Solo City Jazz 2009: The Report
solo city jazz
Finally, one of the unique jazz event was held again this year. Not in the capital of Indonesia, not in the bright light big city, but it was held at the heart of intimate city of Solo. Solo City Jazz, that’s the name, was designed to be a friendly, familiar and intimate event that should be able to grab the heart of just about everyone from different backgrounds. And it did, perfectly.
The event was officially opened by Wenny Purwanti from C-Pro together with the meyer of Solo, Mr Joko Widodo. For 2 days we saw the connection between batik and jazz, just as the theme “Jazz Up Batik”, and actually these two world heritage could go hand in hand perfectly. Most of the musicians wore batik on their performance, and it looked really cool. Right after it was officially opened, Notturno opened the show as the first performer. What a stunner it was. Notturno, the group that dare to stand on the dark side of jazz gave their best that wowed many audiences. We even received some comments about their performances later on from some readers who attended the event. Joshua Arifin (contra bass), Cak Hend (drums/percussions) and Masmo (piano, fender rhodes, analogues and organ) were the personnel behind this very interesting group, started strong with Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in a new re-arrangement, Notturno style. It was so cool. They continued by playing “Little Waltz for Madam Frida”, taken from the upcoming new album of Notturno. A guest player, a great guitarist Karty Rosen joined them and delivered a jazz standard from 1963. It was very attractive and loved by the audiences. Masmo took a pianica and did a nice duet with Karty after that, and closed their performance with “Story of the Dance Floor”, in an upbeat fusion-esque style.
The show continued with Wayan Sadra and Sono Seni Ensemble. This is a unique group from Solo that has been active playing in jazz, contemporary and world music everywhere around the world. It was glorious, magical and mystical, delivering pentatonic scales from many sides of Indonesian ethnic music collection, including from Madura, including one song entitled “Julimpet/Petak Umpet” or in English known as “Hide and Seek”.
Next, we got 2D bringing back some memories of the 80’s. It was really great to see a very special reunion between two vocalists who were popular in the 80’s, Dian Pramana Putra and Deddy Dhukun. Some famous sweet tunes of them were brought, including “Semua Jadi Satu” that once popular with Malyda joining them, and also “Melayang”. 2D gave an interactive performance, as they always tried to build the connection with the audiences. “Masih Ada”, the song taken from their album in 1989 was next, followed by their other hit, “Keraguan”. Deddy Dhukun took some times to came down from the stage, blending with the audiences and sang along with them. What a special performance from 2D, the legendary Indonesian group that just found their way to appear again. A new album from 2D is coming, very soon.
Maya Hasan and Tiwi Shakuhachi were next bringing their stylish jazz. “Seven to Heaven” was brought nicely by them, followed by a traditional song from Aceh, “Bungong Jeumpa” appeared artistically through the smooth accordeon playing and sweet vocal of Tiwi.
Bintang Indrianto’s Akordeon appeared next, featuring Roedyanto “Emerald” Warsito, Rindra “Padi” Risyanto and Sruti Respati. It was another nice collaboration bringing some original instrumental numbers. The chemistry was perfect, and it would be great to see them continue their collaboration in the future. “Ole Olang Wanita”, an adaptation of the song written by the famous artiste Sujiwo Tejo was brought nicely, and it became even special by the nice Javanese sinden’s textured vocal by Surti. It was a wonderful performance made by Bintang Indrianto, his Akordeon and friends, tributing the side of fusion and ethnic music in a specific Bintang Indrianto’s style we all know.
The Magnificent Duo, Donny Suhendra and Agam Hamzah was next. Following the stunning and intimate performance by both of them at Jazz Break Revival XII , we got the chance to see this special collaboration again at Solo City Jazz. They played very well in perfect harmony with each other. Some latin styles were played, including “La Fiesta”, and the classic “Spain”, two songs owned by Chick Corea. Neat, flawless, and a truly masterclass play were shown by this magnificent duo. Donny mentioned that they have been friends for such a long time, since they were still little kids, and they both wish to be able to perform again in next year’s Solo City Jazz. (check out our exclusive interview with The Magnificent Duo ). Donny Suhendra continued to play with his own group, Donny Suhendra Project ft Ivan Nestorman, the vocalist from Nera and Dwiki Dharmawan’s World Peace Orchestra. Following Donny Suhendra Project, Agam Hamzah teamed up with his own band, Ligro Trio and delivered such a side of jazz that not many dare to get into. Manic. Wild. Crazy. Or whatever you may call this. They played a rebelious free form of fusion in such as style only Ligro Trio could do.
The first day of the event ended up with a very sweet performance by Andien joining Donny Suhendra Project. She sang “Roxanne”, a popular song by Sting/The Police from 1978, followed by another 2 songs to close the day 1 of Solo Jazz City. The show ended at 1 AM.
Day 2 started in the pouring rain, but it wouldn’t stop the jazz lovers to enjoy the event. The audiences across generations were all gathered together to enjoy the 2nd Day of Solo City Jazz. The show started at 8 PM with Solo Jazz Society. They brought “Gundul-Gundul Pacul”, a traditional Javanese folk song in a very jazzy and attractive way. Temper Tantrum percussions were on stage too collaborated with them and delivered an attractive music by using horns and tifa.
Heaven on Earth was the second performer, appeared with the new formation. They opened with one of their newest composition, “Drum Overture”. A high skilled fusion was felt through their performance, especially on bass and keyboard. Tedjo Bhayu Adjie, the keyboardist and leader of Heaven on Earth gave a superb performance. They gave an interactive performance, making the crowds laugh by their jokes using the instruments. It was great!
Prabumi, the group from Jogja led by the keyboardist Agus Bing gave a different approach on stage with their world music style. Serving nice blending between east and west, the traditional gamelan and modern western instrument, they created a magical nuance with their presence. Nice saxophone improvisation by the young saxophonist on the group gave a unique color to their music style. They closed the performance with Ki Nartosabdo’s “Perahu Layar” and “Teratai”. It was so ethnical and glorious.
Dony Koeswinarno Jazz Quartet came next with some pure jazz. Dony Koeswinarno is a superb saxophonist and composer, also the founder of Pitoelas Big Band. Not only saxophone, Dony also plays other instruments such as flute like what he showed tonight. The band used the standard jazz quartet instruments such as contra bass, sax, drums and keyboard.
Chlorophyl came and burned the venue hotter than ever by their aggressive composition, served in modern acid jazz. The audience enjoyed their performance. It was nice to see this group back again, considering they are one of the group that was established quite long time ago, in 1993.
The tense reached climax with Yovie Widianto Fusion (YWF) Band, as the last performer for Solo Jazz City day 2. Just several day ago we saw them giving their best at the 32nd Jazz Goes to Campus , now it was the chance for the jazz lovers who live in Solo to see their unbelievable performance. Yovie Widianto (Piano & Synthesizer), Gerry Herb (Drums), Adi Dharmawan (Bass), Kadek Rihardika (Guitar), D.Bambang P (Keyboard/ EFX), Yoyok (Tenor Saxophone), Iwan Wiradz (Percussion), Unique (Layer Vox), they all gave a very energic and out of the world performance that stunned everyone. Bringing the songs such as “6/8″, “Night in Tunisia” to open the show, then Yovie took some times to ask the audience to give more appreciation for quality music and arrangement. As how Yovie respect the late Chrisye, they brought one song from Chrisye’s collection called “Untukku” that was re-arranged in smooth fusion jazz style. “Merantau”, a song taken from Yovie’s band Kahitna, were delivered in a new improvised way. Then the last song “Pinnochio” was delivered, and that officially ended the whole 2 days of magnificent jazz in Solo. Standing ovations were given to Yovie Widianto Fusion Band by the crowds.
We had great fun in Solo. 2 amazing nights when Solo got painted in jazz color. We got a little statement from Gideon Momongan, the director of this event. “Thank God the event went successfully, just like the concept we built from the start. We want to introduce jazz to the society, that’s the key, with everything we have. Then, we got an amazing response from Solo. We’d say thank you very much to Solo, for accepting this idea, and that’s the keypoint of all these. I’d also extend my thanks to all the musicians and everybody that supported this event. I hope this can be continued on. Not only Solo City Jazz 2010, 2011 and more, but more than that we hope to see new seeds of jazz appear from Solo. If that happens, then we could be happy that this event could be beneficial to jazz development in Indonesia.” Yes indeed, we all hope so. Thank you very much to all the organizers, we are very happy to support this event and hope our collaboration will last. Great performances by talented artists for 2 days in a row at Solo City Jazz with a fresh concept in full various jazz colors. Touching the traditional and modern world, east and west, ethnic and jazz altogether in one package. We look forward to see more events like this in other cities as well.
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Reporter/Photographer: JazzLoVa
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
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