Trioscapes at Salihara: The Report
A friend once said, you can’t say that you have covered all kind of jazz in Indonesia if you haven’t listen to Trioscapes. He wasn’t exaggerating. Trioscapes is definately one of the band we should cover for its unique concept, the freedom of music exploring and showcase of skills. So we jumped in right away when Trioscapes made a gig at Salihara while ago.
The journey of Trioscapes was started almost a decade ago in 2001. The jazz musician with “dangerous” mind and creativity Riza Arshad was behind the making, along with the versatile senior drummer Arie Ayunir and very experienced funk bassist Yance Manusama. Later Arie had to quit the band due to his move to Los Angeles. But he didn’t just leave the band. He recommended a great drummer that he believed could replace him, Aksan Sjuman, who now become one of the most stylish fusion drummer in Indonesia, active as a teacher at Institut Musik Daya and also busy as the composer of many music for ballet as well as making the music score of many movies. Some of the movies he scored including “Laskar Pelangi”, “Garuda didadaku”, “King”, “Bukan Bintang Biasa”, “Lovely Luna” and many more. Aksan jumped in and connected to Riza and Yance quickly. Together they established a very solid trio in a delightful journey of endless creativity.
The industry would say that fusion is their style, but according to Riza Arshad it is subtle funk that they based on, especially with Yance’s contribution in this powerful trio. Trioscapes captures the scene of early jazz rock when it was just emerged in the early 70′s, the scene that the music industry referred as the birth of fusion. It was the time when jazz found the pleasure of partnering with rock through the hands of jazz legends from Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Chick Corea to the experimentalist Frank Zappa. Early jazz rock with deep influence of subtle funk is the base, but they widen their exploration to many other music backgrounds, from ECM, progressive to the genres outside jazz including country, which can be tasted on one of the song from the second album, “Distant Folk”. With all these said, we can clearly see why Trioscapes has to be listed as one of the most important group today.
At the day the concert was held, the rain poured heavily since the morning. That caused some areas of South Jakarta flooded. Traffic jam occured because of that, and due to the situation, many audiences had to arrive late. Nonetheless, the bad weather and situation couldn’t stop them from coming.
At the concert in Salihara, Trioscapes gave out a stunning presentation. The crowds were carried on a journey into the vintage scene right from the very first song, “The Three”. Just as the title, the three personnels showed their freedom in creating the foot-tapping mood that described everything about their concept clearly. Trioscapes continued with “Minor Reportance”, taken from their second album. Along through the concert, Trioscapes brought three other songs from the second album, including “Distant Folk” which dedicated to all of Riza’s friends in America, “Beyond the Darkness“ and “Early Expectation”. Riza explained that these songs were inspired by his feeling when the bassist Peter Scherr was about to visit Indonesia to collaborate with Aksan Sjuman on his Peaceful Journey project. Like “Early Expectation” for example, was inspired by Riza’s thought on what he could expect by Scherr’s visit in Indonesia. “There are many of my friends and families living in USA as well, that’s the inspiration I had when I wrote “Distant Folk”, Riza explained. Compares to the songs from the first album, the ones from the second appeared more heavy and complex. That’s no wonder, since Riza was really into his progressive group simakDialog when the second was made.
Afer “Minor Reportance”, “Beyond the Darkness” and “Distant Folk”, Trioscapes played the lively “Knowing Me” followed by “Young and Brave” which dedicated to the young generation of jazz musicians. Listening to the song was like facing the unknown world with full of mystery, but still the feeling of optimistic could be felt in it. That’s the feeling that might appear in every newcomers’ minds, and the song was dedicated to them as the spirit-lifter to carry on what they really believe. Eventhough this song was made many years ago, it’s still relevant today, especially with the fact that we now have many fresh jazz musicians who just finished their studies abroad and ready to give their contributions. “Burb Herb” was next, a song dedicated to Herbie Hancock, followed by a composition capturing the eternity, “Forever Will Be”. With “Early Expectation”, Trioscapes closed the concert.
It was a very special night for everyone who attended the concert. Trioscapes gave out a brilliant performance and successfully delivered the message of creativity. Not only that, they managed to bring us all into a wonderful journey of yesterday, allowing us to feel the air when jazz and rock fused as one. A minor problem occured when the audiences couldn’t really hear the sound from Yance’s bass. Aksan repeatedly asked the sound engineer to raise the volume a bit, but it stayed that way till the end. But even so, Yance still able to guard the rhythm really well with Aksan. If we want to see jazz gets better and better in Indonesia, we really need groups like Trioscapes that dare to go beyond the trend to present something unique and different. Bravo Trioscapes! We hope this could be the beginning of more concert to come! Look forward to see you again soon.
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Reporter: Novan Yahya Renatal
Photographer: Bayu P Warjiyo
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
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[...] in several groups with different concepts seems to be no problem at all for him. The subtle funk “Trioscapes” and the cross ethno-progressive jazz “simakDialog” are some of Riza’s brainchild. What a [...]
[...] different style and concept. You will get delicious subtle funk with many delightful toppings in Trioscapes. And if you want to know how the portion of east and west, traditional ethno-music and modern [...]