Imagine yourself having a fine dine in a cozy, romantic place under a breezing cool weather surrounded by breathtaking view of nature. Not just enjoying the delicious meal, but you can also pair it with wine of your choice, or you can also ask the sommelier’s suggestion. Now, add jazz in it. Sounds great right? Then if you are a musician, think of performing in this place while having yourself being promoted by both online and on air. That’s what we pictured in mind when we established a connection with the venue, Burgundy Dine & Wine by Pramestha Resort and a top radio, OZ Radio. Synchronizing with what this place offers, we all agree to name the event “WINE AND JAZZ”.
The pilot project was done on Saturday, 24 March 2018. Unlike the usual time for jazz event which is mostly at night, the Wine & Jazz is served in the late afternoon, starting from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. That gives the audience a chance to enjoy the view before the sky gets dark without being too cold. Also, we believe this selected time will accomodate the whole family to be a part of it. For us, this will give us something new since our other events are running at night.
A little more information about OZ, this radio has just brought back one of its popular program alive, JAZZY OZZIE. This jazz program was once popular around 7 years ago or so. Just like the name says, Jazzie Ozzie highlighted the jazzy side OZ. After being on hiatus for some years, now it’s back in business. Oz is once again ready to support the movement of jazz in Bandung, Jakarta and beyond by not only playing the songs but also interviewing and airing live performance from selected bands, hosted by former Jajaka Pinilih (The Chosen Young Man) of Bandung 2017, Darryl Max. For us it’s a good news since it wasn’t easy for jazz before to enter the radio in Indonesia, especially the popular radio for youngsters.
For this pilot project or premiere edition, we featured two lineup with different style and sound. One is a pure Jazz/Straightahead quartet and the other representing the modern day Nu Soul. They do have some things in common though. Both of the lineup are amazingly gifted, have a good quality performance, enjoyable and entertaining, and have original materials that we think deserve good and wide publication. They are the nu soul diva AGIS KANIA and the stunning STEVEN CHRISTIAN QUARTET.
We started first with the nu soul diva who is now claiming her position much, much better than where she has ever been before. This lady has a 5-star vocal quality that we dare to compare with any soul singers today in the world. She is AGIS KANIA.
We have known her for around 5 years, the time when she was still a part of the gypsy swing duo Satura. But she actually has started way back long before that. She already embarked her career since she was still a little girl, placing her song to be the anthem of her hometown Sukabumi. At that time she was still singing in Sundanese Pop.
Although jazz wasn’t a stranger in her childhood, she carried on with the traditional keroncong. Again, she had a good time by being aired regularly in the national radio RRI. When she moved to Bandung, she encountered American music particularly jazz and blues. Her soulful voice suited both genres and quickly she established her position in both corners. She took considerably higher step when she formed a dynamic duo Agis Bape, collaborating with fingerstlye guitarist Opik Bape.
Last year out of nowhere we heard about her making a breakthrough. Having two brilliant producers Tabrize Muhajier ‘Ajier’ Effendy of T-Five and Inal Chaniago, she released her first solo single rooted in the modern nu soul titled “Baby You” through digital outlets. Soon the song went well on charts and purchased mostly by foreign music lovers from all around the world. This song was officially released in our event, Braga Jazz Night in the holy month of Ramadhan.
Last month Agis released her second song, still having the same producers. This second song is titled “Erase My Number” aka “EMN”, featuring the amazing bluesman Ginda Bestari. Again, the song gets a very well result as it’s played over radio stations around the world, reaching as far as South Africa.
For this appearance, Agis Kania was supposed to play with the producers Ajier (guitar) and Inal (bass). Unfortunately both of them couldn’t make it. But wait, Agis still has pianist Jason Limanjaya and the cute but lethal girl on drum, Marissa Wiguna by her side. These two musicians could amazingly covered the lack of musicians on stage and made her able to perform her best as if she got full team.
As this event is intended to be an on-air program of Jazzy Ozzie, the host himself, Darryl Max acted as the MC and did just right he was broadcasting in the studio. After a little chit-chat, Agis Kania began her session by covering a song of Gregory Porter with Lalah Hathaway, “Insanity”. Quickly her soulful voice along with Jason’s smooth jazzy vibes and gentle drumming of Marissa painted the atmosphere full of charm.
Then she sang her first solo single “Baby You”. Jason did great in covering the bass part alongside his own role as the pianist. Even only with two musicians, Agis delivered the song perfectly. The song is sensual, full of lust that one could feel just by listening to the music.
For the third song Agis took The Crusaders’ gem from 1979 featuring the beautiful voice of Randy Crawford, “Street Life”. She asked the audience to sing along, also let Jason and Marissa to exchange some punches. A twist was found in this one as Jason and Marissa suddenly went swinging in the middle. That move creates an interesting variation which actually enriches the soulful jazz-funk nature of this song. From Agis’ side, she sings it just as good as miss Crawford or the later version from Joe Sample and Lalah Hathaway in 1997.
She sealed her show with her latest single “Erase My Number” aka “EMN”. If in the original version EMN has Ginda Bestari’s fine blues guitar sound, this time we got another version involving no guitar. But even so, Jason and Marissa tackled it really well.
We consider Agis’ nu soul style would match the concept of wine. Her voice too, for us, is like wine; getting better with age. It turned out right. Not only her appearance melt tastefully with wine and the foods/beverages of Burgundy, it blended sweetly with the cool weather and beautiful landscape of Lembang too.
It’s remarkable to see how Agis grows all the way up to this point, but we know for sure this is not her final stand. She will keep on rising not only in our music scene but internationally. She is getting ready to go on tour soon, aiming not just in Java but also abroad. As usual, we wish her the best and hope she would achieve more than anything she ever dreamed. A great friend, humble, big heart, really gifted. We can’t say anything better than ‘we love you’, Agis. Go get it and stand up there among the stars!
The second and final session was given to STEVEN CHRISTIAN QUARTET. This band consists of all young musicians who we believe will lead Indonesian jazz in the future. Most of them are still students but they are able to play and make great pure jazz compositions like a long time pro. Led by Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) student mentored by young jazz genius Sri Hanuraga (Aga), pianist Steven Christian, the quartet has bassist Timothy Investario (the student of jazz (contra)bassist Indrawan Tjhin, drummer Alman Naufal, former student of Elfa Zulham and guitarist Jabez Chan.
Speaking of jazz performance, this band bites hard with their catchy performance that clearly shows how happy they are being on stage. Just like before, they played all original songs which soon will be available in the quartet’s debut album. They opened up with “Pepperoni”, Steven’s composition built upon 12 bar blues. The remarkable skill, the teamwork, the dynamic, all of these aspects were found in their performance from the very start. On “On The Riverside”, Christian and his band demonstrated how well they do the Afro-Carbbean Calypso style creating a vibrant jolly ride.
The band turned gentle and romantic with “You and Me”. This song is lovely, it has the kind of melody that could be found in classic romance movies from decades ago. Try to play this one for the one you love, you would melt his or her heart instantly. For the final song Steven Christian Quartet played the title track of the upcoming debut album, “In Real Time”. Solid beat, fast and furious stream over the keys, the nonstop moving along the bass’ fret, the thunderous drumming and glittery guitar lines made this song a winner. A brilliant composition that shines in every aspect. No wonder they use this one as the album title, considering how strong itreally is.
The ‘handsome’ straightahead was served chilled by Steven Christian Quartet. These boys present the aspects that make us love jazz in first place: beautiful compositions with lots of room to improvise, wicked solo runs, punchy tradings, clean tuttis, free-flowing play, great technique served humble, tight teamwork, active communication between players, twists and turns, and stellar stage performance. Mark our words, these boys are going to be among the top ones in the near future.
For Burgundy Dine and Wine, we offered a Jazz and Wine concept, meaning that we are choosing the jazz style and bands who we believe go along sweet and nice with wine. For this pilot project we selected Agis Kania and Steven Christian Quartet, representing the beautiful sound of nu soul and straightahead jazz. And we are satisfied with the result. If this event continues on, we will bring more excellent performers with their respective style that would work with wine, and quite possibly we will try to fit the theme to the nearest celebration too. We thank all the performers, Burgundy Dine and Wine @ Pramestha, OZ Radio and its program Jazzy Ozzie, and certainly everyone who came. We hope to see you again soon!
See more pictures:
Reporter and Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan .