January 19, 2007

The Colorful Pasar Jazz 2007

I managed to escape from office at about 6.30pm on Thursday, January 18, and headed straight to Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (The Jakarta Playhouse) where Pasar Jazz (literally Jazz Market) 2007 would be held. Traffic was not so bad. It took about 50 minutes from my office at Gatot Subroto to GKJ at Pasar Baru. Not bad at all for those who know Jakarta.

I spent Rp.100,000 for two persons (Dewi took a taxi to get to GKJ). The other choice was to seat at the balcony for Rp.40,000 per person. It's definitely a good price, at least compared to Wolfgang Muthspiel show. Yet with the same capacity of Rasuna Concert Hall of 400 seats, there were only around 150 seats occupied.

Something was not right. With 8 million people living in Jakarta in the evening, 15 million during daylight, we couldn't get 400 people to fill up all the seats? Musicians, organizers, maybe you need to get assistance about marketing communication, maybe also politics, to get more publicities and sponsors from big companies while helping them to fulfill their corporate socials responsibilities!



The show was opened by these two MCs. No opening speech. Good. These two persons filled up the void between performances, and they were both informative and entertaining. Good job.

The first performer was Ensemble D’Etudiant. The group was established at the end of 2004, born from activities organized by “Komunitas Jazz Kemayoran”. They were Laili Fauziah (Vocal), Robert Julius (Piano), Adriansyah Soemirat (Contrabass), Areza Riandra (drumset), featuring Rio Harlan (guitar). Don’t ask me what songs they played. I didn’t take notes. However, I love their music. It’s sweet and groovy.










Then there was Beben Quartet, featuring Carolina. This swing quartet was established in 2003, as part of Kemayoran Jazz Communities. The members are Beben (Guitar, Vocal), Masmo (Piano), Joshua (Contra Bass) and Hendra (Drum). Carolina joined the group in 2005 as a featuring artist. I love this group. They know how to entertain people with good music and good stage act. Carolina was not only sexy with her outfit and body movements, she seduce people with her voice too.












Next was Indra Aziz. I love this big guy, and I think this was the best performer at that night. Philippe at percussion made the stage lively with his body movements and expressions. The one with guitar, couldn't get his name, played exceptionally well. Indra’s also played his own composition, which I found it a first class quality one. He closed the performance by playing Bento, a legendary song created by Iwan Fals. Two thumbs up!
















There was a break of about 20 minutes. It supposed to be a good time to greet the performers to get to know them better, and yet I was busy searching my lens cap that I thought was missing. It wasn't.

The next performer was Zarro Ananta. Whilst he might need to learn more on how to communicate more lively with his audience, Zarro’s vocal was superb and he played guitar exceptionally well.
Zarro released his Latin-jazz album in Palu’s language. Palu is the capital city of Central Sulawesi province, east Indonesia












It’s BOBB Quartet show time. BOBB Quartet was formed in September 2005. The members are Dion Janapria (guitar), Donny Sundjoyo (double bass), Boyke Priyo Utomo (tenor sax), and Titi Sjuman (drums). The show was purely a demonstration of flawless technical performance, with minimal interaction with audience. It’s Wolfgang Muthspiels’ type of things.

I was just thinking while listening to their music, which made me a bit sleepy actually, why these people couldn’t learn on how to communicate with audience, which I thought it should be much easier to learn rather than learning to play their instruments.








The last performer was the New Conservative. The trio was established in June 2006, consists of Titi Sjuman (drums), Yudo Nugroho Sundjojo (acoustic bass), and Julian Abraham Marantika (piano). Whilst I couldn’t really enjoy their music, however I must say that they played quite well.












Overall, it's absolutely worth for time and the money spent. With these talented young people around, Jazz music has a strong foundation already to flourish in the near future. People will then need to book the ticket well in advance to get a seat.

Well, see you all next year.
Label: Entertainment, Music
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