One tribute to highly respected figure in Blues and two jazz fusion representing totally different corners (ethnic jazz and the 80’s). That was the menu for BRAGA JAZZ NIGHT #50. We always love to strecth jazz wide in our event, so the public can see the variety of jazz. We have featured swing, bebop and other pure jazz bands many times, but we do also bring fusion, jazz pop and even blues, the genre many believe jazz is rooted in. For us this is a very interesting edition due to the variety and theme.
We began loud with wicked Blues roar, brought by Eki Kamaludin‘s band, the EKI BLUES PROJECT. This project is intended to send huge respect to the undisputed King of Blues, Mr. B.B King.
B.B King had a nutricious and inspiring long spanning career for more than 50 years. Having a struggling childhood, Riley B. King (his real name) was attracted to music in church and took guitar as his weapon. He began his career in local radio and juke joints and then began recording in 1949. Soon after, he started making hits and the rest is history.
While he was unlucky with marriage, he stated that his true love was none other than Lucille, the name he gave to his guitars. He loved her so much, so much that he was willing to risk his life by running back inside the burning club just to save her. Throughout his career he has won 14 Grammys, inducted into the Hall of Fame many times, also various other honorary doctorates, medals and awards. He loved music so much that he kept on touring extensively until he sadly passed away at the age of 89 in 2015. The thrill is gone, but surely not forgotten. He has inspired millions of musicians for decades and will keep on doing so for many more decades to come. His music, his spirit, his legacy will be remembered and respected forever.
Back to Eki Kamaludin, this young man is a great Blues guitarist, something that we have been amazed at since the first time he came to our event around two years ago. His Blues playing skill on guitar is exceptional, and he plays by locking tight to his heart. He participated in numerous jam sessions we made and has got his gig too. Realizing that he’s a natural gifted Blues guitarist, we offered him to make a tribute to B.B King that we have been wanting for so long. He happily took it, and this edition finally welcomed him and the tribute called “LUCILLE: TRIBUTE TO B.B. KING”.
In Eki Blues Project, Eki is accompanied by his buddies including Joe Bastian (bass), Tedi Rahmat (keys) and Steven Suwanto (drum).
As the theme suggested, Eki started with “Lucille”, a song where King told the story about Lucille. Just in case you don’t know, Lucille is not the name of his wife, nor child, but his guitar, which he stated as his true love. Lucille, whom he was willing to sacrifice his life for, as he rushed back to save her during a burning club incident. He once wrote that Lucille is real. “When I play her, it’s almost like hearing words, and of course, naturally I hear cries. I’d be playing sometimes as I’d play, it seems like it almost has a conversation with me. It tells you something. It communicates with me.” Interestingly, Eki didn’t talk about it, he sang it. Eki doesn’t name his guitar, yet he successfully established a tight connection just like how B.B King and Lucille had. This first song directly let everyone felt the thick, sharp and wild blues that might be rare to find on jazz stages nowadays in Indonesia. Loud cheers and thunderous applauses were thrown to him and his band in between and at the end of the song.
For the next song Eki Blues Project took B.B King’s popular song from mid 60’s, “Rock Me Baby”. This medium-tempo twelve-bar blues has plenty of room to improvise, which they gladly took. In the middle of this song, Eki made a surprising act by playing his guitar from the back of his head. This move made the audience popped.
Of course it’s impossible to give a tribute to Mr King without playing his most famous song. Yes, “The Thrill Is Gone” became the climax. Right when he sang the title, the crowds again blasted, showing how familiar this song is to them and how they love it. In this song Eki gave a long solo run to each of his mates. Not only solo runs, Eki also teased them one by one. The battle created made a highly entertaining climax. If in the second song he put his guitar on his back, this time he used his teeth instead of his fingers. It’s also interesting to see Joe did his solo by making a bass walking jazz way without ever losing the blues grip. Tedi gave a wild organ exploration and Steven pleasured us with his solid rockin’ blues drumming.
Carrying a tribute to someone like B.B King would never be easy, especially for young musicians who are still in the early stage of their career. Not only they have to be able to go catch the way King played, carrying the spirit of his monumental songs, but the pressure could make them crumble in seconds. But not Eki. This young dude has the gift to be a standout bluesman, he is passionate and knows exactly what he’s born for. In other words, put him in his habitat, he will definitely shine. Having a great companion makes him able to bring out his best to send respect to King. A really good tribute, heartfelt and deep. We have been wishing to give a tribute to B.B. King for so long, we are glad that it’s finally done by a very talented musician like Eki and his friends. What a mad, mad start.
If you have listened to music since the 80’s, you would remember how big Jazz Fusion was in that era. Fusion was born in the late 60’s and reached its momentum in the 70’s, but entering the 80’s, Jazz Fusion became even more interesting. There were branches of it like Smooth Jazz and Acid Jazz that are more radio and ear friendly. That makes this music gained more fans. In Indonesia, you would also probably notice that Jazz Fusion was once on top of the music scene. We got so many successful Jazz Fusion bands/musicians like Krakatau, Karimata, Bhaskara 86/87/88, Halmahera, Emerald, Spirit Band just to mention a few. Some of us stuck in the 80’s, we need to go back to that era’s songs once in a while to make our lives stay at peace.
So, we need to bring an 80’s Fusion style of party in this event. We have got the hits from that era once in a while, but we hadn’t got the chance to make a full session of it until finally we met a band that is still standing tall ever since it was established in that glorious decade. It’s AT LAST.
The history of this band is rather unique, starting when a bass player Ruyadi Wiraatmaja got a friend through the Amateur Radio Organization of Indonesia, better known as ORARI, Indra Yoga. He found out later that Yoga was an active drummer who also liked the 80’s jazzy tunes. Establishing a band became the next step. They searched for other players to complete the band. Long story short, they completed it.
Today the band is still kicking. The members of At Last are Ruyadi Wiraatmadja (bass), Indra Yoga (drum), Dicky Maulana Yusuf (keyboard), Sandika (sax), Agus ‘Acis’Sutardiman (guitar) and Ritawati (vocal). Eventhough they come from three nearby cities in West Java: Bandung, Cimahi and Padalarang, the last mentioned city was their basecamp.
Having a band with veterans that has been playing during that era promised a great flashback. And yes they did it from the start by taking on a big hit from 1984, written and produced by David Foster for Chaka Khan, “Through The Fire”. Eventhough this song came from 34 years ago, its ageless as we still hear or play it today. Rita’s soft and bright singing voice is perfect for this song. Some of the audience sang along with her.
“This is still August”, but we are going to sing a song which is having the next month as the title.” said Rita. Of course it’s a clear clue for the next song, Earth Wind and Fire’s “September”. This song came to life in 1978, but it’s still a big hit throughout the 80’s so it’s still relevant with the theme. As how the spirit of the song has always been, At Last made it a party that’s surely loved by everyone. Some sang along, some nodded their heads and smiled happily.
Time for them to bring the Indonesian jazzy hit from that era, the song written by Dian PP and Deddy Dhukun made popular by January Christy, “Melayang”. Again, this memorable song managed to bringus back to those glory days in the 80’s. And for the last song, they took another Earth Wind and Fire’s hit, “In The Stone”. This song originally stood out with its ripe brass sound that incorporated pop, jazz, funk and disco. At Last didn’t have the brass section, but the combination of keyboard and saxophone plus the work of the rest of the band able to capture the exact hype in delivering the party mode just like the spirit of the original. We always love this song, how nice it is tohave it as the finale of At Last’s performance.
For the first time we presented a Flashback t0 80’s fusion, and we are happy that it was delivered by a band with members coming from that decade like At Last. Any of the audience who have tasted that glorious scene should be having a happy memory lane, perhaps they would even feel young again like we do. Classic songs, unforgettable hits, it brings back so many great memories from the past. Thank you At Last! We hope we could have another party from you someday.
The last session was also fusion, but from different corner. This one embraced the magical, mystical nuance of West Sumatra tribe, Minangkabau which has distinctive, typical beat and melody based in diatonic scale. The band is led by Maspon Herizal, an artiste who plays so many traditional Minangkabau woodwinds (some are even ancient and once related to black magic, though not anymore now). It’s a combo who knows the way to expand the diatonic pallette to be chromatic, thus able to suit and play Western music including jazz. It’s none other than the amazing PALANTA LINE ART.
Palanta Line Art was established around 6 years ago by Maspon Herizal. He led much younger players to answer the needs of traditional Minangkabau weddings, but since Maspon’s genius brain often goes progressive and always dare to explore something others might think impossible to do, he soon landed on other non traditional events.
We came to know them from Zahar Mustilaq and his band, West Java Syndicate. A Minang Jazz, that’s rare for sure. Therefore for us it was like finding a gem when we got in touch with Maspon and his Palanta Line Art.
More about this combo, it has one or two talempong (set of small brass or bronze kettle gongs) players, and the founder himself plays saluang (an oblique bamboo flute), bansi (a small end-blown bamboo block flute), sarunai (bamboo pipe), tanduak (ancient flute made from bull’s horn). Besides this traditional instruments, they have modern instruments too such as keyboard, bass and guitar. The combination of East and West, traditional and modern makes this band has a unique sound. Authentic Minangkabau music yet feels contemporary. When you hear their music, you will be surprise to see how wide their coverage really is.
For this appearance Maspon brought Kiki Septian (talempong), Arts Fiaris (guitar) and Shendy Susanto (bass). To complete the band, he got reinforced by two West Java Syndicate thugs: Zahar Mustilaq (drum) and Yopi D Nafis (keys).
Palanta Line Art started with the mystical, dreamy Minang music, which surprisingly used as the opening of Chick Corea’s most famous song, “Spain”. Once again we saw how solid they did the difficult tutti part, especially Kiki who demonstrated his quick hands in doing it upon his talempong. No matter what version(s) you have heard before, it would open up your eyes that “Spain” could actually appear in traditional Minang music style.
For the second song Maspon led his team to demonstrate how far they can play around with dissonants. It’s Palanta New Art’s new composition titled “Complication”. Due to its complicated arrangements, this song must be challenging to play, not to mention the difficulties of delivering it to the audience. But they did great in dealing with this complex composition.
Another new original composition came next, “Nocturnal Activity”. Just like the name says, this song was made by the young members of the band who one night stayed late and then captured a nuance that apparently fit to be transposed into progressive Minang fusion. Dark, eerie, yet enjoyable and explorative. The humming of Maspon added more mystical atmosphere.
They then gave a floating song before presenting the epic composition made by Maspon which captured the beauty of West Sumatra as a part of the whole Sumatra island, “Andalas Raya”. Whenever or wherever they play this, it’s always a winning song for us. While the original members did their part well, the guest star Zahar and Yopi blended seamlessly with the band, so tight that nobody would know that they were filling the empty spots in the band.
Their session was supposed to be done, but their MC Toro who came to support the band wished to join the party on stage. The traditional Minangkabau song “Ayam Den Lapeh” became his choice. After that, a Japanese lady, Chie Yoshida, the friend of Maspon who came to watch them was called to sing one song. She took “My Funny Valentine” which appeared unique since the song was presented by using talempong among the modern instruments. Lovely voice with lovely vibe, she sang the song flawlessly. This extra show gave a special extension to Palanta Line Art’s artistic show.
One last song featured a jazz guitarist now resides in Lombok, Adya Amru together with Joe Bastian (bass), Zahar Mustilaq (drum),Yopi Nafis (keys) and Kiki (talempong), playing Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island”. A group photo wrapped the 50th edition of Braga Jazz Night.
In this third appearance for our event, the Palanta Line Art showcased 3 new songs which digged more progressive jazz in sync with the authentic Minang traditional music. The Palanta Line Art gave a unique soundscape which clearly embraces the authentic Minangkabau music but complimenting the modern music especially the progressive side of jazz fusion. Aside of their multidimensional music and action-packed show, this band will also inspire and encourage others to challenge themselves to go beyond limit. There are still so many sides of music yet to discover, whenever we know that there are bands going towards that direction, we would be more than happy to welcome them in.
One special tribute to a Blues legend and two showcases of jazz fusion from different corners made this 50th edition of Braga Jazz Night interesting. We thank every participating bands/musicians, all partners and of course everyone who came joining us. We will be back again next month with another batch serving different style of jazz. Hope to see you again in September.
Watch the highights of Braga Jazz Night 50 here:
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Reporter & Photographer: Riandy Kurniawan
Video editor: Vierna Mariska