Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover 2009: Surabaya Press Conference
Press Conference of Surabaya’s edition of Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover was presented at the Ballroom of Empire Palace building Surabaya. Surabaya is going to be the last city of this event. When this event was held for the first time in 2008, it was a huge success, and helped to make Indonesian Jazz more colorful. The whole new compositions were arranged, combining jazz with electronic dance, pop and rock, brought by ensamble of greatest musicians from every different kinds of genre.
This year, in 2009 Surabaya has the honor to present Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover once again. It’s the fifth and final city after Medan (May 1), Bandung (May 8), Semarang (May 15), Jakarta (May 22). The Surabaya edition will happen on May 29, as the last city of this mega 5 cities tour.
Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover Press Conference was opened by the MC who directly introduced two hosts. They were Yudy Rizard, Dji Sam Soe representative and Eki (Eq) Puradiredja, the music director who sat on stage happily.
Yudy opened the conference with some stories about the reason behind this event was made last year. He said that once Steph (Stephanus L Kurniadi, Dji Sam Soe Brand Manager) was attending some jazz festival in one city in Indonesia. He noticed that the audience were not quite enjoying the show enough. They just sat down and quiet. He didn’t feel the groove and the expressions of the audience of the show as how it should be. Then he came up with an idea creating a musics event that would make the audience feel excited and be grooved, not just sat or without expressions. Then he met Eq and some musicians, he had some dicussions with them and those blasting idea was turn into reality by presenting Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover last year.
The concept of this year’s Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover is still made by Dji Sam Soe in corporation with some important partners. With the theme :“Music You Know With a Twist”, this music event once again twists jazz with some urban genre with more surprises. Yudy added that Dji Sam Soe is known as the jazz ambassador in Indonesia. And will be more than happy to support any jazz events in Indonesia.
Yudy continued that this year Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover are bigger with more artists, more collaborations and more genre crossovers, so it will give more colour to jazz. The Point is: this year’s are more GRAND.
Eq Puradiredja as the music director explained that in this 2nd years, they have received so many inputs both from media and audiences. They all expected this event to be held every year. The heavy lineups were made, including Ari Lasso, Glenn Fredly, Andi /rif, Humania, Dira and Lala. Plus special performance by Candil, Edwin Cokelat, DJ Cream, Dana (rapper), Yuyun (sinden, javanese traditional singer) and Daniel(seriosa). Eq added some information of why Glenn and Andi/rif are back again this year, due to the huge response and request from audience and media for them both. And this year the Dji Sam Soe team proudly presents Ari Lasso to perform in a genre he never been into. It’s a great surprise and pleasure to have the jazz side of one brilliant performer who used to has his own pop rock style.
Yudy then explained the main reason of why Surabaya become the last city to hold this extravaganza event. It’s because Dji Sam Soe are originally from Surabaya, Sampoerna are from Surabaya and not to forget that some great jazz musicians came from Surabaya too. There are many great jazzers came from Surabaya. That’s why Surabaya was chosen to be the final city for this year’s Urban Jazz Crossover.
Eq continued that in Surabaya this year’s event will reach the end. To see this event finally reach the end makes him and all the performers sad. It’s been a wonderful tour. Eq also added that this event is not Eq’s event but it’s simply the event for all. He really appreaciate working on a DREAM JOB with a DREAM TEAM. Yudy added more information that, in Surabaya he came up an idea that will bring up the Surabaya folk song, “Rek Ayo Rek” twists into crossover jazz. Won’t that be fascinating?
Eq explained that the concept won’t be much different than the other cities before. They are going to present essential hits from 70’s to the millenium, international and national. And the what’s unique about it is that those songs are going to have different style and touch by many twists, classics, ethnic contemporary, rock, techno and many more. The stage will be bigger with some multimedia tehnology, more lightings and colors, and there will be ballet/contemporary dance blends in jazz as well. Can’t wait for that!
Eq told the recap in the previous four cities.
Medan : they were quite worried at first, since it was the first gig, but Medan was very friendly and it was a huge success.
Bandung : neat, held in a seated hall.
Semarang : beyond expectation
Jkt : appreciative
For Surabaya, he hoped there will be more blast and more fun too. Yudy challanged the audience of Surabaya to give their best, and the press replied, “yes we should and we can!” That’s the spirit!
Inside the conference, two videos were played. The first one was behind the scenes and preparations of the events. We saw how it was when they were rehearsing, discussing and creating great ideas. Some artists gave testimonals too, like Dira, Andi /rif, Edwin Cokelat and many more. All of them agreed that it’s going to be a fantastic event with the twist in different genre and musicians.
In the middle of the conference, there was a music performance by the Dji Sam Soe Allstar band and vocalist Ari Lasso. They brought “Hampa” in a fresh new jazz outfit, and surprisingly Eq the music director joined the band with a bass, jamming with the band for the Surabaya’s press conference. Awesome!
In the next session, Ari Lasso explained how he first got the offer and how he reacted on that. At first he got some issue to accept the offer because he thought his voice character was too strong and it would be difficult to adapt the soft and jazzy sense. But then Eq convinced him to try and try again, then Ari felt more comfortable and then agreed to join this great events.
Then conference continued with some Q&A session from the floor.
The First question was about how the concept in Surabaya would be, is it going to be different or not. Eq answered that mostly the concept would be the same. The different will appear in the last minutes of the event, depends how the reactions and the atmosphere of the show. The next question was about the come back of Humania and their performance at Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover. Will there be new songs presented? Eq said, Humania will bring up some of their previous hits with a little twist and new touch that will amaze all audiences.
Last questions was hard, about the satisfaction of the pure jazz fanatics. What are they going to offer to satisfy them, and what’s the essence of the show especially for jazz ? Yudy answered wisely that music in general, especially jazz in particular are the expression of one’s soul and emotion. Jazz is known to welcome improvisation and uniqueness in many diffrent ways. So why we have many “not jazz” performers in the lineups? Simply it’s because the point of this event is combining different kinds of genre by different vocalists. Hopefully this new idea will be entertaining as a new experience in music listening. Eq addded, by making this event he looked for a bigger development of jazz in Indonesia by introducing jazz in a unique ways. This event was developed carefully and seriously with deep and long discussions and also has been prepared with a lot of practise to become a GREAT show.
To close the press conference, Eq hoped that in this 2nd year event they would get more supports to grow bigger, welcoming inputs and feedbacks from the audience especially from the medias. Yudy closed with a wish, may a lot people will come to this event, may all theaudience have a blasting show by unique performances with every twists.
Surabaya, are you ready? Let’s GROOVE with The TWIST !!!
URBAN JAZZ CROSSOVER ALL STARS :
Lineups:
Ari Lasso
Glenn Fredly
Andi/rif
Humania
Dira J Sugandi
Lala
Candil
Edwin “Cokelat”
Reza Arnanda Putra (DJ Cream)
Pradana Rizky (Boogieman) MC/rapper
Yuniati/Yuyun (sinden)
Daniel Christianto (seriosa)
Featuring:
Rayendra Sunito (Parkdrive) on drums
Bonar Abraham (Glenn Fredly) on acoustic & electric bass
Ali Akbar Sugiri (the Groove) on keyboard 1
Doni Joesran (Sister Duke) on keyboard 2
Andrie Bayuadjie (Kahitna) on guitar
Adjirao (Wachdach band) on percussions
Larry Aswin (Sova) on sequencer & flute
Donny Koeswinarno (Pitoelas Big Band) on tenor saxophone
Boyke Priyo Utomo on saxophone
Enggar Widodo (Pitoelas Big Band) on trombone
Gatut Santoso (Pitoelas Big Band) on trumpet
Mohammad Abdullah Aziz (Souleh & Soulehah) on alto sax & backing vocal
Mila Amelia (Ari Lasso) as backing vocal
Where and When:
MEDAN – 1.May.09
JW Marriot Hotel
BANDUNG – 8.May.09
Auditorium Hall Sasana Budaya Ganesha
SEMARANG – 15.May.09
Horison Hotel
JAKARTA – 22.May.09
The Ritz Carlton Pacific Place
SURABAYA – 29.May.09
The Empire Palace
The event will start at 20:00 PM WIB (Jakarta Local Time) – onwards.
The ticket price is IDR 50.ooo , and it can be cheaper than that if you buy it online, using Buy 1 Get 1 Program. Buy it from this link: BUY 1 GET 1 PROGRAM
See more pictures here:
For more info, log on to Dji Sam Soe Urban Crossover 2009 official website
Call number: 0800 1 DSS 234
Reporter: JazzloVa
Photographer : I Putu Surya K.B.
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
Popularity: 23% [?]
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