It was a big day for the Law Faculty of Padjadjaran University. It was a big day in Bandung jazz, and of course a big day for Indonesian jazz in the bigger scene.  With all the obstacles and problems during the process, finally Kampoeng Jazz 2009 ran well as planned. No less than 12 bands gave their best on stage. This is the first Kampoeng Jazz that hopefully will be continued annualy. For me this is a good sign to see jazz is pulsing in campuses, in this case in Bandung, the city of art and fashion. Hopefully this will be a new dawn to have jazz presented regularly in many campuses in Bandung, especially in Padjadjaran University.

“Live like jazz..” that’s the philosophy of life that I’m dreaming of”, said Deden, the chief comittee  f Kampoeng Jazz said. “Life should be like jazz.. with improvisations, experiments, taking risks.. that’s why we took it as our theme..” he added. This is the event that’s going to be held annualy, sometimes around mid year. And this time this event holds a mission. It’s a charity cause to lend a hand to rebuild a ruined elementary school in Ciwidey. “It’s totally damaged and uncared. The school is located in a place that’s difficult to reach. And some of the income from this event is going to help them restoring it.” “We learned from many jazz events both national and international..” Deden explained. “Since there’s no annual event for jazz yet in Bandung, we try to take the chance. This is a start. We have to dare to do this, may this event gets bigger in years to come.” he added. In Padjadjaran University itself, jazz is not something new anymore. Jazz has loved by many students, at least some sub genres that fit the youngsters. “As we celebrate the National Educational Day in May, by this event we want to provide an education to see many layers of jazz as well..” Deden explained more. And what a party of jazz it was. 12 groups, nationals and locals were there performing in a half a day (12 hours) show. Imagine groups like Barry Likumahuwa Project, Soulvibe, Sekapur Sirih, Chalk for Cheese, Boyke Priyo Utomo Project, Sonny Akbar Quartet, Tritoones, Buy 3 Get 4, Oleo, Dua Arjuna, Tanpamana and Javalava altogether in one event in a very cheap ticket price, and some of money goes to social cause.

The event started about an hour late than the schedule, and it started with a groovy band named Tanpamana. This band of 8 personnel  brought some well known songs from groovy bands, like Incognito‘s “Still A Friend of Mine” and two songs from Shakatak, “Invitation” and “Nightbirds”. The personnels were : Sherin (vocalist), Gilang (percussions), Lutfi (rhytmic guitar), Billy (bass), Willy (keyboards 1), Dicky (keyboards 2), Angger (guitar).

The second band was Dua Arjuna, one of the band from the audition. This band consists of three for this event, because one personnel couldn’t make it. Dua Arjuna brought a very heavy rock in a slight jazz pattern. The personnels were: Fajar (bass), Andi (drum) and the heavy metal guy Zendhy (guitar).

After an hour break, an acoustic band named Javalava came in. They started with Robin Thicke‘s brand new hit “Sweetest Love” served in acoustic style. Fahmi (vocalist), Galang (bass), Dwi (drums). They closed their performance with Bobby Mc Ferrin‘s “Don’t Worry Be Happy”.

Oleo came next. Oleo is a group consists of heavy talented young musicians from Bandung, Nanet Ken Asri (keyboard/vocal), Sepza Zulkaidah (drums) and Galang Perdhana (bass). Right on stage Oleo gave stunning performance with amazing skills, fusing bop, rock drvie and funk as their style. Compositions by Chick Corea and Dizzy Gilespie was done perfectly by them. As the attendance grew bigger, the stunning performance of Oleo got big applause.

Buy 3 Get 4 came next. This is the group that was occasionally formed prior to attend jazz competition at Jazz Goes To Campus 2008. They became the runner up, and still going strong until now. The band was formed by Bayu Kristianto, half of Bayu & Tesla, a new talented young pianist who learned from Sonny Akbar. They brought some cool compositions like Wayne King‘s classic “Beautiful Love” and Joe Zawinul‘s “Mercy Mercy Mercy” . The composition of the band changed a bit this time, with Tesla Manaf Effendi replacing Athar on guitar. The rest was still the same. Bayu on piano, Dani on drums and Tuwuh on bass.

Right after the second break, Sonny Akbar Quartet came on stage. Sonny Akbar was known as the pianist of 4AM Quartet who always stunned the audience by his skillful playing. He was lucky enough to have the chance to learn from the maestro Bubi Chen. This time besides Sonny himself on keyboard, he brought Ferry “Gembong” Nurhayat on synthesizer, Edward Manurung on drums and Dhika on bass. Sonny showed what he got with his skill. Sonny gave out his Hancock-like touch in a raunchy retro style. Series of interesting compositions were chosen, such as “Shuffle”, “Out of This World”, “Bubble House”, “Baby Plum” and “Epic”. Cool vintage approach were delivered, along with the speed, the great controled rhythm, and most of all stunning skill. Their performance blasted the crowds. It was really entertaining!

Tritoones appeared next. Great exploration of sound were suddenly there on the stage. Series of compositions were on, such as “Bright Side of Life”, Coltrane‘s “Impression”, Metheny‘s “James” and McLaughlin‘s “Juju at the Crossroads”. The best Tritoones performance was made. This cool trio consists of youngsters.  Tesla Manaf Effendi on guitar, Rakhmad Utomo on bass and Putra Damai Fitryan on drums showed up some powerful play, and again it got huge applause from the audience who were still growing in numbers. Both Sonny Akbar Quartet and Tritoones really hypnotized the audience completely.

And the heat continued on! One of the Indonesian best  fusion band, Sekapur Sirih came on stage. Sekapur Sirih brought their own original composition in style. This is the band that always successfully stunned the audience wherever they perform, and they did it again tonight. Lovely original compositions like “Alamanda”, the beautiful song with Balinese touch “Nuansa”, the smooth groovy “Midnight” and the last one “Jakarta-Bandung PP”. The audience’s mood were carried away by their flawless cool performance. Great control, great songs, great play, absolutely entertaining. Sekapur Sirih are: Andreas Nandiwardhana and Kandria Kananta (electric guitar),  Prasandhya Astagiri Yusuf (electric bass), Lukman Agus (drums) and Agung Dwi Prakarsa (keyboard).

“The new nu jazz/groove band in the block” appeared. As delicious as always, Chalk For Cheese immidiately grabbed the audience’s attention with their own original groovy songs. This band consists of the beautiful soulful singer Trianzani Sulshi, Ferdy Apriady on sax, Martin Handy on guitar, Ferry “Gembong” Nurhayat on keyboard/synthesizer, Iman on bass and Arif Rahman on drums. They opened the performance with a new arrangement of  “Kala Hari” with deeper touch of jazz. The next song was the brand new song that they just brought for the first time called “Cinta Janji”. Then “Sukmaku” was on, served in  chilling out groove. The last song was “Bercerita Jingga”.

It’s time for Barry Likumahuwa Project, and the crowds popped and moved right to the edge of the stage. It’s funky, groovin’ and boppin’ time. Barry Likumahuwa appeared in full team tonight. With himself on bass, Matthew Sayersz on vocal, Donny Joesran on keyboard, Dennis Junio on alto sax, Jonas Wang on drums and Henry Budidharma on guitars. Barry and friends burned the hall directly with their own song taken from “Goodspell” album, “My Prayers”. Then the next song was taken from the 70′s, Miles Davis’ “Freedom Jazz Dance” in a cool free jam , enjoyed by everybody who kept on cheering on them.

Then, Roy Hargrove‘s “Crazy Race” came up. In this one Barry interracted with the audience, asking them to follow notes he made with his bass. Continued with Thad Jones‘ “A Child is Born” and one of the all time classic jazz standard, “Moody’s Mood For Love“. Matthew showed his amazing voice on this one. Barry Likumahuwa Project ended their session with their hit, “Mati Saja.” It was amazing, the crowds loved their energic performance. Groovy, funky and chunky. Just like the way Barry Likumahuwa and friends always do.

Boyke Priyo Utomo Project came next. This group consists of Boyke (sax), Imelda Rosalin (piano), Arief Fandi/Ari Aru (drums), Rudy Zulkarnaen/Rudy Aru (acoustic upright bass). Boyke is a senior saxophonist who has been doing well in jazz for quite some times, and has been worked with many big names including Imam Pras. His coltrane-like saxophone playing was stunning, supported by the other senior musicians as mentioned before. The song they brought tonight including “My One and Only Love”, “Trinkle Tinkle” and “Nothing Personal”.

The final performance was bombastic. Soulvibe came out and the crowds ran closer to the stage again. Another energic soulful groove music by a band that has improved so much over the years. “Sound of Universal Love Various Instruments and Behaviour”, that’s where the name Soulvibe came from, is really perfect to describe their style of music. Blending many kinds of modern music with various instruments and style resulting fresh soulful groove as their color. The crowds loved it. Some jived and grooved along. They opened it strong with “Arti Hadirmu”. The second song was the mellow “No More”.

Then the steamy hot song “Adinda” came along and the ladies loved it. It’s time to groove again with “Warna Cinta”.  Move on with the smooth acoustic groove on “Biarlah (Hapuslah Cinta)” this time with someone from the audience came on stage and sang the whole first part. Then they suprisingly twisted it a bit with reggae near the end. The crowds popped when they brought their hit, “Terang Jiwa” . Then closed their performance with “Masih”. Rizqi “Abenk” Ranadireksa and Bayu Adiputra (Vocals), Ramadhan Handy (Bass, BVs), M. Caesar Rizal (Drums, Beats), Adrianto Seto (Synthesizer, Electric Percussions), Frans Filman (Piano, Rhodes) and Adhika Winasis (Guitar), the personnel of Soulvibe gave a very energic performance. Eventhough the show had been going for 11 hours, they managed to get the crowds went wild, singing, screaming and dancing with them. It was a great closing in the end.

A really big step was made by the Student Executive Board of Law Faculty of Padjadjaran University Bandung who were dare to make their dreams came true. Remember this is just the first time, and we can imagine how Kampoeng Jazz will grow years after years to come. Big applause for all the organizers who worked hard with sweat and tears for making this event came to reality. I believe this event will stimulate the jazz development in Indonesia generally, and Bandung in particular. We really need this to make jazz goes more popular. There are many shapes and colors of jazz, I’m sure there should be one or more sub genres that would fit with different types of listeners. Hopefully the promotion will come long before the show, so there will be many people come to enjoy this great event. Once again, to all the organizers who has worked so hard for this, thank you very much! What you’ve done is really beneficial to our nation’s music scene, especially to the life of jazz. Live like jazz, let jazz alive!

Reporter: Riandy Kurniawan, Adott Jumbo
Photographer: Eghi 25

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