The Bumi Sangkuriang building was built in 1957 and has been running variety of jazz concerts ever since. There were two community jazz events took place in this place, the first one was in 1981 followed by the next one almost two decades later. So, when the third regular monthly jazz community event was given to us and our partner Venche Music School, we take this as something important to continue the legacy by providing good quality of jazz gigs in this building. With the help and support from our partners and the venue, we manage to bring each edition free of charge, fully without any hidden charge. Hence, the Bumi Sangkuriang Jazz Night was born. We started in the first month of 2016, and now we have done with the 7th episode.
In Bumi Sangkuriang Jazz Night #07, as usual we presented the combination of talented musicians from Jakarta and local Bandung. They were all still considerably young but important to mention in today’s jazz development in Indonesia. What’s important to mention is, not only they have performed on many stages including the big ones, they have left traces inside the recording studios too. It turned out to be a fantastic show! All performers gave the best in them, most of them even went far beyond limit and a stunner was found at the end of each session. What an edition this was!
Performing first is a multi-talented young man from Bandung, Fabian Winandi. He built his career fast by releasing an album distributed by Demajors more than a year ago which is clearly rooted in jazz.
At first, just like the majority of newcomers, he got a full band behind him which mostly consisted of Yura’s team mates. But then he decided to change his move, embracing the technology by using a Loop Station. This equipment enables him to perform solo without needing to worry of having too ‘quiet’ sound. Following his single last year “Bisakah Kuhentikan Waktu”, he just released his new single using Loop Station entitled “Sturara”. Just like the first one, he entered the chart over many radio stations and got more than 350.000 viewers on his Youtube channel.
As a way for us to support his new single, we invited him to promote it and himself to the audience of Bumi Sangkuriang Jazz Night, especially to those who haven’t got the chance to see him. The last time we invited him in our other event, he was still playing with full band. So this was the first time to see his new way.
Fabian brought in two friends on his show: Ditra Prasista on piano and Athina Niassrin on saxophone. They opened up joyfully with Frank Sinatra’s hit “Come Fly With Me” which for us shows how good Fabian can croon and swing. Then he switched to folk, taking on Phillip Phillips debut single and coronation song from American Idol season 11, “Home”. His most recent single “Sturara” served chilled, then he continued with his previous single, a heartfelt ballad “Bisakah Kuhentikan Waktu.”
For the last song he demonstrated how the loop station actually works. Singing his first song in the album “Showtime”, he wowed everyone by his ability to do it while giving up a shining, fired-up performance. He also managed to make everyone sing along with him. Simply put, he really, really nailed it.
It’s never easy to perform all alone. The size of the stage comparing to one person often intimidates the player especially when they have to play for one full session. But Fabian doesn’t take it as a problem. He is a singing multi-instrumentalist who can also write and compose song. Using Loop Station seems to be a perfect choice for someone like him. As he is gaining more and more fans and look forward to land on more than 100 stages for 2016, we are happy that this event is included. A talented young man is on the run, a grand, successful future lies ahead of him. As for his performance, it was indeed awesome.
The second show featured a band formed in Bandung 7 years ago which had its birth and grew up in Klab Jazz’s events, the Half Whole Project. Comprises of pianist/keyboardist Christ Stanley, bassist Gallang Perdhana Dalimunthe and drummer Edward Manurung, this band still keeps its existance eventhough each of them have their own activities including supporting top stars. The band was established as a media for them to fulfill their passion in jazz. It seems simple, but the fact shows that the band is still strong and kicking all the way until now. They began with a quartet, but the saxophonist Kenneth Timotius Djaja had to focus on his study back then. From a quartet became trio, they moved on not only keeping the pulse of the band but also managed to make one album titled “Yes, We Meet Again” presenting 7 original compositions.
It wasn’t easy to bring them due to their activities mostly in the capital, but luckily we could have them in this episode. Surprise, surprise, they didn’t come as a trio but actually quintet. Joining them were two of proud Salamander Big Band members: Matt Ashworth (saxophone) and Brury Effendy (trumpet). We knew how good the trio is, as also shared by the founder of Klab Jazz, Dwi Cahya Yuniman who we invited to the stage before their show. But with quintet, we didn’t dare to predict what comes next. Sky is the limit.
And it became an evidence. They dropped multiple bombs from the first song, “Con Alma” written by Dizzy Gillespie in the early 50’s. They kept rising the bar on the next two songs tributing John Coltrane’s legendary “Love Supreme” album, “Part 1: Acknowledgement” and “Part 2: “Resolution”. Brury and Matt were dynamic in taking their turn respectively, and when they got the part together, they threw sharp punches while Stanley like a shark bit everyone inside the ballroom. Gallang with his contrabass and Edward’s drumbeat didn’t just provide the rhythm, they also pushed and teased the frontliners to boldly go further. Their version of Roy Hargrove’s “Strasbourg-St Denis” took us to the brighter mood while still enjoying their ferocious attack.
Just when we thought they have driven us back safe and secure, suddenly they took us back to one last ride that we won’t ever forget, this time to the 30’s. It was one of Christ Stanley’s favorite songs, “Viper Mad” from Sidney Bechet. Stanley made the audience pop by singing while punching his piano more cruel than before. The scent of Dixie was strong this time. After playing for more than half an hour, we thought they would be tired, but they actually had their energy increased. An epic ending after an epic performance awarded them loud applauses and cheers in the end.
We knew them many years ago and have been following their progress. We are happy to see where they stand today individually, but above all, we are proud to see how this band is doing today. Half Whole Project can be a good example of how a jazz band could achieve big success starting from a local jazz community. Skillful and tight both individually and collective, this band should be able to talk louder in the future. Let’s hope they can find time to keep the band running. Because not only this band play pure jazz delightfully, it’s also important in term of the future of jazz in Indonesia. Magnificent!
For the final performance we presented the all-round guitarist who has been building his solo career these past several years, Andre Dinuth. He’s previously known as a top sessionist and arranger for many big stars, name some like Glenn Fredly, Rossa, Afgan, Sandhy Sondoro, Andi Rianto, Rio Febrian, Marcell, Trio Lestari, Erwin Gutawa and Once among others.
Due to this movement, he released his debut solo album in mid 2014, also distributed by Demajors. This selftitled album reflects his true-self, idealism and the track of his journey in multi-colored style including the genre he’s into most of all, jazz, blues and rock, also involving traditional instrument coming from the eastern part of Indonesia. Just a while ago he released the second album “Here With You” which he got enormous support by many big cats. He also involved in a very interesting project Six Strings alongside 5 other famous guitarists from multiple backgrounds.
For the very first time we featured this very talented young man in this event. Accompanying him was a band of youngsters that is just finished with their debut album, New Equinox. This band is a trio consists of Singapore-based pianist Jason Limanjaya (piano), drummer Alman Naufal and bassist Ezra Manuhutu.
New Equinox opened up with the first track in their album, a cover of Joe Henderson’s “Inner Urge”. Then Andre Dinuth joined them. Before he played, he told us that he takes himself as “a rocker that happens to love jazz”. That’s exactly what he delivered. The first song came from the collaboration was “All Blues”. Interestingly they played it in an unusual time, 11/8. Dinuth approached Jason and pushed him to the limit. The duel between them was explosive. Dinuth then demonstrated his bluesy soul on “Georgia on My Mind” which included singing. Rockin’ blues was felt so deep. He inserted a little “Amazing Grace” during his solo run.
As the time already late, close to 11 pm, he had to come to the last song: Herbie Hancock’s gem titled “Chameleon”. Together with the boys of New Equinox, he injected high dose of funk in a totally playful mode. He approaced Alman and teased him, forcing him to go beyond limit. The already-wild drummer got even wilder in answering the challenge. Just like the previous two sessions, Andre Dinuth and New Equinox knocked everyone out with a blazing ending, as well as wrapping the event and made this one a triumph.
After watching him performing on prestigious stages like Java Jazz Festival for instance, we are happy that he has now added his signature on the Bumi Sangkuriang Jazz Night. Expressive, sometimes agressive gesture clearly shows how big his passion is in playing music. He’s equipped with skill and ability to play and write/compose, he is also cool to watch. His collaboration with New Equinox’s boys worked amazingly well too since they share the same wild soul within them, and Dinuth really knows how to push these boys to the limit.
A lot of unforgettable moment and multiple jazz-gasm were found all over the rounds. Moreover, the fact that all of them are still young shows a good progress of jazz development as well as bright future of jazz in Indonesia. Since we think of jazz regeneration as one of our agendas in any of our event, this edition satisfied us in many ways. Thank you all participating musicians, our partners, everyone behind this event and of course, all of you guys who support us by coming to this event and expressively showed love to the players. Until we meet again on the next episode with fresh batch of talented musicians.
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Reporter : Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan and Mia Damayanti