Dji Sam Soe URBAN JAZZ CROSSOVER 2009 : Jakarta Report
Oh what a night! What a special night for music lovers in Jakarta when Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover has finally arrived in the capital city of Indonesia, the city that has been waited for the whole performers, at least that was what Eki (Eq) Puradiredja said, when he and his band got the honor to open this very special annual event. Jakarta was the fourth city after the previous Medan, Bandung and Semarang that has successfully conquered by the Urban Jazz Crossover team.
At exactly 7:30 I entered the venue, the Ballroom of Ritz Carlton Pacific Palace Jakarta. The hall was crowded by the audience. Many fellow journalists, photographers and reporters from various medias, and also the sales promotion girls that was offering their Dji Sam Soe product along with interesting games that I think was entertaining enough us while we were waiting for the show to start. Many people took the chance to pose at the Urban Jazz Crossover hall of fame. The show started a bit late, moved from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm, maybe due to the traffic jam that used to happen on Friday night.
And the show finally started! Humania came on stage and blasted the first bomb with complete formation. The long time friends Eki Puradiredja (Eq) and Rediyanto Heru Nurcahyo (Heru) plus Lawrence “Larry” Aswin. They got the full backup by the big ensemble of Urban Jazz Crossover All Stars, and these collaboration gave a new color to the millenium Humania. “Interaksi” was selected to be the opening song for them. Then Eki gave out one of their classic song, “Jelita”. In the middle of his performance, Eki thanked everybody who came and watched the show. Then the intro of their very popular hit, “Bersama” came in. The audience sang along together. They continued with “Lepas Kendali” and closed their performance with the signature hit “Terserah”. Humania, a band that is going to make a wonderful comeback in recordings has successfully opened up the show with their great performance.
After Humania, there was some crews busy with the preparation on stage. But they has prepared something to enjoy while waiting for the stage to be ready. DJ Cream mixed at least 6 songs to entertain the audience. Hits from great artists like Lenny Kravitz, The Tings Tings and Earth Wind & Fire were played continuously. The crowds loved it. After that, the main event, Urban Jazz crossover started. Dira J Sugandi opened it along with Dana the rapper, delivering Yarbrough & Peoples‘ hit “Don’t Stop The Music”. The stunning vocal of Dira warmed the Ballroom of Ritz Carlton right away. Dana the very promising rapper, with Dira, a singer with a great quality that even got Bluey Incognito’s interest. Together they made a great collaboration. Dira appeared exclusively ellegant that night, explained that right before the show she got a phone call from her friend named Joe. Joe said that he’s been enjoying the show in three previous cities. He couldn’t come tonight, but he asked Dira to find someone named Fani among the audience, and told her that Joe has been in love with her. Wow! It was an intermezzo with a twist for the audience. The next song from Dira especially dedicated to Fani. The song called “My Funny Valentine” was delivered beautifully. After that, Dira raised the tempo again with one of her new single that will be released in her upcoming album. The song called “Bring It On”, written by Bluey “Incognito”. This song really suits Dira’s tone. I really can’t wait to have Dira J Sugandi’s new album.
After Dira’s performance, Edwin, the Cokelat band’s guitaist started with the intro of “Walk This Way”. Candil, the vocalist of Serieus band came on stage collaborated with Dana the rapper. This song that was made popular by Aerosmith and Run DMC was perfect in their hands, and that made the crowds popped.
Another suprising twist came when Yuyun, a sinden (traditional Javanese singer) came up and sang a phrase of Javanese song. That one turned out as the intro for Ari Lasso’s performance, for “Mana Kutahu” to be exact. This song appeared with the fresh new arrangement. The crowds sang along together with Ari Lasso. Ari Lasso said he was really happy to participate in Urban Jazz Crossover. Not only because he hasn’t been on stage for about 5 months, but he also felt honored to be chosen in a big event with Jazz as the label. He also joked that it was his first time again to wear a tie since he was graduated from the high school. Ari Lasso is one of the best vocalist in Indonesia. Not only his great vocal, but he’s also interactive and capable to control the stage. Next Ari Lasso delivered Led Zeppelin’s song, “Rock & Roll”. And the stage suddenly turned into a rock stage. Some audience even did headbangs! Wow, it was pleasant to see, and maybe could only happen in a unique event like this. Ari Lasso closed his performance with his famous hit “Hampa”. This song appeared with a very brilliant twist, delivered in swing by Urban Jazz Crossover All Stars.
After Ari Lasso, it was the time for the half Philippines and half Indonesian singer who recently reached her popularity both in Philippines and Indonesia, LALA. She looked very beautiful and stunning tonight. She warmed up the stage with her soft and tender voice on her song, “What About You”, and then continued showing her talent with “High & Dry”, a very popular Radiohead song. There was a clever twist in this song as well, with a new arrangement in ballads. Lala said after 3 cities she had been, Jakarta was the best crowd. For the third song, Lala took her guitar and started George Michael’s hit, “Faith”. This song continued by Edwin Cokelat, Candil Serieus and Dana the rapper. Again, the crowds popped. What an amazing concert!
After that song, Andi/rif arrived on stage and greeted the audience. He delivered U2’s famous song named “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. By the way he performed, we could see that he was very comfortable performing in swing jazz. Amazing composition on this song, making it seemed like a totally brand new song. Salute for the team arranger of Urban Jazz Crossover, with Nikita Dompas, the guitarist of Tomorrow People Ensemble among them. Surprise surprise, Nikita appeared on stage and led the band for the next song, popularized recently by Rihanna , “Umbrella”. With the great new arrangement and Andi/rif’s great vocal, again the song appeared in its new soul. Totally different than how we used to hear it. There were also some sexy dancers painted the stage by dancing with umbrellas. Andi continued his performance with the first single of his band, /rif, that also brought them to the top, “Radja”. This song was delivered in swing.
The biggest twist for me was happened next. Ali Akbar on keyboard started an intro, and a seriosa singer named Daniel sang. It turned out as the intro for “Clocks”, one of the hits of a famous English group, Coldplay. This song was carried by Andi and Daniel simultaneously, with Edwin’s guitar and Rayendra Sunito’s powerful beat on the drums added on. It was glorious and gave me goosebumps. Perfectly executed by the Urban Jazz Crossover All Stars.
After being mesmerized by the twist of “Clocks”, Candil came again on stage, wearing a red jacket similiar to Michael Jackson’s famous red jacket in the early 80’s. The crowds went wild when they heard the very famous intro of Jacko’s “Beat It”. Candil brought it well, then another twist happened in the middle. He turned the song into a funny Indonesian lyrics taken from a legendary Indonesian comedy group, Warkop’s version. A “right on spot” entertainment for the show.
After Candil, the last performer came on stage. It was Glenn Fredly’s time. He directly sand “Jejak Langkah Yang Kau Tinggal” acoustically. The song seemed to mean very deep to him. It was shown by the way he sang it. Maybe this song was dedicated to someone who he shared his life with some times ago. After that song, Yuyun the sinden came again, collaborated with Glenn and sang another Radiohead’s famous hit called “Creep”. This song got a new latin brand, delivered fresh, and that made the audience dance following the rhythm. Glenn said this is the kind of event that has to be made by many organizers/promotors, to show that Indonesia still has good quality events just like in other countries. He also said that Urban Jazz Crossover could become the answer for the Indonesian music Industry that has been “under the weather” for quite sometimes. The industry couldn’t offer something new, it has been trapped inside the trend. Glenn said, as we are now close to the selection day, no matter who the president will be, Indonesian music has to come in front. For me it was a very important statement. We really have to rise up the game, bringing more fresh new talent with new concepts to the surface. In fact we do have many talented bands who are still flying low under the radar, undetected. But ironically, big labels mostly care only to find bands that can give them big income without thinking of the skill and quality. It’s up to us, especially the indie labels to raise the quality up through their selections. Also, through special events like Urban Jazz Crossover, we could see how good we could be in real.
After a quite long speech, Glenn Fredly sang again together with Andi/rif in “I Shot The Sheriff”. Indra Aziz then did a beatbox, marking the comeback of Dira and Dana the rapper, in collaboration with Glenn Fredly with Michael Jackson’s song, “Rock With You”. This twisting great event closed with Sheila Madjid’s signature song, “Sinaran”. All crowds sang along, while Glenn called Eki Puradiredja to came on stage, introducing the whole performers participated in Urban Jazz Crossover. It was really an amazing music showdown, far above my expectation. A total party for Indonesian music, and also a sign that we still have many high quality and great talented people. It’s time to raise Indonesian music to the higher stage.
To conclude these all, Dji Sam Soe Urban Jazz Crossover is one of the best music shows ever held! Awesome concept, great music and magical performance from the whole musicians! I’m having an orgasmic experience! Hopefully it will be bigger next year! I’m expecting more!
ps: Don’t miss the last city on the tour, Surabaya, May 29, 2009 at The Empire Palace. (ticket price: IDR 50.000; and it can be cheaper than that if you buy it online, using Buy 1 Get 1 Program )
See more pictures:
Reporter: Titis Sapto Raharjo
Photographer: Novan Yahya Renatal
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
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