Van Alloy Big Band were established 4 years ago, in 2004. This band consists of ex-Marching Band player from ITB, mostly around the 90s. Some of the band members hadn’t play for 5-30 years, gathered together in 2004 to join ITB Big Band Concert 2005. From that, they already performed 20 times in various events, such as ITB Big Band Concert, Kemayoran Jazz Community Gathering, 30 hours Jazz Nonstop KJK and also Java Jazz Festival 2008.

In their website, they called themselves amateur musicians who has been playing big band swing music for more than 10 years. They have their own full time jobs, but they are also very serious about their part time job as big band musicians. They play swing, consists of brass and rhythm section. They deliver pure sound of traditional big band just like the old days. I got the chance to do a little interview with M.Harto Basuki, the band leader right after they finished their performance at ITB Big Band Concert 2008.

Why did you choose to focus on a big band?
Actually we have roots for that since we were all still studying at ITB..at that time, about 80% of us had already play like a big band. It was still marching band, to be exact. When we gathered again, big band was all we know, that’s been our direction from the beginning, and we always enjoy doing it.

You have already performed 20 times, including a great performance at Java Jazz 2008
Yes that’s right, tonight was our 21th performance.

From your point of view, how was the audience’s reaction towards Big Band?
Big Band is not a format you see everyday.. so, when you watch Big Band, even before we play anything, it already feels different. It’s something you don’t see from other formations. Combo, trio, quartet, we see them often. But big band, we have lots of personnels, we have lots of sounds.. lots of brasses, when we blow them, the sounds are wide. When the audience experience that, even just that,  has already give them something different.

There’s a statement that Van Alloy is not on proffesional level.What do you mean by that?
We are not on proffesional level, because we all have our full time jobs. Band is not our main priority. But still, no matter what, we are serious into this. We keep practicing regularly and look forward to perform anywhere.

There are 40 personnel of Van Alloy, but not all of them perform tonight.. tonight you appeared with 22 piece band. What’s the use to have 40 players on the band for?
Like what I said earlier, we all have our own works, our own activities and we are always busy. We are not musicians. So, we select the personnel who can perform for every event.

So, the players were chosen per event, right?
Yes, that’s right.. we decide the personnel to fill up the formation per event.

How often do you practice?
We practice regularly every week, on every Sunday, because that’s the only day we have time. But when we’re going to perform, we practice more often.

Where did you get the compositions?
We bought some of them. Or we also got them from some websites.. It’s easier to have them nowadays. Sometimes we also wrote the composition from cassettes.

All the best for Van Alloy Big Band!
Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan (jazzuality.com)
Photographer:Novianto

For more info about Van Allow Big Band, visit their official website at : http://bigband.vanalloy.net
*pictures taken from vanalloy.net & Harto Basuki’s friendster

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