It feels like yesterday when we gave birth to this event. All of a sudden, we have held almost 50 editions with so many succcess stories of those we featured. For us, being able to run this long with endless number of bands/singers/musicians to participate is simply a blessing that motivates us to keep going.
For BRAGA JAZZ NIGHT #49 we featured a young boy from the Indonesian Idol Junior to promote his new pop jazz single, a contemporary Sundanese ethnic fusion and a band of high skilled young guns coming all the way from the capital Jakarta. As you see, once again we manage to got a unique combination in an edition that hopefully would send the message of how colorful jazz is to the society.
Performing first was an ethnic oriented fusion group, Sundanese to be exact, SUJALI. If you wonder what’s the meaning of the name, it’s an abbreviation of Suara Jiwa Alam Indonesia. In English: The Sound of Indonesia’s Nature Soul. The band was established in Bandung on 21 April 2016, exactly on Indonesian heroine Kartini’s day. At first the band consisted of 6 persons: Zahra Azizzah (vocal), Surya Ashari (violin), Adam Puspo Prasetyo (keyboard), Ivandi (guitar), Arya (bass) and Rully Adietya Anggara (drum). Then they went through some changes.Habibi Nauval Haqi is now on guitar, plus a new player Jemie Rizki on bamboo flute.
Although the band is considerably new, they have got some shiny achievements, including winning the Jazzphoria band competition. If you ever watch them, you would notice that they have quite a distinctive concept in music, an independent music, as they called it. Latin, Rock, Gothic other than Jazz and Rock are to be found in their crafts, which seems to be natural since the personnels came from different backgrounds and characters.
This band went blazing from the start with Guruh Soekarnoputra’s classic from 1976 “Zamrud Khatulistiwa”. Sujali made it much more ‘Indonesian’ by injecting heavy dose of pentatonics. The vocalist Zahra stole the show with her lively movement, extending her coverage of the area much more than the stage. She demonstrated how easy it is for her to switch from contemporary to Sundanese way of singing, also how high and wide her vocal range really is. A surprising opening no one would ever predicted, as they became a magnet dragging passers-by and mall visitors to stand and record their blazing appearance.
They slowed down embracing the beauty of ethnic fusion with their own song, “Tiang Rindu”. Different than the first one, this song made us feel like floating relaxingly. Aziza utilized her haunting voice even more, creating a deep, mystical nuance along with the way she dance. The sound of flute and violin made their music sounds unique, the keyboardist produced multi-colored music style, complimenting the neat contribution from the bass, guitar and drum players. Speaking of concept, this band really knows who they are, what to make and how to play. This first single has a strong, sharp and clear character that could describe them perfectly.
Then they gave the cover of The Chainsmokers & Coldplay’s hit, “Superhero”, interestingly rearranged to fit their style. For the last song, they presented their second single that has the exact same name with the band, “Sujali”. This song is perfect for a climax and speaks loud of their music, concept and true-self. Starting with glittery classical piano sound, they streamed into the magical traditional Sundanese music but yet still served contemporary. The whole personnels worked as a tight unit in full energy. Not just music, not just singing, but chants, twist and turns were found everywhere. Zahra once again expanded the performing area by swaying towards the crowds. This song is their anthem that has the strongest statement.
From time to time we invited ethnic-oriented bands who could offer something different to the jazz scene. Sujali has all young musicians who has it. Not only the unique musicality but also the stage appearance, especially the energetic, free spirited vocalist with mad voice that can attract passers-by easily. We do hope this first performance will be followed by more later on, and certainly we hope it will give help them to establish stronger grip in the music business. Sundanese traditional in contemporary scene? Ask Sujali, they will tell you many things about it.
The second part featured a band of young lions from Jakarta, LUCOV. Lucov stands for LUCENT OBLIVION, showing how optimist they are to shine one day no matter how tough the road is for them at this very moment. Nicholas Dheo (bass), Ersandy Nasharizky (saxophone), Gearda Dewantara (guitar) and Oddy (drum) are the young lions who live inside the Lucov’s den. These boys have dedicated their lives to jazz from the beginning, and by saying this, we know they are really serious about it. Most of them are no stranger to us, in fact they have landed on this event’s stage before with different band or project: Dheo with Nayra Dharma Group and Salamaata while Gearda and Ersandy with J/E/G Trio.
We know how talented they are, we know how skillful they are, and how much they improve from time to time. These boys are different than most of others, in fact they are unique individuals too to one another. But they do share the same vision and passion ; in Dheo’s word: the same frequency ; which makes them able to keep supporting each other, either as brothers or band.
After a blazing ethnic crossover presentation, this quartet created a totally different scene, placing us in the Blue Note Jazz Club scene in the 50s. Ellegant, classy free flowing pure jazz, cozy, smooth and relaxing, that’s our impression when they started playing the first song composed by Dheo, “Moonless Night”. It’s not the first time we heard the song, yet it felt like new in the hands of Lucov dudes. Sandy used his soprano saxophone in this one, sharing the front line with Gearda’s low profile yet rich guitar playing. But they didn’t dominate the whole scene because there were plenty of room left for Dheo and Oddy to pour their heart out. The composer Dheo even got his turn to scat singing everything he played on bass the way George Benson loves to do.
After smooth swingin’ composition, Lucov turned to Bossa Novawith Gearda’s “If”. This song is made based on Bossa but built upon jazz, reminding us of the time when Jobim arrived in America and made/played his songs by getting deeply influenced by jazz. For this song, Sandy changed his gear into flute that created a different hue on their musical pallette.
Another song written by Dheo was next, “Hope”. This song placed us back to the classy Blue Note scene, executed beautifully by them. Sandy took his sax again for this one. Then it’s time for us to enjoy a piece from Sandy titled “Kembali Pulang”. If you remember, this song was actually played for the first time in this event a year ago, the song even got the name here. This song is dedicated to Sandy’s father who passed away just a while before he performed back then. For this one Sandy took his flute again. Sandy didn’t make this song to grief, instead he made beautiful tunes which reflects all the sweet memories he shared with his dad.
The last song came surprising. They took John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. It was a surprise because they didn’t go Boppin’ like the original or most of covers, but re-arranged it in smooth Bossa. Giant Steps in Bossa. Does it work? Actually yes, it works really well. What’s unique is how creative they play it in pure jazz by using Bossa Nova canvas. Near the end, they did tradings with Oddy’s dynamic beating. It was made simple yet brilliant, something that could only come from smart brains.
Building a career in jazz isn’t easy, especially in a country where jazz is not the mainstream. But looking at their skill, passion and ability to speak jazz the right way, and their creativity too, we know that it’s only a matter of time for them to stand on top. They may have to fight against all odds, they may have to struggle to prove their choice right, but at the end of the day they will make it. A good, solid and funky pure jazz band of youngsters like Lucov is rare nowadays, so we hope the band to last long. Keep it up guys! The future of jazz is in your hands.
For the final session we got the second appearance of Indonesian Idol Junior 2017 alumni on this event. He finished as the big 10 in that talent search competition, but that doesn’t mean he’s less good than the winner, because from what we see and know, this boy is really gifted. He’s just turned 14 years old, but his singing skill and his ability to connect his heart to anything he sings exceeds his age. He is charming and looks good on stage. He is Akbar Herliansyah, better known as AKBAR IDOL JR.
At the competition he didn’t get the chance to go with jazz, so at first we didn’t know that he was into this genre in the beginning. But later when we met him competing in Jazzphoria 2018, we found out that he actually loves jazz and wished to build his career in it. Any of our event is made to help young talents like this to find their own style. We are happy if any musician or singer use it to start their jazzy career, and we are happier if they can have a successful career from us.Therefore we offered Akbar to come into our community, and the rest is history.
Just like a couple of months ago, Akbar is supported by a strong band with some changes. The band now consists of Rizal (keyboard), Rommy Hendrawan (guitar), Rimba (bass) and Rivandi (drum). They are still young, although not as young as Akbar, but they are all fine players.
Different than last time, in this edition Akbar came to promote his new single “Cinta Membuatku Bahagia” (Love Makes Me Happy). This is not the first song he wrote, but it’s the first one that’s built upon pop jazz. We love the song and proud of him, so naturally we should have him promoting the single in our event.
Akbar began with a jazz version of Michael Jackson’s later hit, “Man In The Mirror”. They made it more upbeat and groovy, it works fine as the opening. Then Akbar introduced his first ever original song made in jazz, “Cinta Membuatku Bahagia”. We have listened to the recording, but for the first time we watched it live. “At first I got the melody when playing around with guitar. Then shortly after I came up with the lyrics, and it’s complete.” said Akbar. This single resonates pop jazzy, groovy and feel good. We won’t be surprise if this song would become a hit due to its friendly, ear catchy nature, also the lyrics that speaks about love that we all experience in life.
A classic from Chrisye’s 1978 album “Sabda Alam” titled “Anak Jalanan” was next. Most of younger generation probably remember this song from Sandhy Sondoro who made the song a big hit again more than 30 years later. This song is the right one for him, as it suits the vocal range and funky spirit of this talented teenager. He continued on with an evergreen from 1967 that uniquely has been covered by so many artists from variety of genres, “Can’t Take My Eyes of You”. Executing it in pop groovy is a good decision that accomodates his age and the current music trend.
For the last song Akbar and his band made a smart move by covering a more recent tune, a Gabrielle Walter Clay & Common Thread song titled “That Groove”. Not an easy song to sing or play, plus originally it was sung by a lady. But Akbar successfully nailed it. The band did their part nicely too. A good way to seal their performance.
Akbar told us that he wasn’t feeling well, and the songlist was finalized only 3 days beforehand. It might become a big trouble for some, but not to them. They still able to bring out the best in them to make another impressive appearance in this event.
Imagine a 14 year-old boy is able to make a pop jazz song that potentially could become a big hit in the music scene, as if it came from established band, imagine a boy that has just gone through vocal change due to puberty but know exactly how to deal with it and even use it as a major force. About the calm stage presence, he probably got it from his experience in the Indonesian Idol Junior and his own charisma. Not only he enjoys every moment on stage which is very obvious, he also has all the charm needed to become a crowd magnet. Akbar Herliansyah aka Akbar Idol Junior is rebooting his career and choose jazz as his centerpoint. Looking at the way he is doing it, jazz is a perfect habitat for him as we always believe. Let’s keep our eyes on him and support him in his journey climbing up to the top.
Interesting edition that has amazingly talented young guns presenting wide variety of jazz, that’s how we see the Braga Jazz Night #49. These youngsters is the main reason of why we exist. We hope our contribution give benefit for them, and we certainly hope we can keep supporting them, in any which way we can, all the way until they successfully fulfill their calling. We will be back again next month with another fresh batch. Thank you folks! See you again then.
Watch Braga Jazz Night #49 Highlights :
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Reporter/Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan
Video Editor: Vierna Mariska