Exclusive Interview With Devy Ferdianto from Salamander Big Band
Swing is still alive. Eventhough it’s against the trend of the music industry today, it’s very relieving to see some people still have a big concern about the roots of jazz, and dare to take the “road of swing” with “the classic vehicle” of the Big Band. Salamander Big Band established on September 17th 2006, founded by fresh young player who have the same vision of delivering the real and pure sound out from the real instrument. It’s really interesting to see them using the traditional 17 piece band like the glory old days of swing.
Salamander Big Band is an exceptional band from Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. They play the swing purely and it always feels like riding the time tunnel to have the same magical sensation of the old ballroom in the 30s. They have something different to offer, and they deliver it in style. Salamander Big Band has already performed in Java Jazz and Schouwburg Festival 2008, and soon they will also perform at JakJazz 2008. This Saturday, November 15th, 2008, they are going to perform at the west wing of ITB (Institute of Technology Bandung) for ITB’s birthday celebration.
Yesterday I got the chance to do an inside scoop at their rehearsal at Bumi Sangkuriang. They were practicing for the upcoming ITB show With the legendary Margie Segers as their guest star. I got the chance to do an interesting interview with Devy Ferdianto, the conductor and leader of the band.
When the trend today is against swinging big band, Salamander Big Band think differently and choose to go back to the roots, bringing back the early jazz sound just like it was in the 70s. If we look back, it all started with 6-7 piece band, then grew to bigger piece, as the big band we all know. Why did you choose to bring the old days back?
We want to offer something different than the music we listen everyday. We offer something to enrich the music world. Second reason, we want to give the real sound of real instruments, acousticly that sound pure compares to the sounds produced digitally. Big Bands are not that easy to find these days… maybe there are many bands claimed themselves as big band, but actually they are not the real big band. They are more like a band that’s big, with many personnel, than the traditional and original formation of the real big band. We are 17 piece band in traditional formation like (Count) Basie’s formation. 5 trumpets, 4 trombones, 4 saxes, 1 piano, 1 bass and 1 drum.
No matter how, the quality of sounds from real instruments would sound better than the sounds produced digitally, right?
Exactly.. yes, the digital world have provided the ability to record wide and detail variety of sounds. Let’s say trumpet, for example, we already have all kinds of different sound of trumpet, but the feel will still be different than the original sound produced by a real trumpet. So, we want to deliver the real music that comes out from the real instruments.
Please tell me how Salamander Big Band began
It began from 1991 when I was still studying at ITB. At that time it was still brass band. Then we started collecting friends with the same ideas and the same vision, and finally we came to a form of Big Band. And that’s how we established Salamander back in 2006.
Salamander Big Band in rehearsal with the legendary Margie Segers
About the partitur, do you use impromptu method or full improvisation?
Everybody has their own piece as the standard. Everybody has to be able to play as a team following their piece that has been provided. But still we give space to improvise, and it can be done on solo part, where they can improvised. What important is, they can play together harmonically. It’s not easy to maintain your position in a big band like this. You have to know when to go out or stay low, and so on..
Does Salamander has the same personnel from the beginning until today?
For a big band like this, it’s normal to have the players come and go.. but lucky for us, we still have the same formation and personnel until today.
I think it’s unique to have the traditional big band concept in Indonesia. How do the market react to this? Do you see big interest from the society, do you get good acceptance from them?
Actually it’s quite difficult to measure the response, because we don’t get enough chance to perform. But maybe we can get a sample from our performance last October. It was to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary of Salamander Big Band. With only small promotion, because we only have limited financial back up, we got no less than 400 people filling up the room in Bumi Sangkuriang. That was amazing.
I heard about the mutual collaboration between Salamander Big Band and Balai Pertemuan Bumi Parahyangan. Can you describe a little about the agreement?
They provide us a place where we can practice every week regularly, and we can also have additional practice when we are going to perform in some special events. In return, we perform in this room (Concordia room, Bumi Sangkuriang) regularly every week. It’s a really good deal.
And how’s the collaboration between Salamander Big Band and Klabjazz?
We are like partners that help each other. Sometimes we perform as the main event and have bands from Klabjazz opening the show, and in other times we’re the opening band for them.
All the best for Salamander Big Band. Thank you for preserving the origin of jazz and deliver it in style.
Personnel:
CONDUCTOR
Devy Ferdianto
SAXOPHONE
Alfred Dicky Dixon Ampouw [alto]
Arry Sulistyanto [alto]
Bonny Buntoro [tenor]
Zein Arfah [tenor]
Erik N. Chandra [bariton]
TRUMPET
Brury Effendi
Dedi Siswoyo
Isa Teenan
Johan Triyadi
Julianus Andreas
TROMBONE
Andriyanto Haryanto
Agus Suherman
Arief Budhyana
Afdhal Zickry
PIANO/KEYBOARD
Imelda Rosalin
Rika Andriyani
BASS
Roy Bimantoro
GITAR
Edward Prasetya
DRUMS
Augustinus
Henky Suparjan
PERKUSI | PERCUSSION
Reza Safrilyan
VOKAL
Gail Satiawaki
Nenden Shintawati
Imelda Rosalin
Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan (jazzuality.com)
Photographer: Glen Carolus Pattiradjawane (kantorberita.com)
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