Saya terbaca satu artikel di akhbar mingguan berbahasa malaysia mengenai Java Jazz Festival yang diadakan di Jakarta baru-baru ini. Artikel yang ditulis oleh seorang wartawan yang bertugas di sana agak menghampakan. Mungkin kerana tugas untuk memenuhi kolum di akhbar dan tidak memahami muzik jazz kerana terlalu “into rock muzik”, beberapa info yang tidak tepat telah diberikan buat peminat-peminat jazz di Malaysia.
Jazz is not everyone cup of tea but if you are really love music, please don’t put a barrier to it. This is my first time attending a jazz festival and very excited to be part of the largest jazz festival in the world, even for 1 day. (Java Jazz Festival is a 3 days event and has been held annually every early March).
Bought the ticket online for 300,00rp (one day daily pass). If you buy it earlier or wanted to go for the full 3 days event, a special promotion price is given only for a limited time. It’s highly recommend and a very good deal. There were also “ticket touts” or “ulat tiket” selling the daily pass outside the venue. Hati-hati ya cause you have to bargain for the price, if not you’ll be buying the ticket more expensive than the original price.
Not to be missed the excitement and to avoid the heavy crowd, we went early to the festival. Lots of special booth were open here. Everything from fashion, cds & dvd, all range of musical instrument & gears, music channel, Indonesian tourism, KLM Airlines and even Blue Bird Group (for transportations) are in this big event. Even our Malaysian GP and Sunburst KL promoting their concert here.. (sad to hear what happened to N.E.R.D after the concert, it was a shame to Malaysian music scene. Well.. I guess we can learn a thing or two from this Java Festival organizer).
We catched a gamelan jazz fusion performance by Gamelan Shokbreaker, after hours browsing the booth and bought a few merchandise. It’s an outstanding collaborations between Norwegian and Indonesian musician. They were playing the traditional and classical Indonesian music. (Rhythm in Bronze used to “jamming” a gamelan fusion in Actor Studio back in 2005. Remember?)
This 5th edition of Java Jazz has brought variety to the festival. There’re gamelan, rock, funk, soul, R&B, and etc…
After has been mesmerized by the sound of gamelan, we move on to the rock sound of Slank. By this time, the crowd has already started coming to the venue. Inside the hall, people patiently and eagerly waited to see the greatest rock band in Indonesia to “goes jazz”. No sign of typical Slankers (Slank fans) among this jazz fans. Maybe because it was too early (Slanks performance started at 4pm) or the ticket price was too expensive or cause it was “Jazz Festival”, I’m not sure.
Once the announcer introduced the band on stage and the shirtless Kaka belting his first number “Ngangkang”, crowds started cheering and dancing to the tunes. Heavy & bluesy riffs, horns by the Ron King Big Band and critical lyrics like Gossip Jalanan, Jinna were all blended well, even if it didn’t sound that jazzy. Who cares? The crowds were having fun and together we sang along to Slank slow number “Ku Tak Bisa”. Does that qualify me to become a Slankers? Hehehe…
Everywhere in each hall, there’s performances going on and we couldn’t catch them all. We nearly missed Tompi, Anna’s favourite singer, cause the hall was already packed. Yup!, some halls were full even before the show started. Disebabkan Tompi ni rendah, Ana terpaksa menjengket beberapa kali to see him. Tompi as always bring up a good show and his energetic voice makes the tunes more lively. We couldn’t resist ourselves from sang along to Menghujam Jantungku, Sedari Dulu, Salahkah and… I guessed all his songs. Oooh.. What a lovely moment.
Have you ever listened to “Death Jazz”? This was an unforgettable mind blowing performance by Japanese jazz group called “Soil N Pimp” Sessions. It comprised of six musicians playing drums, piano, saxophone, bass, trumpet and agitator (the very interesting bearded front man with a megaphone). Never heard a jazz music been played this aggressive and believe or not, I’m head banging to their tunes. (In 2007, they were invited to play at “Later with Jools Holland”).
By this time, it’s already past midnight and the hall was still packed for the final performance by Maliq N D’Essentials. Cheering the crowds with the opener “Terdiam”, the band delivered a very tight set arrangement featuring The Organics All Star. There were songs from the new album too “Mata, Hati, Telinga” (Pilihanku is definitely my favourite). Little disappointment was Angga & the heavily pregnant Indah voices agak tenggelam at the beginning, but then it didn’t stop the crowds from having fun cause the tunes really made our body moves…
After all, what else can I say more… besides photos, to be part of this experience is definitely completed our journey…
*Already marked on next year’s calendar... Hoping it’s getting even bigger and better.
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