Ubud Village Jazz Festival 2018 : Day 2 Report

adeAfter the interesting first day (read the report here: http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/ubud-village-jazz-festival-2018-day-1-report/), we are going to let you know what’s happening on the second and final day of the 6th Ubud Village Jazz Festival 2018.

As a special early treat, senior bassist who have been gaining experience by playing wide across genre Ito Kurdhi was the first to sail. He’s been building his career in Bali for long time and has been playing alongside many accomplished names both from Indonesia and abroad. Last year he launched his album “Terbang Melayang” in trio format with a singer, and certainly not a stranger for this event.

For this gig he took a very strong team consisting of amazing young musicians such as David Manuhutu (piano), Kevin Suwandhi (synth) and Grady Boanerges (drum).

Since the first song, “Softly As The Morning Sunrise”, bass clearly ruled on stage. But the contribution of Ito’s team mates were felt strong, they even got their own moment of glory. Not only the standards, Ito also introduced his own songs, including our favorite, the joyful-walk-in-the-park “Beautiful Day”. Ito kept on teasing each of his mates to explode. Groovy, modern but rely fully on jazz, this team transfered energy that would make the early-coming audience ready to absorb the rest performances of the day.

If most of the festival in this nation tend to start with youngsters or newcomers, not UVJF. Since day 1 the UVJF presented experienced artists, even the international stars to begin with. We agree with this decision, so every band would get equal chance to get the crowds and the festival itself could gain good number of crowds early.

Moving to the main stage we got a unique vocal group from the land of rising sun Japan that has the intention not just to entertain but also to spread the gospel, the YA! Voices. YA Voices has spread its wings for years across Asia and other continents. The group consists of 6 ladies: Atsuko Kawahara (vocal), Yuko Shirota (pf, vocal), Kaorin (trumpet, vocal), Satoko (vocal) and Yuuka Motoshida (percussion, vocal). They are individually skillful and experienced, somestarted their career since the 80’s, some learned jazz in Harlem, USA, there’s also one of them who is contributing towards the Asian Jazz development.

Simon Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” directly showed us something different. Only with trumpet, drums and percussions, the ladies demonstrated their vocal harmony beautifullly. They demonstrated the beauty of voices and their ability to play more instruments as one of the lady moved to piano for “How High The Moon”. It became more unique when they included shamisen, the three stringed traditional Japanese instrument and sang in Japanese before the song turned to “Take Five”. The ladies shouted “Don’t be afraid, hey you!”, which became the opening of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”. Some traditional Japanese singing and tradings were found in their show too. An excerpt of “Amazing Grace” on trumpet sealed their high-spirited show.

Standing in between jazz and gospel with splashes of RnB and traditional, the YA! Voices brought peace through lovely harmony and lively appearance. From them we can see the evidence of how jazz can be used to bless others and spread positive vibes. Keep on spreading the message of love and peace, ladies! Arigatou, God bless you all.

On the front side another beautiful show took place. After a wonderful collaboration with Jean Sebastien in 2016, the great Nita Aartsen is back, this time with another project and collaboration, the Nita Aartsen Eurasian Project with the naturally gifted and exotic jazz diva with 5-star singing voice, Dian Pratiwi. Both of these ladies have successfully built their career in Europe and landed everywhere around the world. They both also live in about the same musical horizon, from jazz to Brazilian and everything in between.

As the name suggested, Nita invited the combination of Indonesia and European musicians to join her. From Indonesia she brought the sensational bassist from Singaraja, Indra Gupta and young guitarist Brandon Julio. And then from Europe there were Dutch trumpeter Gerard Kleijn and drummer Olaf Keus.

High-energy, free spirited show started the fire right from the start. Kleijn’s composition “New Amsterdam” is captivating, following Nita’s cool rendition of “Spain” which didn’t only take us to voyage but also included splashes of Sundanese.

Nita carried on with some of her favorites including “Night in Tunisia” and “The Shadow of Your Smile” before Dian Pratiwi stood in front and led them all to play the famous Ambonese song “Rame-Rame”. The party reached climax as some audience couldn’t help themselves any longer not to dance. They moved closer and dance right in front of the band, making another lovely scene for this event.

From the Nita Aartsen Eurasian Project ft Dian Pratiwi we got heartfelt jazz overflowing naturally. This is the collaboration between some of the most accomplished jazz artistes where jazz appears beautifully like a garden or roses in spring time.

The cozy stage at the back of ARMA Museum, Subak Stage began with young cats representing the fruitful community founded by Yuri Mahatma, the Underground Jazz Movement.

Since the first time we arrived in this event 4 years ago we have been seing tremendous progress that clearly shows how fruitful this community is and how this festival helps equipping them to be ready in the wonderful real world of jazz. This year the community was represented by Fendy Rizk (contrabass), Benny Irawan (guitar) and Wisnu Priambodo (drum). Appearing as a trio, they delivered jazz standards, including Thelonious Monk’s composition in 1947 “In Walked Bud”. Really fluent-jazz speaking trio these guys really are.

The main stage were alive again, this time with the amazing prodigy, native Indonesian who successfully built his career in USA with his band, Ade Irawan “Good Fellas”. Being blind never become an obstacle for him because God gives him an amazing gift that millions of people would dream of having. Ade Irawan can be a prove of God’s existance and how He can bless His children with miracle. Ade never learned formally when in his childhood. Yet, having a great hearing could be a powerful beginning for him to find out his true talent and calling. He has been invited to jam and perform in USA many times, including at the World Stage Community in Los Angeles.

This year the prodigy arrived in the Ubud Village Jazz Festival under Ade Irawan “Good Fellas”. Found in his project are big names with illustrious career that has been spanning much longer than his age. They are Gerard Kleijn, one of the finest trumpeter/composer from Holland, Polish saxophonist Kuba Skowronski, American sax/flute/clarinet player based in Thailand Norman King, our own saxophonist from Bali, Pramono Abdi Pamungkas. Pieregiorgio Marchesini (drum), Helmi Agustrian (bass) and the co-founder of the fest, Yuri Mahatma (guitar).

Three saxophonists and one trumpeter created a killer horn section to fly along with Ade Irawan’s magical jazz touch. The show exploded right from the start, making the crowds popped big time many, many times. Ade led the octet along with his magical touch over the keys, plus some hummings that added richer flavors. He let us feel the classic New York jazz scene with some cool blues flew around. While the horn section were captivating, Pieregiorgio’s wild drumming became one of the attraction. This mad, mad gang sealed their show with a triumphant reinterpretation of “A Night in Tunisia”.

After the show, Ade Irawan received the Inspirational Musician Award from the Ubud Village Jazz Festival.

We have covered and watched his miraculous jazz playing since around 8 years ago when he was still a teen. Now as he becomes an adult, his piano playing brings even more magic. As we said before, we could feel God’s blessings and existance through Ade Irawan. A marvelous show where jazz shines in every aspect.

On Padi Stage a prominent jazz singer from Netherlands, Judith Nijland presented her latest album tributing the Sweden’s legendary super group, “Jazz Tribute to ABBA”. For this event, the Vice Chairman of UVJF, Astrid Sulaiman who is also the beloved wife of fest founder Yuri Mahatma was backing her up in a trio format.

Famous for their tasty disco tunes, ABBA is rarely pinned in jazz. Some might think it’s too far, but Judith dared to think outside the box. She told us that she grew up listening ABBA songs, and then found out that they are all so beautiful. And because of that, she thought of doing something different with it. She also learnt the lyrics, because lyrics is important for her. “Some songs don’t fit me, some do.” she said. She digged the vast repertoire of this super group, highlighting their evergreen which mostly became hits in the 70’s and swing them up. As the result, the songs remain intact, only this time they have the swingin’ jazz outfit.

Astrid Sulaiman Trio (Astrid on piano, Gustu Brahmanta on drum and Ignatius Made on contrabass) provided a solid layers as Judith re-addressed the well known songs of ABBA into jazz. No, this is not just a cover, but for us it’s a truly state of art. Look at how she made songs like “I Have A Dream”, “One of Us”, “Lay All Your Love On Me”, “Thank You For The Music”, the 1974 winning song of Eurovision Song Contest “Waterloo” (she surprisingly changed it into a melancholic style and amazingly works well), and “Money, Money, Money” appeared in totally different perspective. Still has all the beauty, but now come in a whole new way. The musical canvas of Judith got even wider with a special appearance of Gerard Kleijn and his smooth, sharp trumpeting.

Why couldn’t today’s jazz revert the 70’s music scene, and more particularly, how about listening to ABBA’s ageless gems in swing? That’s what Judith thought. We have been wishing for someone to do this, finally the prominent jazz singer does it more than we ever expected. Lovely jazz reinterpretation based on love and respect, we can clearly feel it. You know the songs, you’ve heard it million of times, yet surprisingly they feel like new. With Judith Nijland, ABBA’s songs will never sound quite the same again.

Moving to Subak Stage we got a new invention in formation and sound. It’s born from the creative mind of pianist Kevin Suwandhi, who actually was introduced to jazz by Yuri Mahatma. It’s a new invention because it places Kevin at the center where he shaped two trios at once. In other words, it’s like two bands with trio formation merge by having the pianist melt into one. It’s called Kevin Suwandhi Double Trio.

Originally he has two drummers (Sandy Winarta and Grady Boanerges) and two bassists (Indra Gupta and Barry Likumahuwa). But for this event, Sandy is replaced by Elfa Zulham and Barry’s position is taken by a Balinese bassist, Tito Jonathan.

What makes it more unique is that these two trios are different. Indra Gupta uses acoustic bass, while Tito is on electric bass. According to Kevin, it represents two sides of his life: one as a teenager who still like pop and RnB with boosting electrifying bass sound, while the other one reflects his educational side on traditional jazz. If normally a musician would have one at a time, Kevin decided to bring both sides at once.

A very diffferent approach of jazz playing was served by this unique formation right from the start. Many of us would think it’s impossible to have two drummers at once without ever getting crashed, or puzzled in combining acoustic-electric bass at the same time. But not to Kevin, because he even made original songs for his double trio. He made a surprise by pinning today’s Top 40s like Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”, he made the crowds stunned with his original song, “Dance Floor.” It’s unbelievable to see that he put the 4 on the floor Disco style into jazz by using this odd format. The audience didn’t want to let them go and forced them to bring one more. As an encore, the double trio took Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” in a surprising version. Kevin made it as if the song was in slow motion, yet it’s given stronger, modern groove. Simply brilliant!

Kevin Suwandhi shows that there are still many unexplored sides of jazz that one can dig or invent. It could be difficult to do it, he might need two hemispheres of his brain to function equally together to be able to bring the concept alive, but it can be done. In fact, it creates a whole new dimension of jazz that we never heard before. One thing that you should know, Indonesia doesn’t only have Joy Alexander as the prodigy. There are Ade Irawan who also plays in this edition, Philip Manfred who plays jazz on piano and sax equally good, Jeremy Hutomo who miraculously plays like a pro since 6-7 years old, Nadine Adrianna who has also been a prodigy before her age even reaches two digit, and certainly there is Kevin Suwandhi. Like a band playing in front of a mirror, but the reflection is different yet connected, with one person in the center acting like a control room, making sure that both sides function at best. The photo may help you in understanding what we are trying to describe, but if it’s still confusing, let’s just say that Kevin Suwandhi has invented something new that opens up another horizon in the jazz world. An amazing, surprising and mind-bending breakthrough.

The legend who claims’ jazz is his life’ has finally landed. He is none other than American hard bop jazz pianist, Benny Green. This member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers has the history of jazz at his fingertips. He developed his mastery of the keyboard with decades of real-world experience in the star-making bands of three of the most masterful musicians of the last half century. Other than Art Blakey, he’s been sharing the light with singer Betty Carter and bassist Ray Brown just to mention a very few. More recently, Green took the stage and recorded with artists like Christian McBride and Diana Krall. Band leader himself for over 20 years, Benny’s recording career began with two albums for the Dutch label Criss Cross. Since 1990 he has recorded 7 albums for the legendary Blue Note label. According to many, nobody plays straight-ahead modern jazz piano with more swinging joy and finesse than Benny Green.

For UVJF 2018 Benny Green appeared in trio formation. Two other players accompanying him are Aaron Kimmel (drum) and Mike Gurolla (bass). This trio took us into a nonstop ‘A’ Train, riding from coast to coast in a lightning speed but steady slide. From one song to another, Benny Green led his fellows to reflects every aspects of jazz that make us fall in love in first place. Truly a master play, simply unforgettable.

It’s a big privilege for us to be able to watch the jazz master who has appeared in more than 100 albums. This would surely strengthen this festival to be the one to come to for those who want to enjoy great quality of jazz from luminary musicians. From Benny Green Trio we were treated with heartfelt jazz that’s full of sensitivity, flowing naturally and ellegant, challenging but fun, energetic and relaxing at the same time.

Directly after that the Padi Stage near the entrance started sounding with Jeko Fauzy Nusatiga. Jeko Fauzy is a unique guitarist. He is indeed a prominent jazz guitarist but trained as a classical musician. This background makes his music resonates an intriguing combination of both spheres. He’s been residing and building his career in Bali for quite some times, giving his fans and music lovers a chance to explore the cool, classically inspired progessive fusion.

The combination of two guitars (with Icang Rahimy) and contrabassist Helmy Agustrian gave us a chance to enjoy an intimate concert, subtle, smooth and peaceful. A nice refreshing show for sure.

Representing the Castlemaine Jazz Festival, the partner of this event was none other than Ade Ishs Trio. Ade is a native Indonesian but he builds his career in Melbourne, Australia, existed as a successful pianist, composer and band leader.

Unlike many jazz pianists, Ade has a distinctive style which revolves around contemporary jazz, classical, folk/country and meditational. So far this unique way of playing has been documented in no less than eight albums.

In this fest Ade Ish brought great female drummer Alex Roper and contrabassist Rory Brown. Like we have said above, he presented the combination of all those styles, creating one mesmerizing beauty through flowery melodies and fine execution. You could feel classical, folk and all over his jazz touch, so beautiful that you would never feel his music as complex and difficult to enjoy. “It’s more like comforting,” said one of the audience who watched his show until the end. While “Summer Breeze” brought joyful mood in upbeat, Ade told the audience that one of his favorite songs actually failed to make it into the album. When he played it tonight, he made all the audience silence in awe. He also went oriental in one of the song, picturing perfect painting over the sakura flower.

Simply lovely feel-good show from Ade Ishs Trio, we hope to see him here again some other times.

Speaking of jazz veteran who also carries the mission to push the regeneration of musicians in Indonesia, the name of Idang Rasjidi should always be mentioned. With his Idang Rasjidi Syndicate he brings in young players and let them grow along with him from one stage to another. When we talk about his appearance, this man has piano as his ultimate weapon, but he actually is a multi-instrumentalist and can go much further by using his voice to imitate the sound of trumpet, trombone or even percussions, which makes him a man-chestra. If that’s already awe-inspiring, he is also a true entertainer. His show is always engaging. The way he smiles, the way he communicates in between songs, his calmness and leadership make his gig loveable.

As how he likes to do, he promotes a message of peace and harmony, unity in diversity through what he does best: jazz. Then, he combines that with showcasing young talents, bringing them into the big pond and let them jump above the bar. How amazing it is to see Idang makes these kids ready to perform on big stage, in a prestigious festival without feeling nervous at all. In fact, they are lethal and dangerous with their instruments.

Every song was used as a pallette to jam. Idang led everyone by himself, giving them a moment to shine one after another. That includes a big party using Quincy Jones’ classic “Soul Bossa Nova”, a song that you might know better as the Austin Powers’ theme song. In this song some of the musicians joined him, including Norman King, Kuba Skowronski and the lady of the festival, Astrid Sulaiman. The festival reached the climax with this amazing, spontaneous act.

The legendary jazz man, down to earth, and knows exactly how to make us know that jazz stage is the happiest habitat for him to be by transfering all the joy to his audience through fun way of playing. We always have a big respect to Idang Rasjidi for who he is and what he does. One day in the distant future, people will still thank him for all his contribution towards the Indonesian jazz in his life time. What a way to seal this year’s edition.

It’s a big privilege for us to be able to see the growth of this festival. Year after year they have been succeed in keeping up the tradition, vision and mission by presenting class acts. The number of stage might be the same, but whoever stand above it promises quality and radiates the magic of pure jazz while still holding the variety alive. The curtain of 2018 edition has closed, but we know when it’s open again, there will be another batch of showcases that will carry the heart of UVJF and bring something that can enrich its color. We can’t wait for that! Thank you for tremendous treat for two days, Ubud Village Jazz Festival! Thank you for the amazing lineup, and thank you for your hospitality. Hope to see you again next year!

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