if jazz-rock fusion would work when placed in disco beat, RAF proves it’s perfectly possible. He’s supposed to bring more songs, unfortunately his laptop got problem just before he started. Because of this incident, he could only play two songs that he managed to save in his smart phone. So we got to wait for another time to have his complete set piece.

No matter how good you prepare and how much you want your gig to be perfect, when bad things happen, so be it. We respect RAF for still able to bring the action the best he could. He must have been upset, but somehow he overcame it and enjoyed his moment in his own zone. Another solid package delivered cool by RAF. Good music, good performance by a skilled musician who can utilizes the technology to his advantage and willing to play no matter what, RAF can certainly has his dream come true.

The second act featured a new sensation consisting of young lions who roar loud. The band is formed not long ago but they have been running fast climbing higher and higher. The band’s named HARRA.   

We heard about this band from the manager, a young blues virtuoso Ginda Bestari.
Harra plays a cool groovy urban pop jazz, the side of jazz that never fails to grab young or new listeners due to its modern and light approach. Having said that, those who are really into jazz don’t have to worry because Isaac G. Mondi (vocal), Asilah Andreina (vocal), Rainer Bangsawan (guitar), Haryo Tejo (guitar) and a boy no stranger to us for he’s been performing many times in this event, Henokh Vico (keyboard) – the official members of the band – does have everything you love from jazz, from the chord progressions to improvisations.

This band is still considerably new since they were formed just earlier this year. But they are surely moving faster than normal. At this current time Harra has just done recording three songs titled “Tersesat Dalam Tanya”, “Jelajahi Rasa” and “Bertamasya Di Angkasa”, produced by LALEILMALINO (Lale and Ilman Maliq & D’essentials, Nino RAN). They are looking for events where they can introduce themselves as well as their music and songs, and we are just proud to be one of those.

A creamy groove party were thrown directly, starting with “Balada Insan Muda”, a song interestingly depicts the Indonesian pop scene in the 80’s which is produced and written also by Laleilmalino. Right from this one we could take the hint that this band is all about treating the audience big time with nonstop urban jazz fun-tertainment.

The second song is about someone facing uncertainty, thus lost in pile of questions, something we experience many times in our lives. This original song was made in mid-tempo groove ballad. All in all, the song has all the ingredients to be a big hit. You can find the song on Youtube for now, before it goes all over the radio stations and of course the album once it’s released. A big hit needs no introduction came next. It’s Reza’s “Berharap Tak Berpisah”, appearing in jolly disco beat.

Their other single followed, “Tamasya Di Angkasa”. Again, this song can become a big hit as they invite their listeners to have a picnic in the sky together. Surprisingly, they made this one a medley with the legendary Australian rock band’s classic “Back In Black”. This song was made unique. It still has all the rockin’ aspect in its core, but they smash the song with jazz groove. It includes the dancing segments that shows how much they are ready to swim along with the big fishes in the big pond.

If so far the fun factor was already high, they blasted it higher above the roof with a medley of famous songs, including Chrisye’s “Juwita” and “Gita Cinta Dari SMA”, Maliq n D’Essentials “Dia”, ME’s “Inikah Cinta” and The Groove’s “Khayalan” as the finale. The dancing, the happy faces, the music, the strong vocal lines, all gave the audience big good time. They dragged so many people to watch their gig from the beginning, but the number increased more and more until the end. Many of them recorded Harra with their gadgets, suggesting how much they loved Harra’s performance.

A pleasuring, modern, cosmopolitan sound of urban jazz were brought alive onto our stage by Harra. Just by looking at the songs they made and the way they execute them provide more than enough reasons why this band can climb up so fast in our current jazz scene. They are funky, they are fun. They are skillful, they are passionate. And probably most importantly, they are hunger to establish a solid grip in the music business with success stories written all over it. A really good band Harra really is. We hope them to be at the same stand as Maliq n D’Essentials and RAN, or even better. And if they are not too busy, some visits back here again would be highly appreciated.

The last show was unique. How many bassist could you see in a band? Mostly one, or if you lucky, you can have two as some bands already did. Now, how about not one, not two, but three? That would be something, right? Yes, this time we had a unique band led by three bassists. Its name is BASS FRIENDS.

Bass friends was born not in the usual place. Not in a studio, not in an event, but in a coffee shop. Three friends who apparently play bass agreed to expand their musical horizon by establishing a band, using it as their playground to have fun and go extra miles from what they have done before.

Unfortunately two of the three bassists couldn’t continue their commitment due to their busy agenda. But since Bandung actually has many good bassists, the left posts were quickly taken. Today the bassists are Joe Bastian, Jere Fernando and Langga Jati. For this event they were supported by last minute replacements, Yopi D Nafis (keyboard) and Oce Kamlasi (drum).

Quite unfortunate that Langga got another schedule elsewhere, so he got to leave before the band got its chance to perform. Nonetheless, Joe and Jere still managed to show how two basses could handle the front line very, very well. They started with Mezzoforte’s “Nightfall”. For many jazz lovers, this song should be really familiar. But in the hands of Bass Friends, this song transforms into a fresh, new outfit with bass standing tall in front. A really good job by them.

The double bass pleasure continued on with a cool rearrangement of “Just the Two of Us” . Never before we heard this kind of remake that was made to be led by multiple bassists at once. Not only they both filled each other, they also got their own turns that made them has to be able to exchange role simultaneously and spontaneously. A simple set on the surface, but it should be quite complex to play.

A surprise came right after. Among so many songs they could have picked, they took a classic patriotic song written by maestro Ismail Marzuki many, many decades ago. Again, this song appeared unique in their hands. A very interesting move it really was. For the arrangements and the way they executed it, round applauses were given as a token of respect by the audience.

Right at the last second before this band started their last song, suddenly the third bassist Langga was spotted in front of the stage. Actually he rushed back to see if he still could join the party. The audience gave him a big applause, respecting his effort as they prepared to see the finally complete team. With Langga appeared, the last song became a perfect climax . The players were like injected with spirit, they went on fire executing it. It was clearly seen, the three bassists cycled their parts smoothly. When one led, the two others moved back assisting their friend. When they got the chance to run together, they were like a pack of lions roaring together, without any clash even a bit on the melody. Not to mention the great assistance from Yopi’s keyboard playing and the power punching beat from Oce. Loud cheers and applauses were given to them as they sealed their gig and this edition nicely.

Cooking up this concept should be tricky, not only because the bass players should lead the main melody, but also because they have to be able to understand their role, part and turn. What would two of them do when one lead the part, and how to make smooth transition from one to another. Then, how to make a harmonious sound when all three bassists run wild, how the interaction with other players would be, and how they rearrange the composition to fit this idea. Joe, Jere and Langga are aware of those and know how to work things up. They don’t crash or clash with one another, instead they can make a seamless and harmonious runs that create such attractive music.

If usually bass is needed to provide the melodic rhythm in a band, this band show that there are so many more things the bass can do. It can even go altogether creating a stunning, surprising multitude of jazz. Creative concept with good result, we are excited to see that Bandung has a new sensation and certainly we will invite them again soon.

From a breakingthrough solo to unique three bassists band to a groovy, bright light big city sound of jazz from a band on their way to fame painted a vivid color to this edition. We hope everyone who came loved it as much as we did. We thank the playing musicians, the supporters and audience, for without you none of these would ever existed. We’ll be back again in November with another fresh batch, look forward to seing you there!
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Reporter/photographer: Riandy Kurniawan   .
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The Braga Jazz Night #65 was held on November 21, 2019. This was the last regular edition before we go to the Christmas Edition in December and then enter the new year. Eventhough it was regular, we made it special by presenting the combination of potential young talents and something unique that would be difficult to find elsewhere. By saying unique means we showcased a band playing a genre that’s not normally found on jazz stage. Taking place at our usual ground zero on the left side of the entrance of Braga Jazz Walk mall, we managed to get good number of audience spotted around the stage before the event began.

This 65th episode started with a young girl, still in her early teen but is gifted with such golden voice to sing jazz. She might look shy and quiet, but once she sings, she will amaze you right away. She is Fatima Favel Fauziah, better known as her stage name, FAVEL FATIMA.

She was born in January 2006. That means she is still 13 going 14. Is she too young to be on jazz stage? We certainly think no, even more when we realize the singing voice she has. We heard about Favel last year recommended by some friends and she surprised us when we checked out her Youtube channel. This girl was still 12 at that time, yet she sang some jazz standards that were written many centuries before she was born. It was not just good but it was believable, surely came from her heart, not just an attempt to cover. Other than the golden vocal that for us reflects the modern style of jazz singing, she also has good control over them. So we brought her in. At first she appeared with a senior jazz guitarist Hardi Suryana and then with her partner, Luqmanul Hakim on her second attempt a couple of months after. It’s been more than a year, it’s about time to invite her again, lucky for us she was available for this date.

Favel started with Ditra on piano, singing one of the standards, “What a Difference A Day Made”. Her thick yet crisp vocal is perfect to sing jazz standards like this.

We thought they were going to carry on as a duo, but surprisingly Ditra’s fellows from The Hedge were called to the stage. Their first take was a very beautiful song from Gaby Moreno that’s used as the theme of an android-based gadget’s commercial, “Daydream By Design”. Some of the audience seemed noticing this song as they were smiling along with swaying their heads.

She moved on with another current song, “Like A Star”. A simple yet lovely rerarrangement in jazz made this song sounded fresh and new. She then sealed her performance with one of her favs, a big worlwide hit of The Radiohead from 1992, “Creep”. It’s not the first time for us to hear the jazzy version of Creep, yet Favel and The Hedge placed their own signatures that’s not only gave a new outfit to the song but breathed their souls too in it.

We know she can take the jazz standards really well as this young girl has an golden old soul. But we recommended her to try the recent songs that are in today that we believe will help her settling her place among young music listeners. She did great as expected. Ditra is proved to be a very reliable partner who does his role without flaws, and having The Hedge behind her is certainly perfect. Not only this band would help her to shine but they would add more flavors too to each song she sings. We will continue to push this girl forward. A small community like this should not stop only to create event but should be able to push talented musicians/singers to reach their dream. God willing.

The second act featured a band that’s built upon mad brains. Basically they are rooted in avant funk, the sub-genre that became the core when the band was founded, but they could expand their territory to whatever direction, making their music always appear explorative and unpredictable. The band’s formerly called The Hedgehog, but now they appear with a shortened name, just THE HEDGE. We will let you know why.

The band’s formed around 3 years ago based on the needs of some young musicians to fulfill their passion in digging the avant funk. The band’s named The Hedgehog. It was originally build upon four pillars : Rinomulat Sembhada (drum), Mikhael Martin (guitar) , Ditra Prasista (keys) and Leo Hansen (bass). But as for this moment Mikha is taking a break from music, so the band turns to be a trio. The rest members decided to ‘cut’ the name until they got complete again. Hence, The Hedgehog becomes just The Hedge.

The last time they appeared was last year, reinterpreting The Doors by dragging some of their songs into the avant funk realms. It was way back then in the 48th edition, so just like Favel, it’s about time for us to bring them in again.

Note, as we already mentioned earlier, the appeared minus one player positioned on guitar. But the fact is, that circumstance apparently didn’t make them weaker. No sir, it didn’t. The Hedge is still able to inject high dose of venomous funk right from the very start by pinning Billy Cobham’s song from 1973, “Red Baron”. They kept spinning and rolling simultaneously, gladly took part in solo runs while at other times joining forces together injecting lethal amount of funk to everyone watching, which only became increasing when they went on with Miles Davis’ “All Blues”.

How cool it was to see what they did next. The Hedge played “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, Cannonball Adderley’s song written by Joe Zawinul, demonstrating how good they are in presenting soul jazz without losing their funky grip. Keeping the essential soul gospel element, this cohesive unit worked the song really, really great with their own signature. The feel-good melody, the intense funk and high spirited jazz. This song never grows old since it was made in 1966, we never get tired of it, yet through The Hedge we got a new reinterpretation of it.

For the last song The Hedge took Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”. As how the original was made by Thom Yorke in the late 90’s, this song contained dark element in artistic, progressive rock, but The Hedge interpret it to progressive hardcore jazz, which according to Rino is inspired by Brad Mehldau’s arrangement. Dark yet playful, rockin’ yet clearly jazzin’. A lot of twists were found in this finale, so edgy, furious, wickedly fun, this song served magic as the last drop from The Hedge.

Normally a band would bring in a sessionist to take the empty seat or feature someone to do the role, but instead of doing what others would most likely do, they decided to just go by three, and even cut their name in order to respect their mate who is currently taking a time off. Speaking of performance, they dont slow down or appearing less, The Hedge still got lethal dose of venomous funk inside it, making this band be a deadly jazz trio. Tonight The Hedge explored wide soundscape from avant funk, hardbop, soul to a jazz way of art/progressive rock, it was superb, we got jazzgasm.

For the final show we got something totally different than what we have been bringing normally, something that’s even rare to find above the jazz stage: Keroncong or krontjong.

Before we continue further, let’s see a brief history of this music. Many sources stated that it’s rooted in a traditional Portuguese music called Fado, brought by the Portuguese sailors who arrived in here around the 16th century. Since Fado is still existed today, try to listen to it and you’ll find some similiarities here and there. There are some stigmas being sticked to this music, for example being called by some outdated. But hey, here’s a gang of young dudes that are more than ready to wipe those stigmas out. They make krontjong sounds current fitting the modern music, that said without losing the traditional essences even a bit. The band is NAZARMUSIC.

We have heard about the fast move of this band and found out that one of the members is a guitarist that has been playing with us for quite some times, Dean Bach. From him we got the information regarding the band, the background, the vision and the core of their music. According to Dean, the band was born on 28 May 2018 in Bandung. The story began from the instagram, the time when Sir Iyai met Nazardeipa in that app, which followed to their first IRL meeting in an event where Sir Iyai’s band, Jamaican Sound Krontjong performed. That in-real meeting proved to be fruitful, as Sir Iyai decided to make music collaboration. Hence, a new krontjong group by uniting the unique vocal character of Nazardeipa came to life.

Nazardeipa was born in Bandung on 29 December 2000. Previously he can be mentioned as a celebgram with big number of fanbase/followers, gaining them by making cool coversongs. Then came the time when he decided that it’s time for him to make his own song through a krontjong band after he met the ‘Jamaican man’, Sir Iyai.

Speaking of vision and mission, there are some reasons why Nazarmusic digs krontjong. One of them is as a token of appreciation towards the traditional music of Indonesia – particularly krontjong – that’s deserved to be (re) introduced to the younger generation so its preservation could be well kept and continuously grows wider among today’s music scene.

Officially Nazarmusic comprises of Nazar (vocal), Sir Iyai (guitar/vocal), Farhan (Cello), Taufik (cak), Rafi (cuk), Dean (guitar), Buyung (bass), Nugraha (flute) and Dafiq (violin). So far they already have 3 original songs that were launched at the Cihampelas Walk (Ciwalk) on 20 July 2019. They also shared the stage with Virzha a couple of weeks ago at the 9th anniversary celebration of Festival Citylink. At this moment they are working hard night and day to finish their full album and video clip that’s ready to go real soon.

This band gave a quite surprising introduction with a krontjong classic written by R Maladi, “Di Bawah Sinar Bulan Purnama”. We say quite suprising because they injected fair amount of blues, rock and jazz over the traditional krontjong mostly played by Dean on guitar. This treatment breathed fresh sound into this timeless gem.

Then it was time for NazarMusic to bring their original songs. Starting with “Sya La La” that has a smooth Jamaican reggae stiched inside krontjong, Nazar Deipa directly dragged more people as if he was a crowd magnet. This man is still young but he has a big charisma, aside from his status as a celebgram, something that a band would really need to have. Clearly this band has a lot of fans, because we saw many young girls knew the song and sang along with him.

He carried on with his other original song “Story of Mine”, a song with strong indie flavor. Again the fans sang along with him, only this time they moved closer to the stage. The spotlight hitting Nazar who sang expressively in front of some girls who locked their eyes to him while singing together, that created such a beautiful scene.

The frontman then switched to Sir Iyai who quickly turned the game more into Jamaican. With him, the dancing scene directly occured as a senior lady from the crowds stepped forward and dance. Not alone, she actively dragged some of the young ladies to dance with her in front. Sir Iyai sang his own songs, starting with “Dancing In The Moon” followed by a medley of “My Way” and “You”. It’s interesting to see the combination of krontjong and Jamaican reggae coming from them. What’s even more interesting is substantial amount of Sundanese Sir Iyai added onto their musical canvas. The happy mood went up the roof. Other than we saw ladies dancing, he bagged a lot of cheers and applauses too.

We thought they were done, but then Dean called Ditra to join the gang. It was sort of jamming, or it could be a featuring, but whatever it is, Ditra worked great as if he was the part of the team when they played a poetic song from Mustache and Beard titled “Senyum Membawa Pesan.” Simply great.

Was it the end? No. Because then they gave another surprise, playing “Spain” in the spirit of krontjong. Sundanese sound of flute was included, also some thick rock and brit pop were added into it. This should be clearly spontaneous, but they did the tutti very neat. We believe had Chick Corea watched them he would be proud, because NazarMusic with Ditra crafted it awe-inspiringly. Erick Gabe couldn’t help himself not to jump in, he added singing and mouth trumpeting to make one blazing finale for this session as well as this 65th edition of Braga Jazz Night.

A mixture of krontjong with Jamaican reggae, indie music, plus splashes of jazz with rock, blues and even Sundanese created such magical formula that’s not only making a new hybrid of krontjong but also a new wave in music. These 9 young lads, with all the creativity, passion, talents and everything needed, effortlesly made an idea came to life in coolest way possible. We are always proud supporting creative and passion-driven young musicians, and we always love to see new ideas and inventions appear on our stage. NazarMusic had a blast, so did we. We hope to be able to bring them again someday, but for now, we wish them the best, for their upcoming album and their career.

What an interesting edition this was. We thank all the participating musicians, singers, partners, supporters and of course everyone who came, for no event would hold on if it had no audience. As we are marching in to December, we are preparing the special Christmas edition as usual. We hope to see you again then. Thank you, keep jazzin’ up high!

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Reporter and photographer: Riandy Kurniawan .

Christmas and jazz. Think of it. They are so compatible to each other. Try to count how many ‘non-jazz’ musicians/singers suddenly turn themselves to jazzy moods when they are releasing Christmas albums, you will loose count. Think of how many swingin’ and boppin’ Christmas carols you can find throughout the years. You will loose count even more. With or without snow, with or without Santa Claus, Christmas and jazz will always work to bring the message of peace, grace and love from God.

So, as usual, we dedicated our on-going jazz community event, the Braga Jazz Night to celebrate Christmas. In this Braga Jazz Night #66 we invited several bands or groups that we believed would make a merry, jazzy celebration.

It was supposed to be three groups like before, but unfortunately one band failed to perform, it was the drum-piano real life couple, Caberawid. The reason of that is because the pianist Widiyanto Sutanto was down with high fever just a day before the event. We still got the young key-wiz Jeremy Hutomo with his trio and the indie pop-rock band Teman Musik. With only two left and show must go on, we got to make some arrangement with the available bands. The situation got worse because we found out that the keyboard was broken. It could give us really big trouble, but then the magic of Christmas happened! Our co-host Erick Gabe confirmed that he would come along with a keyboard. Unbelivable, unreal, but miracle did happen, thank God for that.

The first show is a band who takes ‘friendship’ as the most important thing in life. It’s TEMAN MUSIK.

Teman Musik has been existing for no less than 5 years, built to compete at the inter-school music competition back in 2014. This band has 4 members. They are Nadha Pratama (drum), Yoga Andika (guitar), Meiadi P Aritonang (vocal) and Adi Setiadi (bass). Their music source is kind of interesting, because the band draws influences of vastvariety of bands/singers, from Coldplay, Efek Rumah Kaca, Payung Teduh, The Beatles, Nirvana, Bon Jovi, Ed Sheeran, The Trees and the Wild to Michael Buble among others.

If you want to know where their name came from, it’s related to the word ‘friendship’ as we have mentioned earlier. They carry the motto: “Looking for friend from friends, to be friends with.” Meaning, other than playing music, they are always looking for friends, and hope that their music would be friends with the listeners’ ears.

This band has the music that is current and favored by the youngsters. It’s the pop-based indie music with some splashes of rock and other essences sprinkled above it. That became evident right from the start when they gave “Hidup Untuk Siapa”, their own original song. This simpe, mid-tempo song was well crafted. It could easily become a big hit. They continued on with another original, “Rupa Lupa Rasa”.

Meiadi is the vocalist of the band, but the rest of the band actually took the vocal parts too along with him. Meiadi told the audience that for this event they were going to bring all original songs. And as it’s special for them, for the very first time Teman Musik would sing all songs which will be included in their upcoming album, scheduled to release in early 2020. We really appreciate it.

“Kebiri Kepala” and “Hanyut Hampir” came right after. Again, the thick indie music spirit filled the air. This band already has some fans, as they sang along almost in every part of each song. Many of them recorded the performance using their smart phones, many passers-by stopped and watched the band, for us that’s a clear sign of how good the reception is by public.

Their single-carrier “Tenanglah” came next as the peak. This song probably is the strongest one, at least in our opinion. It has catchy melody, good lyrics and strong emotion. We won’t be surprised if this song becomes a big hit soon, or even being used as a soundtrack in the movie. For the last presentation Teman Musik sang “Tempat Tuk Dikenang.” Again, we saw their fans and friends sang along. Big applause in the end were given by the crowds.

Extending friendship to everyone is a good spirit, something that we actually have to do as a human. Music is, and can be a perfect way to do it. The band’s surely realized it as they do exactly that. Their pop-based indie music is really ear-friendly and ear-catchy, their fun appearance makes everyone feel familiar with them, even to those who just met them for the very first time. A band with wide varieties of musical background like this would have big chance to have success in our music industry. The fact that they are good would give them better chance to achieve it.

Then it’s time to see the awe-inspiring young boy. He’s still in his very early teen but he’s an awe-inspiring jazz pianist, something that he has shown us 5 years ago at the age of 7. This boy has been really into jazz, he’s able to play complex jazz arrangements effortlessly, bringing each song in his own way and making them like his own. How a boy that age could explore the compexity of jazz? We can’t come up with any logical explanation, but religiously speaking, he can be one of the solid proofs that miracle does exist. He is JEREMY HUTOMO.

Jeremy started learning piano at the age of 7, but at that time he didn’t do it too seriously. Instead, he was more into playing chess which made him representing Bandung in under the age of 8 Chess Championship. He got his first encounter with jazz when he turned 8, learning from Yahya Salam for several months. He digged blues and classical for a while before he decided to get deep with jazz seriously.

We met him for the first time at our previous event, Terraz Jazz where he came and surprised us with his amazing way of playing “Billie’s Bounce.” At that time he was only 7 years old. He then appeared as a trio in this event, and wowed the audience when he gave a solo jazz piano at our other previous event, Bumi Sangkuriang Jazz Night.

We have been wanting him to play again for quite some times, but we didn’t want to disturb his formal study. When it comes to holiday, we thought we could bring him in, and yes, he accepted our invitation.

For this time he played also in the format of three. Other than Jeremy himself on keyboard, he was empowered by his father Hasto Utomo on bass and Marissa Wiguna on drums.

“Paradox” became a really strong intro that directly introduced the boy and all of his jazz magic to the audience. He caught many people by surprise through a wicked piano playing, while his father Hasto and Marissa served him very well.

Then they went on with Chick Corea’s “Spain”. This choice enabled us to see how great he is as a jazz pianist and how good they are as a unit. Spain is not an easy song to play. It’s really challenging because the song requires speed, precision and chemistry especially in doing the tuttis. What amaze us is that Marissa didn’t even have the time to rehearse beforehand, yet they played sharp and neat. Erick Gabe joined the party near the end to add vocal. He didn’t just sing the way Al Jarreau’s version, but he also added mouth trumpet, trombone and scatting.

“Stolen Moment” again reflected this kid’s awesomeness, followed by the song that Jeremy loves the most, also the one who caught us by surprise when we met him for the very first time at the age of 7, “Billie’s Bounce.” He really owned this song as he has played it for many years. It was great back then, it’s even more improved now.

Then he led his dad and Marissa to play Christmas carols and praise. Starting with “Gloria in Exelcis Deo”, Jeremy led his trio to criss-crossing between modern swing and fusion. Then it became even intense when he gave us his own version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, which is really, really wicked. Lots of tuttis, twisted and progressive. A 13 year-old boy making this kind of arrangement, for us that’s an absolute stunner. Wow!

Erick Gabe came back to the stage and opened up the jam session. Along with Jeremy Hutomo Trio he improvised under swinging 12 bar blues. Then as this edition was made for Christmas, he sang “Gloria in Exelcis Deo” in Indonesian language. Meiadi from Teman Musik joined him in front and together they all had lots of fun. The photo session sealed this month’s as edition as well as the whole 2019 program.

We have showcased many amazing kids with strong jazz soul in our event. Among those amazingly gifted kids, Jeremy has to be one of the most incredible ones. He’s the kind of calm type of player, but his jazz style is pure and clean, full of spontaneity, as if he’s been doing it double or even triple his age. Not to mention his arranging style which is far above his age too. Having reliable assists from his dad Hasto and the girl with rich beating skill Marissa enabled him to explore the world of jazz as wide and free as how he wanted to be. We’re so very proud of you kiddo! Never stop using that blessing you got in music to bless others.

It feels like yesterday when we just marched into the new year of 2019. But hey, here we are at the end of the line. We feel blessed to be able to showcase no less than 36 acts throughout 2019, dominated by the young guns. Presenting the rainbox-like yet united colors of jazz always stands as one of our top priorities, and this year we’re able to expand the horizon as wide as possible. For us, 2019 has been a good year. We will be back again in January 2020 and look forward to keep going throughout the year.

We thank all performers for this edition, all supporters, partners, friends and also the audience, for without you this event wouldn’t go anywhere. Lastly, to our readers who celebrate, we wish you a Merry Jazzy Christmas and Happy Swingin’ New Year! Let peace, love and happiness filling up your heart. Enjoy the season with your loved ones, may you all be blessed always. See you again soon in 2020!

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Reporter & photographer: Riandy Kurniawan .