The Awesome Gugun

It was a short text message from Yoosca that brought me to Bentara Budaya Jakarta on the evening of March 12, 2009, to see the performance of Gugun & The Blues Shelter. It's again another unfamiliar name to my ears, but since I considered myself a fan of blues, I killed my hesitancies to face the legendary crowded traffic of Jakarta and decided to go. It was definitely the right decision, as it turned out to be one of the best local music performances that I have ever seen.

I was really surprised to see Bentara Budaya Jakarta packed with so many people when I arrived. It was still early, and yet no empty seats were available, but I did not need a seat anyway. I was wondering what drove people to come while seeing a young man on the stage playing solo blues. His name is Adrian Adietomo who played songs from his own album, such as Tegangan Tinggi, Telegram, Blues Iblis, Pemberontak Terakhir, and Lepas Anjingmu. He's really good on his guitar, and the rhythmic sound of his foot helped him in performing a good music.


Then at about 8 p.m., Gugun and the Blues Shelter took the stage. While I have never heard any of the songs that he played, that apparently taken mostly from his "Turn it On" album (released in 2006), to my eyes, ears and soul the group performance was really awesome, right from the first song to the end.


Mohammad "Gugun" Gunawan, the group leader, guitarist and vocalist, electrified the audience with his superb performance. He's accompanied by Aditya "Bowie" Wibowo who played with full of energy on drums and Tri "Enti" Widodo on electric bass.

Watch Youtube video below. It was taken from the annual Skegness Rock & Blues Festival in UK, 25th Jan 2009 on the Centre Stage. The group was the closing act of the festival and this was their final song. Amstrong was on electric bass. Great music!



Bowie on drums heated up the night with his abundance energy.


Tri "Enti" Widodo on electric bass fit well with group.


And watch this, the cover version of Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' performed by Gugun & Blues shelter at the 229 Club, Great Portland Street, London. It was taken during the band's January 2009 UK Tour. It's just fantastic!


The packed Bentara Budaya Jakarta, with the audience fully hypnotized by Gugun and the Blues Shelter's performance. After their last song, the group played extra two songs to fulfill the audience request and everyone finally stood up and moved their bodies along with the rythm.

It was a great performance indeed, thanks to Bentara Budaya Jakarta. Hopefully you can find his CD in the nearest music store. Highly recommended.

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On Virtual Enterprise Program

For the first time, high school students from High/Scope Indonesia are participating in the 3rd Merrill Lynch Global Business Challenge Competition and 12th Annual International Trade Fair to be held on 23-26 March in New York City. Participants prepared themselves for one school year under the guidance of teacher/facilitators and business partners. Indonesia is the first participant form South East Asia, in which grade 11 students were prepared for 2 semesters.

The VEP in NYC schools has drawn attention as an applied learning instructional model for business, economic, finance, and career education. The concept has grown in the United States to include programs in over 300 secondary and post secondary institutions, and since 1995 has been a prestigious program for high school with international participations.

VEP is a simulated business, established and managed by students under the guidance of teacher-facilitator and a business partner. The VEP allows students to experience all facets of being an employee of a firm in an actual business environment. Students are involved in every aspect of running business, including human resources, accounting, product development, production, distribution, marketing and sales, and they engage in virtual trading with other practice firms around the world.

A typical VE company is comprised of 5 departments: Admin, Acct/Finance, Marketing, Sales/Purchasing, Human Resources. The company has a CEO, a president, and vice president that head each department. In VEP, real goods are not actually produced, neither exchanged, nor actual currency is used, the transfer of “virtual funds” is made electronically through a web-based simulated banking system that links all US firms with the rest of the world. In this case, High/Scope students established their Nusantara Virtual Company, a company producing customized sneaker shoes. The Teacher as Facilitator role is mainly to guide and direct student process.

Corporate business partners play an integral role in helping shape the VE firm as well as the program at large. The business partner may provide advice and guidance, samples of services and product, mentoring and shadowing opportunities, etc. High/Scope students virtual company were guided by business partners from various industries, such the President Commissioner of Rajawali Group, Marketing Director of Frisian Flag, Denny Taher, President Director of Manulife Financial Indonesia, President Director of Hotel Prima Group and Mia Farahziska, and Brand Manager Sport, Golf and Kids Division of PT Mitra Adi Perkasa.

Each year, participant from all over the world gather in NY and participate in a Virtual trade fair, in which each participant were allowed to present their virtual business in a competitive marketplace with their local and global peers.

The VEP has developed a task-based curriculum that combines both academic and applied learning. The VE International Central Office (VECO) provides technical support and advice for establishing and maintaining a VE, training for participating enterprises and facilitators, and information about other practice firm networks. In addition, VE center provides day to day support for trading through its bank, taxation agency, and wholesale company.

VECO insures that academic and business standards as well as program objectives are met. Its mission is to provide leadership coordination, conflict resolution, and training for the participating schools, teachers and students. Let's hope that the Nusantara Virtual Company will perform well, and all the students will get valuable lessons from the program.

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Quasimode@JavaJazz

I had no idea at all what kind of band that I was going to see when my daughter brought me to Cendrawasih 2-3 hall at the second day of Java Jazz Festival 2009, to watch Quasimode performance. That tells me how important it is to listen to jazz radio, watch mTV and other music shows, and see jazz performance more often. Things I seldom do.



Upon entering the hall, which was packed with a big crowd of young people, I saw the six young all male Japanese musicians played a lively and dynamic composition on the stage.


Takashi Okutsu's performance on drums was very impressive. He has full of power, full of spirit and vigor, and so was the saxophonist and bassist.


The sound of percussion, played well by Takahiro "Mattz" Matsuoka, was somewhat dominant in almost all the songs that made me forgot how good Hirado Yusuke's performance was on the piano / keyboard.


Kazuhiro Sunaga's performance on bass was actually quite fantastic, only that he was eclipsed by Mattz's aggressiveness in playing percussion. As long as I remember, Kazuhiro played solo only in one song and that was just for a few seconds. He should have more confidence to show his prowess, and not to be too shy.





After playing their last song, they finally fulfilled the audience request for them to play more. Another two music compositions from one of their albums were played that got warm reception from the audience.

Overall, it was a good music, and I was happy to know them and to see their live performance at the Java Jazz Festival 2009.

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Chaseiro@JavaJazz

Sweet and soft music that perfectly combined and blended nicely with solid all males choir have put Chaseiro in a very special place in the hearts of Indonesian music fans of the late 70s and early 80s. It's really nice and sweet to see the legendary group performance in a big stage of Cendrawasih 1-2 at the Jakarta Convention Center, on day-2 of the JavaJazz Festival 2009.

The absence of Candra Darusman, the inspiration and song writer of the group, seemingly didn't affect the group's spirit to play lively and intimately in front of their long time fans and friends.

Too bad that I missed some of the beautiful songs, particularly my most favorite and the sweetest song of the group titled Sapa Prabencana (written by Candra Darusman and Joeliardi Soenendar), as I didn't want to miss completely Syaharani's performance at the adjacent stage of Cendrawasih-3. I just wish that I knew the run-down songs beforehand. Well, the good thing was I didn't miss Pemuda (written by Candra Darusman), the last song they played to close their performance.

The name of Chaseiro was derived from the first letter of its initial members, i.e. Candra Darusman (Keyboard, Vocal), Helmi Indrakesuma (Vocal), Aswin Sastrowardojo (Vocal, Guitars), Edi Hudioro (Flute), Irwan Indrakesuma (Vocal), Rizali Indrakesuma (Bass, Vocal), and Omen (Norman Sonisontani, Vocal).

It’s really good to hear that they now practice regularly and even better if they can perform every two or three months for their fans. With the quality of the songs that they have and their commitment to play quality music, I would certainly love to always come to their live concert.














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Sierra@JavaJazz

I have no idea about who she is, neither the group of young musicians with whom she played with, but when I entered the crowded hall out of curiosity, sat comfortably on the floor, and started listening to her vocals and the music, I enjoyed both. Later I knew that her name is Amanda Sierra Soetedjo, singer and songwriter, played nice music with Ali Akbar Sugiri at Piano, Donny Sundjoyo who played quite well at Bass, Dion Janapria at Guitar and Sandy Winarta on Drums.

Google brought me more information about her that, among others, she studied music at WAAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts) in Perth, graduated in Advance Diploma of Contemporary Music in 2005 and held Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) in 2007. More about her can be found at her impressive profile at my space.

With her solid background music education, her experience in both overseas and local events, nice and sleek appearance, her ability to work with other musicians, coupled with her talent to dance and write songs, she will definitely have a good future in the music and entertainment industry in Indonesia.















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Syaharani@JavaJazz

Cendrawasih3-room at the Jakarta Convention Center obviously could not accommodate the flock of Syaharani's loyal fans who wanted to see their beloved iconic Jazz vocalist performed with the Queenfireworks band. The abundance energy that she has, the color of her superb vocal, her friendliness and closeness to her fans, her pretty appearance, the vibrant music and solid musicians lineup that supported her, have made her show memorable as always.

Here are a few shots from the air, above the heads of the big crowd, relied solely on the brightness indicator of the camera, stable hand and luck.

Hope to see you perform in a much larger concert hall next time Non, at least in the Assembly Hall. If not, a large open air stage would then be much better for you, and the fans.





















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