Happy to say that the third Jakarta International Soulnation Festival is coming real soon. The Java Festival Production (JFP) is getting busy right now preparing two big events at the same month, the Java Rockin’land (October 8,9 and 10, 2010) and the Jakarta International Soulnation Festival (October 29 and 30, 2010). Besides these two big events, the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival will reach its seventh year in just several months from now, on March 2011. Even with these loads of schedules and plans, we can be sure that JFP will give their best in preparing and delivering each and every event just like how they have done in the previous ones.

If it’s already difficult to held one international festival, you can imagine how it is to make the preparation for two at the same month. But the commitment and consistency to bring three international events every year has been carried on amazingly by JFP by bringing them all in such quality.

Now let’s see the Java Soulnation Festival 2010 that will come on Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30, 2010 at Istora Senayan Jakarta. Just like the previous two, Java Soulnation Festival is presenting the Urban Music range from pop, soul, R&B, hip hop, rap, dance and electronic. But for this year we also see some international stars that are not far from jazz. Some names has officially confirmed to participate at the Java Soulnation Festival such as the ever cool and unique sisters carrying the inventive, funkin’ glamorous Afropean stlye in soul, nu jazz and hip hop, Les Nubians, the great Raul Midon with the music style range from soul, pop, jazz to folk and some latins, and last but not least Simply Red giving a very special Farewell Tour (set for Special Show). Besides these names, Coolio and Relax have confirmed as well for this year’s edition.

EQ Puradiredja added that just like the tradition of music festivals come from JFP, there will be special projects too at the Java Soulnation Festival. They are preparing the concept right now along with the musicians and will announce it as soon as it’s settled. We will keep you informed for that.

Simply Red : Farewell Tour
Let’s take a closer look at Simply Red : Farewell Tour. Simply Red has agreed to give a very special performance at the Java Soulnation Festival as a part of their farewell tour around the world. After 25 years in business with more than 50 released albums, it’s time for this legendary band to end their journey and move on to the new path. Mick Hucknall, the founder and the only original member of Simply Red has been doing his solo career for quite sometimes. He has appeared in some jazz festivals along with jazz giants. As we all know, Simply Red has a distinctively unique music concept by blending blue-eyed soul, romantic, rock, reggae, funk with some jazz toppings. It’s sad for us to see the end of this group, but we wish Mick all the best for his new career path.

For the jazz lovers, this year’s Java Soulnation Festival will surely be special. Simply Red, Raul Midon and Les Nubians have confirmed, they are ready to give their best on Java Soulnation Festival and it’s a big chance for us to see them live right in front of our eyes! We will keep you updated with more confirmations soon. JFP invites us to dance in this huge soulful music festival. So, are you ready? Jakarta, Let’s Dance!

Java Soulnation Festival 2010

confirmed artists:
Simply Red Farewell Tour (special show)
Les Nubians
Raul Midon
Relax

Wish list:
Bone Thugs n Harmony
ciara
Estelle
Fat Freddy Drop
Jodeci
JoJo
Louis Vega
Lupe Fiasco
Maxwell
Missy Elliott
N.E.R.D
Public Enemy
Sean Kingston

Date: Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30, 2010
Location: Istora Senayan, Jakarta
Schedule: coming soon

Admission Fee:

SPECIAL SHOW: SIMPLY RED : FAREWELL TOUR
Special Show ticket REQUIRES either a same day Daily Pass OR a 2-Day Pass

* Ticket price DOES NOT include tax and administration charge
** Terms and Conditions applied, Limited Period & Quantity

Order the ticket here: http://www.javasoulnation.com/2010/ticketonlineorder.php

For more info, log on to Java Soulnation Festival 2010′s official website

Stay tune for more info of Jakarta International Java Soulnation Festival 2010 at Jazzuality.com

Artist : Mian Tiara
Album : The Comfort of My Own Company
Released Date : March 2010
Label : Demajors Independent Music Industry/Ragadi Music

“Among the crowd of thrown voices and dialogues, she still talks to herself.” – Mian Tiara

In our daily activities like meeting thousands of people along with the voices and sounds around us or even standing in the middle of busy crowds, there are moments when our minds fly away from the scene and have a conversation with ourselves thoroughly, just between us and our own thoughts alone, nothing more and nothing less. And we have to admit that we need to have it sometimes. Some artists have been living in the rushing music scene for quite some time. They have to deal with schedules, deadlines and activities, and they also need some moments where they can draw themselves away from everything and find the comfort of their own company. In such a case we have Mian Tiara, who speaks out honestly and personally about her inner self in deep resulting in a brilliant album with the title that explains the whole things, “The Comfort of My Own Company.”

Mian Tiara Live at Superbad vol 22 (photograph by Dimas Wisnuwardono)

Mian Tiara’s name might not be familiar to some people yet but actually she’s not a new comer in the music industry. She’s definitely not someone who has just been found, being given some songs then splashed into the market. She’s not the result of instant industrial product either. She has started her dream since long, long time ago, that one day she will give amount of contributions in music and will be listened by many music lovers. She didn’t stop by just for dreaming, she has been persistent to pursue her dream she has since she was still a little girl. She attended a classical guitar course when she was in 6th grade of elementary school. It might be a surprise that she could even play drum and piano as well. The blessings don’t stop there since she is also gifted in vocal. Her vocal is able to pour out her feelings to reach our hearts in no time. She’s able to speak out her heart and mind, from the simplest thing she feels to the most painful ones to scream out in poetic lyrics, heartfelt melodies and touching vocals. With all these gifts dwelt inside her, it’s not difficult to believe that she will emerge as one of the most important artists to look for in the near future.

Her performance with the band including Riza Arshad at BaliSpirit Festival 2010 (photograph by Detta Dwiarto)

Tiara started her talents in song writing. She can write meaningful lyrics in poetry either in Indonesian or English. Many artists have tasted her magic touch as she has shared her signature with Indra Lesmana, Riza Arshad, Ermy Kullit, Humania and Andien to name a few. She’s also supporting the independent community as well since she is involved heavily in some projects of indie bands from White Shoes and the Couples Company, Good Night Electric, to the most recent one, sharing her voice joining SORE on “The Hitman”, one of the song found in SORE’s newest album, “Sombreros Kiddos”. She’s also active in making jingle as backing vocal for her friends and acted as tour manager for White Shoes & The Couples Company. But perhaps the most noticeable achievement came when she won AMI (Anugerah Musik Indonesia) Awards for “The Best Original Jazz Song” category with Indra Lesmana for Rumah Ketujuh OST. Mian Tiara shines brightly with her “behind the scenes” career, and now it’s about time for her to take some time to find her soul, what comforts her the most and bring them out for us to listen. “The Comfort of My Own Company” is the album in which Tiara speaks out her feelings about many things in honesty, just totally being herself. It’s a diary-like debut solo album that mirrored her soul in lovely writings and arrangements.

Having met the like of EQ Puradiredja of Humania, Indra Lesmana or Riza Arshad has helped her to sharpen her sense in several aspects especially in deeper encounter with jazz. For this project she got many supportive friends. Her long time partner whom she has been working with for 10 years Riza Arshad contributed as the playing music director for the album. Indra Lesmana also backed her up, along with Nikita Dompas, Indra Perkasa, Anda Perdana, Avi Bortnick,  Elfa Zulham Syah and John Navid. You can catch her “free as a bird” soul in this album that somehow reminiscence the soul of Fiona Apple, Feist and the like. She also has the artistic touch of Joni Mitchell within. She is told to be inspired by wide range of artists from Joni Michell, Tori Amos, Led Zeppelin, John Coltrane to Imogen Heap or even the legendary maestro of Indonesia, Ismail Marzuki to name a few. With this colorful source of inspiration and the journey she’s been walking through, it would be impossible to trap her into a small segmented box. As Riza Arshad also said, “With all her experience, she’s simply can’t be put into a particular box.” And that’s something we can’t help but agree. Listen to “The Comfort of My Own Company”, you will sense many musical essences in variety. Folk could be a major influence in this album, but there is nuance of jazz which is really stronger in some songs, acoustic pop even rock embedded nicely in her songs. Some songs are light, but some can be real dark and deep, either way she’s giving strong artistic touches that are still easy to love by the music lovers in general.

With her friends (from left to right: Nikita Dompas, Indra Perkasa, Mian Tiara, Donny Sundjoyo and Titi Sjuman) photograph by Danny Ardiono

The album starts with a folk-ish ballad “The Memories of You”. If you like Joni Mitchell this song will surely hit the spot. It’s a perfect song to introduce Mian Tiara completely describing who she is and what she feels in beautiful poetic lyrics as a part of the song says: “I’m a lonely writer, I live in box of words, I took memories of you and make it into my songs.” The next song “Little Space in Between” captures the soothing and relaxing nuance of Kings of Convenience with the acoustic guitar backing her in telling the story of breaking up in different perspective, as something that is supposed to be that way. “Disapih” is a word in Indonesian that literally means the moment when a baby is weaned from his mother. Tiara used this word to describe the situation that she can’t fight anymore. Through this song she expressed her disappointment in the sorrowful moan over haunting set of melodies. She gives her emotion out through her vocal completely and brings us to feel the pain. It sounds lighter in the band version on the 3rd track along with some jazz ambiences, while later in the acoustic version she brings it differently in a lot darker and sadder.

The next song is “Selalu Ada”, again showing her ability in pouring herself poetically in ear catchy acoustic folk. “Am I The One” starts with lovely piano textures that accompanies her on telling her sadness. Interestingly she chose to deliver this song in English and Indonesian, showing her expertise to express her feeling in both languages. Another song in two versions follows, “Not Even in Love”. In the band version she brings some nuance of world music by bringing kendang into the song, while in the acoustic version she offers the sadder version in slower tempo. She changes the atmosphere on the next song entitled “Against the Obvious”. Funky, chunky and bluesy guitar helps Tiara to show her rockin’ side in playful melodies. This is a song which appears differently compared to most tracks in the album. And let’s talk about the last song to mention, “Ini Rindu”. This song is simply a winner. She only needs 1:41 minutes to give a masterpiece, as if the maestro Ismail Marzuki had written it. With the thickest jazz nuance compared to the rest of the songs, this one brings back the beauty of classic style of songs in the purest and most honest way.

Mian Tiara at Inline Jam Session, taking picture with Monita Tahalea, Karty Rosen and Indra Dauna (photograph by Honhon Lesmana)

Listening over Mian Tiara’s “The Comfort of my Own Company” is like peeping through her own diary. There are some moments in her life she wants to share with all her listeners. Interestingly this is not a boring heart-pouring sessions, instead Tiara invites us into a journey from one topic to another. With the brilliant writing and heartfelt melodies, Mian Tiara is ready to bring you into the comfort zone, despite what your favorite style of music is. She doesn’t necessarily has to be placed into one small particular box, her talent is far too big to be fitted in that, what matter most is the honesty she pours in each line. As she finds the comfort of her own company, now we are all invited to feel it as well. Ear catchy melody, poetic lyrics, pure and honest, all these aspects will burst all over the tracks. This album is personal and more than enough to show who she really is, both in person and creativity. This album will just be perfect to accompany you in finding the comfort of your own company. Simply put, it’s the kind of album that will be too bad to be missed.

The band:
Aditya Bayu (guitar)
Chaka Priambudi (double-bass)
Reza Achman (drums/percussions)

Tracklist:
Memories Of You
Little Space In Between
Disapih (Band Version)
Selalu Ada
Am I The One
Not Even In Love (Band Version)
Against The Obvious
Ini Rindu
Disapih
Not Even In Love

The album is available at Jazzuality online store. Click here to buy a copy of Mian Tiara – The Comfort of My Own Company

Log on to Mian Tiara’s official myspace to get more updates

All photos used by permission

Reviewed by: Theo Karaeng and Riandy Kurniawan
Proofreader: Alhenri Wijaya

Special thanks to Edria Kosasih
and the photographers for taking fine pictures used on this article:  Danny Ardiono, Dimas Wisnuwardono, Mian Meuthia, Detta Dwiarto, Wira Hardiprakoso and Danny Ardiono

Artist : Douyé
Album : Journey
Label : Betsy Blue Music

There’s always something we get when soul and R&B melt into jazz. This combination often produces sexy, silky-smooth and romantic sounds that can make us feel real good. From time to time we have some great soulful jazz artists to fulfill our needs on this matter. Name some like Jill Scott, Anita Baker, Maysa Leak, Sade, Les Nubians to say the least. The amount of each ingredient could be different from one artist to another, but no matter what or who, this kind of soulful jazz has seldom failed to make us feel sexy and relax. It’s comforting, the beautiful smooth groove can make us speechless, and ready to make us go into the journey of beautiful mind-wondering. It will never be enough to have this kind of music, and now we have a strong contender who should be listed among the top rank of soulful jazz singers with excellent voice. She is Douyé.

Douyé was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and her parents came from the state of Bayelsa, Nigeria. Getting the influence when growing up in a family who were really into jazz, she quickly found her passion by enjoying the jazz recordings she listened at home. She was told to be influenced by legends such as Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and also an internationally famous artist who also came from Nigeria, Sade. She started as a church singer at the age of seven. She found her other passion on poetry three years after that led her to become a compelling songwriter. During her teens she went to Europe to carry on her dreams. She didn’t stop only by having a soulful voice as a blessing. She continued to get formal music education at Musicians Institute in Hollywood to improve her vocal quality. And soon Douyé was ready to enter the music world as soulful jazz singer with prime vocal, plus the ability in song writing. Placing all the gifts she has and the kind of music she loves in one plate results in a lovely fine-blend between soul, RnB and jazz. It all blends beautifully within her music concept, appearing in her independent debut album called “Journey”.

Journey is like an autobiography album reflecting Douyé’s meaningful life experiences and her musical career. Her sultry soulful vocal taking on poetic lyrics appearing sensually in melodious and seductive smooth jazz vibe, all packed in 11 songs contain in the CD. Interestingly Douyé brought Terry Shaddick along for the writing. If you remember a legendary art rock band in the 70′s named Tranquility, Shaddick was one of the personnel and responsible for the brilliant songwriting and fine melodious harmonies for the band. Later Shaddick was involved in the evergreen disco song of Olivia Newton-John, “Physical”. Having a senior songwriter would surely give Douyé more experience in the writing field, completing the talent she already had in her. Besides Shaddick, the album also features Jeff Pescetto, Harry Kim, Gary Meek and James Harrah. Having a solid team, Douyé made her debut in the most stylish way, taking us on a journey of sensual soul on smooth jazz. 11 smooth groove tracks are ready to take your breath away and make you feel sexy in no time.

Some people compared her to Sade who also came from Nigeria but you will easily notice from the first song that Douyé certainly has her own style. She brings her soulful taste to appear in jazz naturally, creating the nuance that you would love to hear around midnight when you are relaxing with a glass of champagne. Not only presenting 11 lovely songs in rich melodies, Douyé also invites us to see her life journey with her debut album. Along with the tracks you will be able to see the road she’s taking and experiences with the ups and downs until she finally found what’s destined for her, who she is and what she has to be. Many of the songs are inspirational, and what’s good about it is that Douyé tells us based on her own personal experiences.

Let’s dig the album. It starts with “Fly Away”, the single chosen for the album. The steady light groove and ear catchy melody on this song will force you to tap your feet instantly and fly together with Douyé. (Check out the video clip of “Fly Away” below). The sexy groove continues on with “On For You” that will easily savor the taste of the listeners range from smooth jazz to RnB. Douyé goes further visiting the beauty of retro soulful smooth jazz the way we like it back then around the 80′s. Pescetto’s guitar and cool sound of saxophone by Meek builds a very cool layer to match Douyé’s voice. You will love this song for a long time. The next song is the title track “Journey”, an inspiring and uplifting song in which Douyé shares her life story of finding her destiny as an artist that’s full of positive thoughts and optimism.

Another case of tributing over the lovely retro smooth jazz can be found in “Still Hurting”. In this song Douyé speaks about someone who’s trying to move on after a painful break up serves in cool soul groove. “Wicked World” is a song picturing the story of a drug addict mother leaving her child in loneliness. Even in this kind of situation Douyé still shows her positive thoughts by keeping on being strong and trying to move on. The splashes of trumpet in many parts of this song simply add more tastes onto the song. In “Cold Wind Blows”, Douyé shows her ability to bring the sweetness out in acoustic style. Close your eyes and you will feel so calm just like sitting in a greenfield with the wind breezes gently over you. This song gives a different taste than the previous ones, and this attempt enriches the album as well as showing more of Douyé’s style.

The rhythmic groove is back again on “Waiting for My Man” that will tempt you to tap your feet even to dance instantly, just like much of the songs in the album. And again, the groove line continues on with the next track, “Walk Away”. The next track “A Day in Paradise” appears funky with the exotic Caribbean vibes, which is perfect to describe the feeling of having such a beautiful day in paradise. It’s really refreshing to get the ambiance of exotic island through this song. The album ends pleasingly with “The Voice”, a heartfelt ballad with more pop approach.

“Journey” is an album that brings back the joy of sensual soulful smooth jazz vibes the way we like it back then but still appearing fresh and current at the same time. This album has many things to be loved like Douyé’s beautiful vocal texture with full of soul in every breath, honest and inspiring lyrics, colorful ear-catchy melodies and cool groove lines. It’s always amazing to see that some artists know how to tell their inspiring life journey in poetical lyrics and nice tunes, and Douyé is definitely one of them. There’s no reason not to love this album. It is smooth, relaxing and crisp enough to comfort you. Douyé invites all the listeners to see her life experiences and influences that have touched her life along the way with this album elegantly. If you are into silky-smooth, romantic and sensuous smooth jazz, this CD is the answer. If you need an album to make you feel good and sexy this one is also recommended. Whenever you need to release yourself from the stressful daily activities, having some relaxing time late at night, this album will help you to get the best of it. From now on, Douyé has to be listed among the top of soulful jazz artists for every talents and gifts she has. Looking at this album, surely success is coming her way. Why not? She has everything needed for that.

Tracklist:
Fly Away
On For You
In Love With You
Journey
Still Hurting
Wicked World
Cold Wind Blows
Waiting for My Man
Walk Away
A Day in Paradise
The Voice

Watch Douyé – Fly Away Video Clip:

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Buy Douyé – Journey on Amazon.com, ITunes or CDBaby

Visit Douyé’s official website and myspace

All pictures taken from Douyé‘s website and myspace

Reviewed by: Riandy Kurniawan
Proofreader: Alhenri Wijaya

It wasn’t easy at all to build a jazz website with quality. It was all started by the passion and love towards jazz, we tried to work our way from nothing to something, giving out our contribution to support the local jazz world with the activities inside, spreading wider to contribute in some places across Asia to reach the world. At the same time we share the info from abroad to our local readers.

From left to right: Ata Michaella, Praditya Nova, Ardhi Saputro, Lanny Novianda Irawan, Daniel Irawan, Vierna Mariska Kurniawan, Riandy Kurniawan, Mark Swapo, Novan Yahya Renatal and Eghi Gabred

Allow us to share the history from the beginning. It was the early August of 2007, the time when I, Riandy Kurniawan, first had the idea to start making a jazz site. I’ve been into jazz since I was still a kid, and there came the time when I felt called to do something to the music that has never failed to comfort me. I had no background in journalism, nor that I was familiar with writing. I never learned English formally. Everything was against the idea, to make a jazz website in English. But I kept on going with my idea. Just like many other cause, this idea came from a vision. I had a dream that one day jazz will once again rule in Indonesian music industry, and why not, I thought, to contribute a little to make that dream come true? From there, I decided to start thinking about the concept and all, including the name. I came up with Jazzuality as a combination between jazz and sensuality, because for me personally jazz is sensual. Later some people thought the name as jazz and quality, it’s all fine with us.

All was started from zero. At first we only used pocket camera or even borrowed professional cameras to make a report with just a few friends helping in. Often we entered the venue as complete strangers. We didn’t know anyone, but we kept ourselves focus on the goals. Some people once doubted this idea, since we had no connection to any musicians, labels, organizers or any other things related to jazz. Yet we kept going, having nothing to loose mentality, hanging on the spirit with everything we had. Slowly but surely we got many friends joining in. Many of them didn’t even like jazz at first. One of our photographer Bayu P Warjiyo for example, stated that his background was far from jazz. His relatives would choose either classic rock, trash metal, grindcore or the likes. He’s still a drummer of a band covering Japanese rock bands. But thanks to Novan Yahya Renatal who had joined in earlier, he finally fell in love with jazz right after the first time he joined us. “On my first task, I was like, here goes nothing.. but then all of a sudden when Barry Likumahuwa Project started to play, I felt like seeing over a gorgeous girl. Rather than picking my shot, I pressed my shutter continuously, being afraid to lose any moment. I was filled with joy. The beat, the rhythm, the melody, they all brought pure enlightment to me, compared to my usual “scream-filled” emo-agony songs. That night I fell in love again.” he said. Another photographer based in Bandung, Omar Arif Maulana shared his comment: “At first I was not into jazz, but hanging around with other fellow crews has made me learn to respect this music, and of course to love it.” With the rising numbers of crews, slowly we could grow to explore more scenes. Today we have more than 30 personnels spread all over Indonesia, even one  in Philippines, where jazz grows significantly in many forms as well. We’re lucky to have  MJ Juco of TangerineSkies in Manila.

Interview session with Lee Ritenour

We have received the same questions many times. What exactly do we want? To be honest, we simply want to share jazz to everyone. Then the next question has to be: Why using English? As we explained above, we want the world to be able to see how jazz is going on in Indonesia, and on the other hand, we want to let the international artists to be able to understand what we wrote about them. Therefore we use English as the language, so the message will spread not only locally, but globally. Since we have many great jazz musicians in Indonesia, also in Philippines and many other location in Asia, we think it’s important to let the world know about it. We wish to be the media that can bridge different edges of the world in jazz, using the international language that most people know.

Maintaining the quality and rising it higher has been put into our consideration from the beginning. Writing what we see and feel, cross-checking it with many other supporting information backgrounds by literatures or direct interviews, and sharing the joy of performance through quality pictures. We believe pictures can act like the silent music, that can sing to us many things in its own way. The article without pictures will taste lesser, therefore we always include both crews in every reportage. By doing that, we hope to give more informations in every articles we wrote. We try to dig more about the event. One of the way is by placing ourselves in the audience’s seats, capturing the view from that angle. We believe it’s important so our readers who missed the event would still be able to feel how it really was. We also always try our treat everyone-from the musicians, the organizers, project/event/music directors to the readers- with respect. Placing ourselves as a friend more than just a journalist. These are all what we have inside our minds in sharing any jazz news up to this day.

Cooking up the articles at Java Jazz Festival’s Press Room (From left to right: Ardhi Saputro, Novan Yahya Renatal, Mark Swapo)

Having the crews with various different backgrounds and real jobs are challenging as well. Our reporters and photographers come from different backgrounds and real occupations such as students, lecturers, medical doctor, nurse, PR specialists, professional photographers, singers, office workers, civil servants, radio announcer, multimedia designers to even housewives. But we all change our uniforms to jazz once we are on duty as jazzuality crews. No matter who we are and what we do, we always maintain the style and concept as much as we can, so no matter who’s in charge, hopefully the quality will still be the same. Please spare some time to check our crew’s profiles at the contributor page: http://jazzuality.com/about/contributors/.

Many unforgettable experiences have been coloring up our path for these past 3 years. There were good times and bad times, just like any other aspect in life. We know how it feels to be rejected, but we also know how great it feels to meet one’s satisfaction. Perhaps one of the most interesting experience for most of the crews is our experience on the prestigious Java Jazz Festival soil. For two years in a row we participated as a media partner, and in both years we didn’t sleep for 3 to 4 days. All because we wanted to give the fastest updates from the biggest jazz festival in the world to you all, our wonderful readers. With 18 to 21 stages ran at the same time, you could imagine how hectic it was, as we tried to cover as many stages as we could. We were stationed at the press room, while the photographers went everywhere to catch the moment from stage to stage. The reporters tried to write as fast as possible, setting up the pictures and articles onto the website and publish it, while at the same time keeping ourselves aware of any artists we might be able to interview.There have been many funny stories added in our experience as well, that might be too long to share in this article. But we do enjoy every piece and smile happily everytime we share each others’ experiences. We feel blessed to walk from one stage to another, digging everything behind each event, cooking them up and serving it chilled on the plate. We also have some proof-readers to guard the language used in our articles.

Poetoe in action

We have now extend our service in selling the CD and merchandise with our new online store. By doing so, we hope to contribute more, helping the musicians to distribute their recordings and at the same time providing the jazz albums that might be difficult to find on the market. Soon we are going into broadcasting by having an online jazz radio. Still many homeworks to do, there are many things we want to share to the world. Not only to share everything about jazz to our readers, but we also wish to give a little contribution to our local music scene. We want to give a different color into it, not by playing music but through the good enough quality both in writings and photographies. We want to keep on sharing our love and passion in jazz journalism, letting us know that jazz has so many styles and sub genres that would answer everyone’s needs, as well as trying to counter the perception that jazz is expensive and old fashioned. We want to prove that jazz belongs to everyone with everything we could.

Interview Session with Riza Arshad

All was started with love and passion, and we want to keep it that way forever. We would like to express our thanks and grattitude to all of you for keep on supporting us. Only by having your sincere and continuous supports we can celebrate our 3rd anniversary. Thank you for all the musicians who have given your trust in us, and to all of our excellent readers for always being with us all these times. We look for many more years to continue our journey and sharing it all with you. It won’t be easy, but we will continue to give our best. May we can always walk together to share this music we all love. Let’s keep jazzin’!

Written by: Riandy Kurniawan and Ata Michaella

Watch the greetings Video from Philippines’ finest jazz artists including Richard Poon, Aiza Seguerra, Aisaku Yokogawa, Charlie Green and Sitti Navarro:

Thanks for all the comments, guys.. We love you.

We would like to announce the winners of ESQI:EF (Syaharani and the Queenfireworks) – ANYTIME QUIZ. All winners get one free ANYTIME CD from ESQI:EF. We have selected the winners by lucky draw and came up with this result.

The answers:

1. A. Syaharani and Queenfireworks
2. B. Anytime
3. A. Bosan aku mendengar

Here are the winners:

- Budiman (Yogyakarta)
- Irene Yudith Dovita (West Jakarta)
- Muhammad Riza Nursyirwan (East Jakarta)
- Rudy Tjandra (Surabaya)

We will send the CD to your postal address. Congratulation to the winners! Stay tune for more CD giveaways only at Jazzuality.com

Music Legend Herbie Hancock Comes to the Hollywood Bowl for “Seven Decades – The Birthday Celebration”

Evening is Hosted by Tavis Smiley; Special Guests include India.Arie, Juanes, Esperanza Spalding and More Performing Tracks From Hancock’s Latest CD The Imagine Project

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock closes his first season of jazz programming at the Hollywood Bowl with a triumphant celebration of his 70th birthday. Hosted by talk show giant Tavis Smiley, The all-star line-up includes special guests India.Arie, Juanes, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Terence Blanchard, Jack DeJohnette, Alex Acuña, Zakir Hussain, Paulinho DaCosta, Niladri Kumar, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and the Imagine Project Band.

This performance includes a reflection of Hancock’s latest release The Imagine Project, an unprecedented international recording and film project featuring collaborations between Hancock and over a dozen superstars from around the world. The Imagine Project embodies an extraordinary lineup of international superstars from all corners of the world. Artists include Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, The Chieftains, John Legend, India Arie, Seal, Pink, Juanes, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Chaka Khan, K’Naan, Wayne Shorter, James Morrison, and Lisa Hannigan. The album and film stands, on one level, as powerful testaments for the goals of world peace, humanity and tolerance, and respect for our planet, but The Imagine Project shall remain at its core, entertainment content that is creatively and emotionally deeply fulfulling.

“Music truly is the universal language,” says Hancock, “The Imagine Project will explore that concept across the globe, uniting a myriad of cultures through song and positive creative expression.  My hope is that the music will serve as a metaphor for the actions taken by the inhabitants of this wonderful planet as a call for world harmony on all levels.” The evening will also take a look back at his career with friends and former band mates.

Herbie Hancock began his tenure as the Bill and Carolyn Powers Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the Hollywood Bowl 2010 season. His influence has produced a jazz series filled with an eclectic mix of musical contributions from African and pop to soul and big band, typical of Hancock’s diverse tastes. In the Walt Disney Concert Hall 2010/11 season, the jazz programming blends a mix of jazz from the modern era along with jazz improvisation. Concerts on this series include Natalie Cole (December 8, 2010), Brad Mehldau with Chamber Orchestra: Highway Rider (January 21, 2011), Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (February 15, 2011), and Herbie Hancock (March 5, 2011).

Date: SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 AT 8 PM
Location: HOLLYWOOD BOWL
2301 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90068

HOW TO PURCHASE: Tickets are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (12pm – 6pm, Tues. – Sun.), via credit card phone order at +1 323.850.2000, or through Ticketmaster. Groups of 10 or more may call +1 323.850.2050 for information about special rates, subject to availability.

Serambi Jazz, the two monthly program presenting quality jazz performances was on again in the month of August. Held in Goethehaus Jakarta since 2009, the event keeps on growing bigger and better. It was meant to rejuvenate the jazz connection between two big nations, Indonesia and Germany. This relationship was first established in 1967 when Joachim Berendt landed in Indonesia to visit Suyoso Karsono, the owner of the legendary Irama Records. Amazed by the skills, he suggested Indonesian Jazz musician to perform at Berlin Jazz Festival . Then it was historical when Indonesian All Star (Jack Lesmana, Maryono, Bubi Chen, Jopie Chen and Benny Mustafa van Diest) stunned Berlin with their progressive jazz approach blended with the mystical nuance of ethnics. Due to the huge response, they went further by making a record in Germany that listed as one of the most important milestone in Indonesian jazz history called “Djanger Bali.”

Riza Arshad, one of the brain of Indonesian jazz was placed as the curator of the program. With him on charge, we got series of two-monthly quality jazz concerts starting from 2009 that gained a very positive response from both nations. Entering 2010, the program continues on. And now here we were, in the August edition, which coincidently appeared on the fasting month. Interestingly, this time they brought a very talented young girl that will color up the jazz scene brightly in the near future with a distinct and unique concept, Mery Kasiman.

Mery Kasiman was born on 29 November 1982 in Jakarta. She is indeed a highly talented pianist which also has the ability as a great music arranger. She started to learn piano since she was still 7 years of age. She continued to study the classical with Aning Katamsi and Sutikaryani Muktidarmi at Yayasan Pendidikan Musik. Then she got interested in non classical piano play and went on learning it with Andi Putra, Krisna Balagita and then she learned improvisation with Benny Likumahuwa and Andi Wiriantono.
Mery graduated by holding a master degree focusing in arrangement and orchestration subjects after she signed at Institut Musik Daya. She had some of the best masterclass teachers there, including Tjut Nyak Deviana Daudsjah, Aksan Sjuman, Jelia Megawati Heru, Masako Hamamura, Peter Scher, Denise Jannah, John Handorp and many more. Right now Mery involves as keyboardist or pianist in some music projects such as Aksan Sjuman and The Comittee of the Fest, Anda with the Joints and Iwan Hasan Chamber Jazz. She’s also active as a copyist and movie scorer orchestrator, Aksan and Titi Sjuman.

For Serambi Jazz 2010, Mery featured an all stars ensemble and called it Mery Kasiman Prjoect. Mery Kasiman Project created the whole new ball game by thinking less on the traditional element of big band and focused more on the beauty of colorful sound of the woodwind family. The woodwind family all used to be made of wood, which explains where the name came from. But today they can be made of wood, metal, plastic or the combination. Basically the woodwind instruments have narrow cylinders with holes, a mouthpiece at the top and an opening at the bottom end. The player blows the air through the mouthpiece, that explains the “wind” in “woodwind”, while their fingers work the holes, opening and closing it to change the melody. The woodwind family includes clarinet, oboe, flute, piccolo, bassoon, contrabassoon, English horn to saxophones.

Why in first place Mery decided to bring the woodwind concept in her project? “Well, first of all because I really like the sound of the clarinet, and other woodwind instruments” said Mery. The woodwind has been in used in big band orchestra for decades, even Glenn Miller has done it. Later on, Maria Schneider went on exploring more on clarinet, and that inspired Mery on this project. “Plus, I don’t think the traditional composition of big band would fit my music concept.” Mery added. Mery explained that for her project she wouldn’t go focusing on the beat that we usually found on the common bigband but decided to explore more on the harmony in many layers. Mery’s idea and concept were appealing, and Riza Arshad felt the same way too. He was fully charmed by Mery’s idea, so he helped her to bring this project on. “To me she’s very special, because she’s such a great arranger and music director for big band or orchestration music. She will surely turn to be an important musician as well as arranger in this business. She is very talented, even as a music director. She can change the mood of pop song into something new. That’s what special about her, we need her.” Riza said. As Indonesia is in the middle of rapid jazz movement, we are happy to have someone highly creative with fresh ideas like Mery adding more colors into it.

Serambi Jazz 2010 August Edition became the first project for Mery to deliver her idea. We could see the difference between this project with some traditional and well known bigband concept. The big band consisted of 2 trombones (Enggar Widodo & Widiyekso), 2 trumpets (Harmoniadi & Wishnu Fajar), tenor sax (Boyke Priyo Utomo), clarinet (Eugene Bounty) and alto sax (Arief Setiadi). It was different than the normal big band formation that usually goes with 4 trombones, 4 trumpets and 5 saxophones. To fill up the rhythm section we got contrabass (Indrawan Tjhin), guitars (Robert Mulyarahardja & Dewa Budjana), pianos (Ali Akbar Sugiri & Riza Arshad), accordion (Riza Arshad), and drum (Sandy Winarta). With this interesting formation she created a different taste, color and nuance that wowed the audiences really well.

As we have seen in the lineup above, Mery brought many big stars across generations filling up her ensemble. Surely it wasn’t easy for Mery to gather them all at once as they must have been busy with their own activities and schedules. “I feel thankful that they have been really supportive from the start. Even with their busy activities, they were all enthusiast participating in this project.” Said Mery. While Barry Likumahuwa, Robert Mulyarahardja and some other lineup are her long time friends, Mery got some “new friends” as well by recommendation like Dewa Budjana who came in by Riza Arshad’s suggestion. “It’s really cool to have all friends join in like this, it feels like having a reunion”, she added.

Mery left her piano and focused totally in leading the bigband as the conductor. She and all the big cast lineup knew how to control the audiences’ mood. They started real smooth with Mery’s own composition “Floating”, a song really could make our minds float peacefully. We could also hear some sophisticated tunes from that song that made us all relaxed. Indrawan Tjhin’s solo contrabass was gorgeous, so was Eugene Bounty as the other soloist for this song. Then came “Down by the River”, another original composition by Mery. The beat in this one successfully made the audiences’ mood flowing even more. Sandy Winarta gave a steady but strong pattern for this one. Arief Setiadi came as an alto sax player. We didn’t have to explain more since he’s one of the best senior sax player in indonesia. Next they brought “Waterfall” . Ali Akbar’s solo piano play drawed attention from the audience. Applauses came from everywhere when he was playing, and the combination of Eugene Bounty’s clarinet play and Boyke Priyo Utomo’s tenor sax added some distinct feel that brought us closer to feel the nature, especially by closing our eyes while listening. The next song “The Chat” still sailed smoothly, but it got a faster beat. Ali Akbar and Robert acted as the soloists here. Mery Kasiman Project continued on with “Lilac and Brown” before the Denny Sakrie as the MC announced more guest stars.

Dewa Budjana and Arief Setiadi joined the stage as the first guest stars of this project. They played Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice”. It was a great song with a great swing mood .Riza Arshad came right after, together they played “Monk’s Mood”, a famous Thelonious Monk’s melancholy ballad. Riza Arshad went further by playing his accordion to paint more color into this song. Barry Likumahuwa came in and Riza Arshad took over the piano from Ali Akbar. They gave “Monk’s Dream”, another piece of Thelonious Monk’s masterpiece. The combination of Riza Arshad on piano and Barry Likumahuwa on Bass was special and stunned the crowds perfectly.

Mery Kasiman is really passionate into Thelonious Monk’s works. As she has seen Riza Arshad played Monk’s songs, she thought of giving a new touch to some of Thelonious Monk’s collections . And finally we have the last song, the famous John Coltrane’s “Giant’s Step” , where Barry Likumahuwa gave him all sensationally. The crowds popped by his stage act and skill.

It was supposed to be the end, but the audiences insisted them to bring more. After having a little discussion with the rest of the players,they decided to give one more song with Mery Kasiman on piano, Riza Arshad on accordion, Robert Mulyarahardja on guitar, and Barry Likumahuwa on bass. They played “Stella by Starlight” as a playground for them to improvise freely. In the middle of the song Arief Setijadi joined them, not as a sax player, but as a drummer. That surprised us big time. They all gave great attractions until the end, where Riza Arshad and Barry Likumahuwa played some funny tunes that closed this special night gloriously in perfect climax.

That was one stunning show, a night to remember. It was another amazing presentation of Serambi Jazz 2010, highly entertaining and unique, served by the high quality of skills by the amazing talents across generations. Mery has successfully proved that she’s someone to look for, someone we could place our hopes to see the bright future of jazz. She gave a new touch to the big band, showing that the woodwind family could actually offer something new and fresh to the music we all love. From Mery Kasiman Project we could learn that there are still many rooms in jazz that are widely open for explorations. Mery Kasiman and the all stars ensemble have done a marvelous work on adding more tastes to the traditional big band formation. The night was full with many twists and turns, loads of surprises that made every attendances hunger for more. Our salute to Mery Kasiman and the whole ensemble, also to Riza Arshad and Goethe Institut for giving such a high quality jazz concert that will be remembered for a long time to come. Thank you for an unforgettable night!

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Reporter: Muhammad Fadhly
Photographer: Bayu P Warjiyo
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan

“Japanese sings OPM? Filipino sings Japanese? Catch RANNIE RAYMUNDO & AISAKU YOKOGAWA
in FIL-JAP Friendship Day Live! @ TEN02 Bar (August 13, 2010)”

Ever heard of a Japanese balladeer who sings Original Pilipino Music? How about a Filipino singer who covers Japanese songs? What if they do it at the same time? In a mini concert entitled “FIL-JAP FRIENDSHIP DAY” this Friday the 13th (2010 August 13), ‘The Boss’ RANNIE RAYMUNDO & Japanese Jazz/OPM Artist AISAKU YOKOGAWA shall collaborate for the very first time as they dish out Jazz and Pop songs in Tagalog and Nihongo at TEN02 Bar & Resto (43 B Scout Ybardolaza St., Sacred Heart Quezon City).

RANNIE & AISAKU shall be performing with other great musicians as well (Keyboard: Joel Galang / Guitar: Riki Gonzalez / Bass: Jessie Jodloman Jr. / Drums: William Elazegui / Percussion & back-up Vocals: Laura Austria / 2nd Vocal: Cello Nunez / Violin: Jerome Nunez) who will be rendering these songs in a jazz-rearranged masterpiece.

Jazz with a “Pinoy Twist” will be provided by Japanese Jazz/OPM artist AISAKU YOKOGAWA, The Pure Japanese Jazz Singer never fails to surprise his audience by dishing out Pinoy-Japanese favorites such as “Voltes V” & “Ikaw Pa Rin” (popularized by Ted Ito) in flawless Tagalog. AISAKU’s talent is evident in his repertoire of Latin ditties translated into Tagalog known as “Salinawit“, by no less than award-winning poet and journalist Pete Lacaba.

The great OPM hit maker RANNIE RAYMUNDO (popularly known by the hit song “Why Can’t It Be?”) sends out his new set of compositions with his band, THE GREEN RHAPSODY (catch them at ARUBA Metrowalk every Wednesday 9PM onwards!), his project band JABLUNK (with Howe Villareal (ASIN), Nitoy Adriano (THE JERKS), Fidel Garcia (SPLIT ENDS) & Jun Lazo (TROPICAL DEPRESSION), and his collaboration with THE BRATPACK (with Lloyd Umali & Renz Verano). Also known as a world class Magician and an undeniably skilled drummer, Rannie shows his other side as he will be performing jazz standards & Japanese songs added to the list of his brilliant line-up! Our proud BOSS is now turning into a SHACHO (means President in Japanese) as he also performs Japanese songs together with his new Japanese friend in a one-night treat at the jazz joint TEN02 Bar this Friday.

Tickets are available at Php 300 with one drink. For RSVP, contact mJ at 0917.271.4829 or send an email to tangerineskies.inc@gmail.com | More info at www.aisaku.multiply.com

The event is presented by Xquisite Artist International Productions, TangerineSkies Entertainment Gateway, and TEN02 Bar in partnership with CURVES Fitness Center for Women, WAN Wellness & Nature, Mary Kay, Manhattan Green Solutions, Sindikato Productions, White Box Studio Rental, VerJube Photographics, The Heirloom Manila, ClickTheCity.com, ICON Online Magazine, and Jazzuality.com

Finally we’ve come to the last pre-event for Bekasi Jazz Festival 2010. The time is getting closer for us to see the first big jazz festival held at the Bekasi, the fast-growing suburb in West Java, Indonesia, that is located on the eastern border of Jakarta. Soon we are going to see how many jazz enthusiasts live around this area. A little tastes have been given monthly starting from May 2010 presenting variety of bands as the warming up towards the main event which will come no less than next month, on 25th and 26th of September to be exact. As it was the last pre-event, the intensity rose higher with Tompi on stage.

It was a hot sunny Sunday in Bekasi. All shades were packed with fans and jazz lovers and also the family of performers. It was a great day where everyone to fill up their afternoon with jazz. Although the sun was blazing hot yet somehow jazz could bring some cool breezes to the place, as noticed by the enthusiast audiences.

The last Bekasi Jazz 2010 Pre-event, August Edition featured long list of lineups  R.U.M, Java Soul, Refive, Saxymphonist, Euphoria, Chocolate Factory, Jazz Symphony, Raynhard & The Rehearsals, Seven Eleven, GAMA, Ensemble Harmony, Spotakerz, Al Jazzer and of course Tompi as the most popular performer. Presenting all kinds of jazz, from standart till pop-jazzy, the afternoon was completelyfilled with jazz. The sun gave enormous heat on the location during the show, but everyone on the stage didn’t care about it and kept playing their best. That reflected perfectly to the audiences, as we saw them enjoying each and every performance given. Again this week the adorable and talented young boy Nathan Gulo showed people what he got. We don’t see a 7 year old kid working on jazz beat with drum, but amazingly Nathan Gulo showed that he’s capable of it. If he could already do like this while he’s still 7 years old, imagine what he can do years from now. He’s a rare talent, that’s for sure.

Lucky for us, the temperature cooled down a little bit later on, especially when the show started to reach its peak. At about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, people started to crowd in to see the performance of the amazing jazz singer with many fans – Tompi. He opened his performance with “L-O-V-E”, the well known song that has been covered by hundreds of artists over generations. Everyone sang along with him. He then awed the audiences with his great impersonifications of trumpet, one of the special ability of Tompi. He continued on with a new arrangement of “Lulu dan Siti”. Tompi gave such an interactive performance. He asked the audiences to repeat after him and even sing together with him. Tompi gave the chance for the audiences to request a song, and the song requested was his hit, “Menghujam Jantungku”. He gave a fully entertaining performance by his unique tenor voice, interactivity and stage act.  We noticed there was something amazing on this performance too. As the keyboardist of the band couldn’t make it to the show, the drummer acted as a keyboardist at the same time. Sounds unbelievable, but nonetheless he did an amazing job. The time passed by and finally for the last song he sang his other big hit, “Selalu Denganmu”. everyone got up on their feet and sang along with him. As people then cheering for more from him, he gave an encore, a well-known kids song “Balonku” in funky jazz.

Finally Bekasi Jazz Festival 2010 reached the end. The will be no more pre-event, as the main event itself will come next month, on September on 25th and 26th 2010 at Bekasi Square. This is still the first edition, but it’s been prepared big from the start, presenting so many of the great jazz artists in Indonesia and amazing talents from Y2K community. Soon we will see how big the jazz hype in Bekasi, the fast growing suburban area located just at the eastern border of Jakarta, and we can also see how many jazz enthusiasts from the capital and other cities join hands in harmony to enjoy another big annual jazz festival in Indonesia. See you there!

Check out the complete schedule below: (subject to change)

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See more pictures:

Reporter: Ata Michaella
Photographer: Ardhi Saputro
Editor:  Riandy Kurniawan

Here’s the next big thing. Though he returned to Indonesia less than a year ago, he raised his career fast. Active in two groups, Shadow Puppets (with Irsa Destiwi, Robert Mulyarahardja and Yusuf Shandy Satya) and Indrawan Tjhin Group (with Indra Dauna, Yusuf Shandy Satya and Alvin Wirianata), and as a W/H/A/T member (with the senior Riza Arshad, Sri Hanuraga and Sandy Winarta), always ready as a session player, and who knows what this man will give soon will surprise us beyond belief. He’s highly capable, full of energy and passion, and a hard worker as well. He’s one of the shining new jazz bassists in Indonesia. We believe he has a bright future. He’s Indrawan Tjhin.

You may see him as a successful musician now, but the process of reaching his success isn’t easy at all. In fact he has experienced some “down” periods. But as what the wise says “only the strong will survive”, he proved that message to be true. Amazingly his groups are getting more recognized. Though he said he’s still learning, we can already see his success. And he gives it all to God.

His skills and techniques make his performance more interesting. It’s always entertaining to see the way he plays. His moves are full of actions, and his expressions when playing can let you feel what he’s feeling in every gig. “Some people think I’m overreacting, but that’s just who I am. That’s just my expression when I’m so into my play.” he says while laughing. He also realizes that being into the state he’s in right now is definitely a God’s blessing. “It’s tiring to do so many things like this at the same time, but if it’s my calling, why not? I know God will always be with me, I don’t have to worry about anything. I just have to do my best.” And that’s really true. That’s a positive mindset that we all have to adopt.

We met him at Pondok Indah Mall II Jakarta a few nights ago to take a closer look at him and what he has in mind. Let’s get deep with Indrawan Tjhin.

First of all, let’s talk about your “weapon”, the contra bass. Why did you choose it to be your instrument?
It’s always difficult for me to answer this. The best answer might be, because it’s like my destiny. At first I was a singer when I was still in junior high school. Then I played guitar while still singing. I played at church when I was a high school student.. That was the time when I got a closer look on bass, and I thought it would be cool if I could play bass. Then again I said to myself, “if I really want to play it, I got to learn it well”.

I entered Farabi and got the chance to learn from both Adi Dharmawan and Indro Hardjodikoro. Later by the recommendation of Indra Aziz, I continued to learn at the Institut Musik Daya. I entered contrabass class due to the unavailability of electric bass class. But as time went by, I fell in love with it.

Then you went to Netherlands to learn at the Koninklijk Conservatorium of Den Haag..
Yeah, but there was a time when I lost my motivation. I even kept my contrabass guitar in the ware room for a while. One day I met Indro and he said, “I know it’s your right whether to stop or to continue playing it. But if you want to continue, you have to do it well.” It made my passion rose again, and in 2005 I decided to enter the conservatorium.

How was it when you first entered the conservatorium?
Well, it was difficult. There were some younger students who could already play better than me. And I was considered a beginner when I arrived. Think of this, the teacher asked me to play just 3 scales with the tempo of 40 by the metronome. I thought at that time, “how on earth could I play jazz if I play this way?” (laugh)

But then finally here you are. What a nice process it was for you.
Yeah. Living in Netherlands was not easy at all. The bass department at Koninklijk is one of the best in Europe, but I was still “empty” when I came in. Not only learning but also living was difficult. At the second year I felt like having no progress. I registered myself to the agency at the conservatorium to find some gig opportunities. It got worse in the 3rd year and the last one was the worst. My parents could only support me until the mid year. Then I tried to hang on with everything I could. Life was full of struggles. To be here at this point wasn’t easy at all. But now I can look at it as a part of the process. I like to live that way.

You said earlier that you fell in love with contrabass at Institut Musik Daya. What made you fall in love with it?
To me contrabass sounds exotic. With acoustic bass like that you have no other option whether you can produce something with it or not. That’s why you have to really know how to use that instrument to make something good out of it.

We know that you get on very well with the legendary Hein Van de Geyn. Can you share us the whole story?
It was started about half a year before leaving for to Netherlands. Aga (Sri Hanuraga) and I looked for schools and we found three options, Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam. One day I visited Den Haag’s website, and I found a link to Hein Van de Geyn’s website. I sent an email to him and told him about my plan to study there. I also told him that I really wanted to learn but it was quite difficult to do it here in Indonesia since there were not many contrabass player at that moment yet. Hein responded and asked me to send him a sample. After hearing it, he told me that I wasn’t good enough to enter the Den Haag one, because the department of jazz bass in it was the best in Europe at that time. He suggested me to sign in the conservatorium at Tilburg where he also gave masterclass once a month. But still he told me that I could just try to sign in to Den Haag if I wanted to. He sent me many basic practicing parts in pdf  files.

Half a year later I went to Netherlands to attend the audition in Den Haag. I was accepted. The committee told me that relatively I got good hearing, good enough sense of musicality and sufficient basic theory. But I had to work hard on the instrument.

I spent four-year learning with Hein. He gave a lot of attention to me. He taught me everything. I remembered after finishing the exam at the first year, he suggested me to stop practicing at least a month while going home for holiday to freshen myself after working hard for a whole year. After the second year’s exam, he told me something I will never forget: “I admire your heart, beautiful person! You touched people with your music. The bass is just an instrument that you will never stop to explore.”

I got attached instantly with him and his music. I got heavily inspired by him, and I really felt his warm personality. Once he greeted me while I was practicing at the corridor: “Hey Indonesian hero, how’s life? Is everything good? Do you have enough jacket and blanket? How are your parents doing?” He is indeed a great person, and he creates great music.

Are there any other words from him that inspired you a lot?
He always told me, “no matter how fast you grow, you won’t feel it directly by yourself. It’s the people who see you could feel it.” And I also touched with his words when I said goodbye to him at Rotterdam station before I returned to Indonesia. He said: “I will miss you Indra, you’ve touched my heart.”

That’s really cool. Now let’s talk about one of your groups, “Shadow Puppets”. Would you share the story on how the band was formed?
We all met at Henning Sieverts‘ workshop presented by Serambi Jazz at GoetheHaus. I’ve known Robert before and already played with him in a group named “Imbroglio” together with Sri Hanuraga. We went quite far by becoming the winner of 2004′s Jazz Goes to Campus (JGTC). But then Robert had to go because he went to Berklee at the same year. I’ve known Irsa for quite some time too. Shandy was one of the only two drummers who attended the workshop, and we just clicked fast. I just said to Irsa, why don’t we just form a band? And we were all excited with that idea. But at that time we didn’t use Shadow Puppets as its name.

What happened then?
At first we chose “Tree Hoppers”. At that time we kept jumping here and there not only in playing but also in practicing as well. We moved from one studio to another, from Devian‘s studio to Alvin‘s and so on. But then again, we didn’t really like the name. We wanted to choose something that could really represent Indonesia but at the same time it would be easy to remember internationally. And we came up to Shadow Puppets. It’s always interesting to talk about the name of the groups though.

What did you all have in mind at first when you formed it?
At first we wanted to have it as a place for us to play standards. We wanted to maintain the original jazz standard like the way it used to be, but interestingly Shadow Puppets consists of personnel that came from various different backgrounds. Robert is more into harmony jazz compositions, the subject he studied at Berklee. Irsa has a classical background. Shandy is a session player that used to play pop/funk when he was still at his hometown, Yogyakarta. We always want to try everything. We could have different styles, like when we felt really influenced by the hard bop, the era of Miles Davis, John Coltrane to Brad Mehldau Group and so on.

That’s really interesting. Considering you are all still young, I believe you have lots of time to explore jazz and bring it into your musical style.
Yes, we want to explore jazz as wide as possible and see what we can have from it. We are still learning anyway. Let’s say, when we were into Brad Mehldau for example, or even the progressive rock trio ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), we tried to dig it deep enough and tried to feel how’s it like to play it. We used to play our original compositions based on our admiration to the legends and milestones.

And what are your tools to do it?
Well, we all have idealism. We can make our own compositions and play it. We want to have gigs consistently, not just like an “event band” so to say. We practice routinely, we keep making compositions, and now we have no less than 14 songs in our collection so far. It’s already enough to fill up a two-hour session.

Just like your memorable performance at Salihara right?
Yeah..when they asked me to perform there, Shadow Puppets was the group ready the most, compositionally. Our original compositions are sufficient enough for that. But in our gig we also love to play some standards too, like what we played at Potluck for example. I like to rearrange the standards to fit our concept. We also play once every two weeks  at the Le Meridien Jakarta now.

That’s really cool. Variations are clearly shown in Shadow Puppets, but then again you manage to lock them into your musical style.
Yes…. If you listen carefully through the compositions you will notice that they reflect the writer’s personality as well. Robert is a cool guy kind of type, while Irsa has a joyful personality. You can feel it through their compositions. With the various different tastes and characters, we can have many variations in our songs. And that’s jazz.

With the variations inside, what do you expect to give to the music listeners?
We wish to give samples, letting them know that jazz can appear in so many forms. For us, it’s like crossing the boundaries. Jazz is about improvisation. We can be influenced by many styles, but then again we can always make something fresh out of it.

With Shadow Puppets you bring the joyful side of the traditional jazz standard back again on the surface. I haven’t heard that in recordings for quite some time. That’s your mission or..?
Actually there are still many original jazz standard groups, but usually they are not as popular as fusion bands, especially to the same generation like us and newer. I just hope we can show them more of the root, the traditional jazz standard. Even if they are more into straight ahead or modern jazz, at least the instrument settings and style could go more into acoustic oriented. Personally I wish I could inspire others to do the same. I’m doing it first, and hopefully they will follow. It has to be infectious.

Since that’s not going towards the same direction as where the music trend in Indonesia goes, don’t you think it’s kind of risky?
Well, I never thought of it as a matter of fact. Since the beginning we all have “nothing to loose” mentality. We just want to keep learning and keep exploring the world of jazz more and more, and give a variation into the market. We just started about half a year ago, but praise God with all of our own activities we can still keep the commitment and can be here now at a certain point.

It’s progressing really well indeed. The group received a lot of appreciations from jazz fans too.
Thank God for that. When we have an idea, when we get inspired by someone, we have a place to bring it. We discuss the idea, turn it into a ready song, play it all out, and thank God many people appreciate it. When we played at Salihara, the World Cup 2010 was still on, and at that time Argentina and Germany was on at the same night. There were only 80 audiences more or less, but they all came especially to watch our performance. It was fascinating. One of the audiences even came far away from Bandung just to see us, because she loved it when we performed at Potluck Coffee Bar and Library. We were happy with it. For us it’s nothing to do with the number of audiences and how loud the claps are. We will always give our best no matter what.

Alright. Now let’s talk about your other group, Indrawan Tjhin Group. This group has a different concept compared to Shadow Puppets right?
Yes. Indrawan Tjhin Group is different. We bring a pure straight ahead style.

And I heard It was built coincidentally, is it true?
Yes. I got the offer to perform at Serambi Jazz 2010. I planned to do it with my previous group, EJQ Quartet. But then my schedule was moved to June and the problem appeared. Sandy Winarta couldn’t do it because he was already scheduled somewhere else and Asti (Franseska Prihasti, a pianist) had to continue her study at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I wanted to bring Shadow Puppets instead, but Riza Arshad said that the name couldn’t be changed anymore. I could still bring the same formation, but it’s got to be under the different name which already listed. Using the same personnel under different name would be confusing, I didn’t want it. So I decided to form a new group and called it Indrawan Tjhin Group.(Check out the report of Indrawan Tjhin Group’s performance at Serambi Jazz 2010 June Edition).

It appeared as quartet, why didn’t just use Indrawan Tjhin Quartet instead of Group?
I got that question a number of times. Yes for now it was a quartet, but I never planned it to be only in that size. The size may change as needed. That’s why I’d rather use “Group” instead of “Quartet”.

As we see this group as a highly potential group which has a bright future, you will work on it seriously too right?
Absolutely. It’s hard to focus on two bands at the same time, but if that’s what I have to do, I will do my best on both. Indrawan Tjhin Group is progressing very well. In fact I’m working on it right now since I relatively have some free time to do that.

That’s good to know it. It’s really fascinating to see the rapid jazz movement lately in Indonesia, especially with the appearance of quality new generations like you. For us this is like the golden generation of jazz, something that we’ve been waiting for years. Now that it’s finally here, what do you think about it? Do you feel it too, that if there’s  a movement it has to be now?
Definitely, I think it’s about the fruit of consistency. If we look back to the 90′s, we would see the fact that jazz was going slow at that moment. I’m thankful to be at the era where we have many musicians who have big passion in doing it. Coincidentally, this is also the era where jazz receives good acceptance from the music lovers, far better than before. The role of media like Jazzuality.com is important too. So, frankly speaking, we have a really conducive situation with many elements start to connect one to another right now. Yes, this is the golden generation and yes, it has to be now.

Riza Arshad is one of the men who have deep concern about the future of jazz, and I see him connected really well with the new generations. What do you think about him?
To me Riza Arshad is a mentor. He gave us chances to grow. Even before I went to Netherlands he already gave me a shot at his Pasar Jazz. He’s also the one who pushes us to learn from the best music colleges/conservatoriums abroad. “If you can afford it, just go and learn everything out there. Find the experience and knowledge so you can do something with it when you return.”

And then you collaborated with him in W/H/A/T that has just released an album, “No Words”. Can you tell us how it began?
Well, when I came back to Indonesia for holiday in 2008, coincidentally Aga (Sri Hanuraga) was here too for the same reason. Usually we never returned at the same time, but at that time we were here together. Riza Arshad called us to play with him. While we were busy practicing together, suddenly he said, “why don’t we just record our session?” We did it. And now after two years it becomes an album. (laugh).

You were graduated from a conservatorium where the jazz bass departement is one of the best in the Europe. Then again, there are many musicians who never got the chance to taste it, but still by their natural talents and their persistency to learn by themselves, they can manage to succeed too.Is it really important to be well educated as a jazz musician?
For me it is. Let’s see. Jazz is a form of art. Through jazz we can translate what we feel and send it out there. We have to know the vehicles for doing that right? We have to know which one to use for this and that to have the best result. That’s what you get from the school. There are many successful musicians who learned only by themselves, that’s true. And I don’t say it’s wrong, not at all.. It’s useless to have high skills and techniques if you don’t have the ‘feel’ factor. Vice versa. So, if one asks, does one have to be formerly educated to succeed? I’d say no. But is formal education important? I’d definitely say yes.

Are you happy with the current scene?
Yes. People are open to have something new nowadays. They can understand it much better too. Not all of course, but it’s developing positively. For us, we just have to be serious in doing this. Do our best in every gig and have good interactions to connect with the audience, and they will grab the nuance.

Okay, thank you very much for your time and for sharing. We wish you all the best
Thanks.

You can buy Shadow Puppets‘ mini EP “Extended Play” and W/H/A/T at Jazzuality online store.

Interviewed by: Riandy Kurniawan, Kurnia Bayu Aji, Muhammad Fadhly
Photographer: Febrian Dirga
Proofreader: Alhenri Wijaya