Flexi Jazz Night 2 Report
As we all know, not so many jazz events held at Surabaya lately whether it’s regularly or monthly. So, all jazzlovers in Surabaya gave a great response when Telkom Flexi sponsored Jazz Night 2. It was the follow up of the first Jazz Night that was held on December 4, 2008. Jazz Night 2 was held last night (March 18, 2009) at Gramedia Expo Building Surabaya. After being quiet for quite sometimes from jazz, Surabaya’s jazzlovers were surely excited with this event. The hype was there, just like Michael Franks‘ concert in Surabaya several month ago.
Jazz Night 2 was an event with a mission. By making this kind of event, hopefully Surabaya will be back as the home of jazz. Surabaya was known as a city that produced many jazz musicians in Indonesian music history. Many legends, senior musicians and also singers originally came and started their career from Surabaya.
Back to Jazz Night 2, the event featured Yason A Gunawan (piano and tenor sax), Benny Chen (the son of Bubi Chen: drums), Totok Afiat (Surabaya All Stars:bass) and Benny Kartono (vocal). Including many special guests, like Eryka, Natasya from Idola Cilik, and last but not least, Malcolm Aiken.
Malcolm Aiken is known as a trumpeter, producer and band leader in his country, Canada. He has some bands like the 12 piece Latin Jazz Big Band Tanga, Malcolm Aiken Jazz and many more (more details at malcolmaiken.com)
He obviously showed up his skill last night beautifully. He played some cozy and sweet tunes by his trumpet. Some from his own album and some from classic songs such as “I Feel For You”, “Careless Whisper” and much more. The crowds really enjoyed his performance. He performed harmoniously with our own local Surabaya’s jazz musicians.
In the middle of the show, the local musicians gave some reviews about Jazz and the progress in Indonesia, especially in Surabaya for about 20 minutes. They mentioned that lot of Indonesian famous Jazz musicians originally came from Surabaya. The virtuoso Bubi Chen, the late great saxophonist Embong Rahardjo, the senior guitarist Oele Pattiselano, to name a view, are some of the legendary jazz musicians that came from Surabaya, the capital of East Java. They mentioned that Surabaya jazzlovers should always be proud of that.
Then the show continued with a really nice surprise. They asked Bubi Chen who was there, watching from the audience seat, performed on stage with Malcolm Aiken. The audience were excited and gave standing ovations spontaniously for the piano virtuoso. The legendary maestro Bubi Chen was still amazing. He showed his great skill on piano again, like he always do, and showed us why he’s called the “Art Tatum Of Indonesia”, and named as one of the “10 Best All Time Piano Player in the World“. Fantastic play! The collaborations between Bubi Chen and Malcolm Aiken was really sweet.
Overall it was a great event. What made me even happier about the show, it was fully crowded by the youngsters. That’s really great to know. Surabaya jazzlovers really appreciated the show, no doubt about it, and I’m sure also wish for more Jazz events in Surabaya in the future.
Reporter & Photographer: Jazzlova
Popularity: 33% [?]
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