After the successful Urban Jazz Crossover, another cool jazz event for youngsters happened in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, tonight. We feel really glad, and excited, to see there are more and more jazz event that can enter the world of younger generation. Something that can enjoy and groove with. To keep jazz alive, yes we need musicians that have commitment to present jazz in the authentic and original way, but we can’t deny that we also need musicians, promotors and other people who can bring jazz into the modern age, where it can fit the trend entering the mind and soul of the younger generation. Both are needed equally in my opinion. It’s not easy to fight the stereotype that has been labeled to jazz, as the music of elite, for some people it’s considered as a boring and old fashioned music, or for some people, jazz is that kind of music that sounds complex and hard to enjoy. It’s not necessarily be like that. As a matter of fact, there are more than 50 sub-genres, different styles of jazz in various crossovers. And jazz has proved itself as an music style that can blend together with any kind of other sytles harmoniously. Through the years jazz has shown its art of the openness, welcoming various different style to fuse in. Jazz is never stuck in one place, it’s always relevant and it can always follow the current trend smoothly. Many sub-genres of jazz were born as a result of the crossovers, and there will definately be more in the future. We can be sure of that. In the united world of Jazz where there are many different styles blend in, there must be one or two styles or genres that will fit certain music listeners in any generation.

For the youngsters, especially those who don’t know Jazz well enough yet, the event like tonight is urgently needed. Rookie Production feels that it’s important to introduce jazz to the young ages, targetting segment from high school to university students. Rookie Production believes that presenting jazz in its modern outfit like this will help the younger music fans to understand more about jazz, welcoming and accepting it as a music that fits them well. To know is to love, and there’s nothing better to let them know by presenting some examples of how Jazz could actually entertain them fully. That’s the impression we get, that’s why we are fully supporting this good idea.

Tonight, July 17, 2009, JAZZYLICOUS has started. This was the very first edition that hopefully will be continued with many more JAZZYLICIOUS as planned, at least once every three months. Amazingly the preparation for this was only 1 and a half month. For that we have to compliment Rookie Production for their efforts. Held at the beautiful surrounding of SIERRA Lounge and Resto located at the upper side of Bandung, the event has launched in a nice lounge concept. There was a beautiful city view with city lights at the back. The cold weather felt directly as we entered the venue, we were ready to get warmed by 6 bands performing tonight. From what we saw, the room was full with audience. Almost all the ticket sold out successfully, showing that Bandung actually responded this event very well. What we have on the lineups are bands that representing different fields. SORE is representing the current indie band trend. Independent, free, creative, blending many forms of music into one definite style of them. Maliq & D’Essentials is representing the acid soulful jazz, the modern groovy style that attached to the heart of young listeners. While ANDEZZZ takes the jazz-based techno/house music path. Interesting choice as we figured from the beginning. These all plus three groove/soulful/funky local Bandung bands with very representative quality. Good mix, good selection, and most of all, very current.

After the opening by the MC, we got the first opening band, “Chalk For Cheese”. Labeled as “The new nu jazz/groove band in the block”, Chalk For Cheese started it well, preparing the audience’s mood to be ready to have the rest of the show. Led by the vocalist with unique vocal, Trianzani Sulshi (Sani), they kept the groovy mood on. With Trianzani Sulshi, there were Iman (bass), Ferry “Gembong” Nurhayat (keyboard), Ferdy Apriady (sax) and Arif Rahman (drums), plus two backing vocals, Eva and Tasya. They started with Jamiroquai’s “Little L”. What a nice way to start the event. They continued with “Berbisik Maaf”. Chalk For Cheese moved along with a surprise, changing ST 12’s “Cari Pacar Lagi” into the new groovy jazz version. It was a smart move as the crowds looked really appreciate it. Their own original song “Bercerita Jingga” came next, and then closed their performance with “Kala Hari”.

A new band SIKUAI appeared on stage. This is a band that formed just several months ago, in February 2009 to be exact. The band’s name was taken from a very beautiful island, Sikuai Island at West Sumatra. They have performed on some stages such as Pasar Malam Kampus Tiga FISIP also Cafe Night at Parahyangan University, performing at ForPlay grand opening at at Parijs Van Java and also at STT Telkom, for Olympiade closing ceremony event. Sikuai is a band that has pop jazz and funk as their style. The personnel of Sikuai are Tulus (vocal), Ridwan (guitar), Age (bass), Emma (keyboard), Dennis (drums) plus three backing vocals for tonight’s event: Feli, Nuring and wira. Tonight they brought Jamiroquai’s “Bad Girls” first of all. It was nice and groovy, resulting big applause from the crowds. Stevie Wonder’s “As” was next, taking George Michael and Mary J Blige’s version but played it more funky. This song was delivered featuring Trianzani Sulshi of Chalk For Cheese. Then their own original song called “Menyesal” and ended their performance again with the song they brought as a start, “Bad Girls”.

Palm From Moodytunes was the last opening act. This is the last local Bandung band to perform. They have deep delicious soulful touch. The soulful voice of Grace Caroline Sahertian felt really nice to listen. With Ferry “Gembong” Nurhayat and Desy (backing vocal), Athfand Denada Harahap (guitar), Bayu Kristianto (keyboard), Sindhu Bayusekti (bass), Harry Haryansyah (drums) and Ferdy Apriyadi (sax), they gave cool groovy soulful songs. Starting with Luther Vandross‘ classic “Never Too Much”. The next song was their own original, written 2 years ago called “Rasa Sesaat”. Nice smooth soulful groove was on through this song. Roy Hargrove’s “Crazy Race” came next. Palm From Moodytunes ended their session with another Luther Vandross‘ song, “Til My Baby Come Home”.

Enough for the really delicious desserts, now came the time for the main course. SORE started around 9:15 PM. SORE is an exceptional band that is always hard to put into one particular box of genre. Blending so many different music textures into one, creating something new, different than what you have ever heard. Some describes them as pop music with absurd-electic touch, what they are having inside their music signature is the combination between The Beatles, Morrissey, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Gino Vanelli, Antonio Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Procol Harum, Paul Simon, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Michael Franks, Krzysztof Komeda, Smashing Pumpkins, Masaru Satoh, Sonic Youth even Beethoven. They also has strong texture from the Indonesian music shelf. They also claimed to have influence from Keenan Nasution, Yockie Suprayogo to say the least, and also some obscure Indonesiana of the 70’s even the feels of Indonesian vintage movie soundtracks. SORE consists of young talented musicians: Awan Garnida (bass, vocal), Ade Firza Paloh (guitar, vocal), Gusti Pramudya (drums, vocal), Reza Dwiputranto (guitar, vocal), Mondo Gascaro (piano/keyboard,vocal) and Dono Firman (keyboard, synthesizer).

The crowds blasted as SORE started to perform. They started strong with one of their hit, “Bebas”.The next one was another well known SORE’s song, “Somos Libre” and continued with another one “Mata Berdebu”. The song “Merintih” appeared right after. “Merintih Perih” is a song that sounds Keane-alike  but in retro style. Another hit with weird title “In 1997 The Bullet Was Shy” from their second album Port Of Lima was on, followed by a vintage funk taste of “Karolina”. The jazzy chill out “Lihat” and another ballad taken  from the soundtrack “Berbagi Suami” entitled “Pergi Tanpa Pesan” brought nicely And the final song was another chillout song taken from their first album, Centralismo. “No Fruits For Today” appeared smoothly and enjoyed by all the crowds that went on sing along with them.

The icon of modern acid jazz movement in Indonesia. MALIQ & D’ESSENTIALS kicked off after SORE. Maliq & D’Essentials is known for their delicious modern soulful style, groovy, funky and never want to be trapped into one particular style. The name MALIQ is an abbreviation of “Music and Live Instrument Quality”, that created the concept from the creative minds of Angga, Widi and Indra Sulisto, their manager at the time. They have played with hiphop, R&B, techno and even reggae together with jazz. Complete formation tonight on stage. Angga and Indah (vocal), Widi (drums), Jawa (bass), Ifa (keyboard), Amar (trumpet), Lale (guitar) and Renita (backing vocal).

The crowds waited unpatiently for Maliq & D’Essentials‘ appearance. Later when they finally appeared, you can imagine how loud the crowds popped. Without further due, they opened it with “Blow My Mind”. The second one was “Aura”,  from their new album “Mata Hati Telinga”. “Terdiam” “The One” came next in a cool faster funky style, different than the original version in their first album. was the fourth song, and again the crowds sang along together. Right after that, another song taken from their brand new album entitled “Luluh”, followed by “Kangen”. “Mata Hati Telinga” the title track of their brand new album, became the next one, a song with steady beat that reminded me of  the delicious style of the classic brit pop. The first verse of the next song sang by the audience, a very well known song of Maliq & D’Essentials called “Dia”. This is the song that was included in Claudia/Jasmine soundtrack. “Heaven” came altogether with the previous one,  still the crowds sang together. “Pilihanku” was the final song. It was a really interactive and energic performance of Maliq & D’Essentials, making the crowds went wild from the beginning to the end.

Just when Maliq & D’Essentials ended their performance, ANDEZZZ started right away from the other corner in front of the main stage. Andezzz took his DJ’AZZ Set. Having the sequencer with turntable in front of him. The night at Sierra Cafe and Resto suddenly turned into a techno/house music lounge right away! We have to be thankful for having such talent like Andezzz. He’s an important and influential musician that brings the new horizon in the music industry. While Japan has many DJs with jazz background and based their creation within, such as DJ Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, DJ Ryota Nozaki of Jazztronik, DJ Takeshi Hanazawa of FREETempo for example, we have Andezzz taking the same path. Not only great as a DJ, Andezzz also seriously great in jazz composition, the major he graduated from Berklee a while ago. His talents don’t stop there. He’s also known as a bass player. The cool broken beat, fusing soul, funk and other genres embedded into a tastey electronic texture creating new flavor of nu jazz in the wonderful style of Andezzz.

Andezzz got companied by DJ Agung tonight behind the table. Together they delivered series of song in the mix. Then the interesting happened. Boyke Priyo Utomo appeared taking the saxophone along with the DJ play. It was cool to see the collaboration between them. Then Early Kartika took the vocal side and delivered three songs taken from Andezzz’ album, including the hit “Pergi” and “Sinaran”.

Ecstatic night happened at Sierra Cafe and Resto tonight! For 5 hours we got entertained by series of seriously great talents, experiencing jazz in the modern outfit that suit the current trend and generation. This is the side of jazz world that definately can enter the life of youngsters, and with these kinds of show hopefully all the missinterpretation of jazz could find the answer. Many jazz crossovers were delivered perfectly, from indie rock band, soul, funk, to techno/house music with DJs. We have to mention about the timing too. JAZZYLICIOUS was an event that exactly on schedule from start to finish. Everything was right on time. It was really well done, and it was successful. May more events like this available in the future. We thank all folks at Rookie Production, and hope there will be more events like this from them. Bravo!

See more pictures:

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan
Photographer: Eghi 25

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