Sunday Jazz at Ruang Putih II : The Report

Submitted by Riandy K on June 20, 2010 – 3:51 pmNo Comment

Time for Sunday Jazz! It was another edition of regular jazz event provided by Klab Jazz in cooperation with two cafes so far. After Sunday Jazz at Potluck on June 6, Klab Jazz continued to roll another jazz event at the next cafe,Ruang Putih , called Sunday Jazz at Ruang Putih II on Sunday, June 20, 2010

This is something very interesting. We’ve seen a new trend on how to provide closer to the audiences, in cool and cozy way. This is a brilliant way to reach younger segmentation and Klab Jazz has seen this trend as good chance to introduce jazz to wider segment. The respond so far has been awesome. We have witnessed more and more youngsters came to enjoy the gigs, both at Ruang Putih and Potluck Coffee Bar and Library.

It’s nice to see a café with lots of live music like Ruang Putih. Not only jazz, they also serve many other genres including blues. For the jazz section, they collaborate with Klab Jazz which surely know how to present jazz in quality. After the first Sunday Jazz at Ruang Putih last month, Sunday Jazz at Ruang Putih II brought three bands which were Cameo, Pineapple also Iman Rahman and Friends. First of all, let’s take a look at the venue. It’s a café with the concept to fit the youngsters and young at heart. The majority of white color presents the purity that enable you to feel relax and comfortable. The stage was set on the left side of the entrance, that so all the audiences could enjoy the live performance from just about anywhere inside the café, while sipping their drinks and munching their tasty snacks. It’s a perfect choice as well, as the stage could be clearly seen from the street to attract the by-passers.

Cameo is one of the band who participated on Kampung Jazz 2010 audition with very cool fusion of their style. They were unfortunate on that moment because one of the personnel was unable to come due to an accident. With only one song it was difficult to decide them as the winner, but still we saw potential even with one song. At Ruang Putih Cameo got the chance to show what they really got, and they didn’t waste the chance at all. They opened strong with a famous fusion song by Karimata, “Take Off To Padang”, which was presented heavily in West Sumatra’s traditional melody and typical rhythm. Some more songs were delivered including “Nothing Personal”, “Time Out”, “Bluelles Pie”, and ”Jazz Crime”. We feel happy that we have another young band now to carry on the fusion in Bandung.

A sudden jam session was made due to the trouble of next performers on their way to arrive. Gallang Perdana Dalimunthe teamed up with Gito, the coordinator of ITJazz and Rino. Interestingly they came out with complex compositions for this sudden teaming. They brought Charlie Parker’s “Au Privave”, Sonny Rollins’ “St Thomas” and Chick Corea’s “Spain” nicely just like they had gone through a lot of rehearsals.

After the break Pineapple took the stage. Pineapple is the group of Ventje Music School (VMS) students and teachers which was formed in 2005. The group consists of Ule Suleman on drums, Martin on bass, Ray on keyboard and Welly on guitar. Again we got a really cool fusion on stage. They brought their own song, “Take It Easy” with a nice rockin’ guitar embedded in jazz pattern. The chill out moment came with “Hard Tired” , then they gave a speeding song “Rattle Trump” with guitar distortion rocking the night away and closed their session with a cool samba rhythm on Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”.

Finally it was the turn for Iman Rahman and Friends as the last band to perform. Iman Rahman and Friends has performed a couple of time such as at Sunday Jazz at Potluck and Frenzy Jazz Night at Neo Calista. Iman Rahman was known as one of the personnel of Chalk for Cheese as the bassist and now he’s taking one step further by leading his own band with Egon Firman on keyboard, Arief Baradja on drum and Oki on guitar. We could never forget the charming smile of Iman Rahman every time he performs. With their style going more into ethnic taking on Javanese pentatonic pattern, they explored every melody still in the funky beat that would not be difficult for us to listen to. Iman knows how to bring his bass forward without changing the flow of the song. The ethnical pentatonic were brought nicely through “Tegar” and “Bermain-main”. Andos was called to join them and sang Halmahera’s hit “Khayalanku”. The last song brought the mystical ethnic pattern even stronger, “Berkelana Sendiri”.

After all, the very entertaining event had to end. With the crowds of the audiences, we could feel the satisfaction and now we can’t wait for another jazz event from Klab Jazz appears in another café. Which café will join the club to cheer the jazz up? So much curiousity on that! Thank you to Klab Jazz, Ruang Putih, all the performing bands, sponsors, the crowds, and everyone involved in this successful monthly event. Hope to see you again next month. Keep it up!

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