Wednesday, December 22, 2004

@ Jazz Goes To Campus FEUI, Depok, 19 Des 2004

Setelah sehari sebelumnya digempur dengan band-band beroktan tinggi sekarang saatnya mengkonsumsi band-band dengan kafein tinggi, Jazz. I love jazz, dan acara jazz yang segede ini cuman sekali setaon, jadi sekali'kali bolehlah kita korbanin gig pop and rock. Good event, good line-up (benny and bubi chen, balawan, idang and margie, gilang, fariz, sova, dan syarani tapi batal), good friends.

Acaranya sendiri udah dimulai dari siang hari tapi gue sendiri baru sampai jem 3.30 sore karena gue berasumsi semua nama yang gue sebutin tadi mainnya baru malemnya. Ternyata gilang ramadhan (NERA band), benny lik.. (gue gak pernah bisa sebut namanya dengan bener..) dan bubi chen udah main siangnya.. shucks.. gue kesel banget.. padahal benny dan bubi is my favourite.. kecewa berat.. Dude, classic jazz itu harusnya malem dong kalo outdoor, contemporary and world music, nah itu bisa sepanjang hari..

So gue dateng pas saat Fariz RM maen di stage A.. Hm.. Nuansa jazz 80an sangat terasa ambientnya.. Reminds me when i was a kid back then. Gak bisa komen banyak karena wakut itu gue pengen ke stage B untuk nonton benny, taunya jadwalnya udah terbalik'balik dari yang di pamflet.

Balik lagi di stage A, SOVA is performing live. SOVA is actually a performer consisted of two person, but not a lot of people realize that because of their sublime variety in their lounge music. Andes dan satu lagi namanya gue lupa (dua'duanya lulusan Berklee) pegang groove box plus keyboard dan bass, sisanya mereka bawa 1 orang di perkusi, 1 di drum, 1 lagi di keyboard, dan 2 hm-yo-mama-sweet-ass-ladies di vokal.. Well, yah yang itu, selain permainan komposisi musik yang kompleks, penyanyi itu gak tahan bo.. sangat memuaskan mata. Who could resist these angel-voiced hot-body sophisticated-style ladies? Kalo gue gak usah ditanya, langsung gue telen... Mereka main 4 lagu, yang cukup menghanyutkan kalo menurut gue. Tapi ternyata memang crowd jazz disini rata-rata masih pendengar beginner, jadi sedikit yang keliatan menikmati mereka, this goes along the whole show. Gue sangat menikmati lagu terakhirnya which is their first single which i forgot the title eventhough i listened to it right now (kotak cdnya ketinggalan di bandung hehe) dengan tempo yang dilambatin sedikit tapi tidak mengubah sama sekali aransemennya which makes it more sensual, nice.. very nice.. Overall gue sangat seneng dengan performance livenya SOVA yang baru pertama kali gue liat karena sebelumnya gak pernah sempet mampir di Jakarta.

And then, gue beli beli makan dulu, Cherokee main di stage B, gak sempet liat secara langsung karena emang udah rame banget, berhubung di stage A udah gak ada yang main lagi sampai habis magrib. Soal nama stage kayaknya sengaja di balik. Stage B itu jauh lebih besar dari pada stage A dan performernya juga udah gede namanya, stage A diletakkan deket pintu masuk dan menyajikan musik-musik jazz kontemporer.

Jem 7 mulai ada yang panggung tapi gue lupa nama bandnya karena emang ga ada di pamflet, quintet jazz, lady vocal plus piano, a drummer, a bule trumpetist dan oom yance pada bass. Gue inget nama bassis ini karena maennya top abis, trus bass yang dibawanya juga keren, an electric contra bass with just a neck vertical slim body. Vokalisnya, suaranya keren banget, kayak Diana Krall. They played very nice, all are jazz standards.

Setelah itu baru, Idang Rasidi Quintet dan Margie Sergers. This one i've waited too, sejak Idang ngeluarin Live at Four Seasonsnya yang launchingnya juga bareng sama album barunya Margie Sergers. Idang on grand piano, Nanda on guitar, that Syuman chick on drums (satu-satunya primadona malem itu untuk para anak'anak kuliahan) and a bass player. Mereka juga main jazz standards. Featured artist on the performers ada seorang pemain flute with a great jazz spirit namun tampaknya sudah kehabisan nafas dan vokalis cowo yang suaranya kayak michael jackson waktu kecil, berimprovisasi dalam My Funny Valentine. Idang Rasidi is surely one of the greatest jazz pianist and keyboardist di Indonesia sekarang, yang akhir'akhir ini lebih fokus ke piano jazz. Melihat kemampuannya ber-scat sambil berharmonisasi dengan melodi pianonya, memperlihatkan sampai sejauh mana pianis jazz bisa meraih, walau kalo bicara selalu dengan nafas pendek yang nampaknya wajar untuk orang yang segemuk dia, tapi when he's scatting, it's awesome. And the band, with these jazz standards bisa bawa suasana yang lebih romantis dan soothing than the band before, they had this thing called Jazz.

Lalu sebagai penutup Balawan and the Batuan Ethnic Fusion. The most mindblowing performance in JGTC. Sebenernya karena waktu itu udah malem dan depok sangat jauh gue udah kepengen balik, tapi gue penasaran dengan seorang Wayan Balawan yang namanya udah harum sebagai gitaris terbaik di bali sejak gue smp.

Balawan steps up with his balinese accent and start playing like his master, Stanley Jordan, with the both hands tapping style. He performed with a very comedic style that night. First, he imitates the sound of piano with his guitar. Seeing him played it is like a real pianist, with fingers tapping everywhere. Then he continued with the first song, Bird Song. Again he amazes everyone with his guitar playing skill on a violin sound effect, it's like hearing from Pagnini the violin god himself, and not like any other crappy contemporary string musicians.

The next song, is a fingering-warming for him. Just say like, steve vai, petrucci, malmstein, name all those shredders, with steve jordan playing style and sounded like those funk trumpet keyboardist. It's a blast! Seeing his right hand fingers tapping the string is like a carnaval ride, very very awesome. You think that Blaine is the one you believe, well you haven't saw Balawan. I believe in Balawan.

But that's not just it. He is also great singer and jazz musician. He sang through all the songs replacing his vocalist. "Jazz is free man, anyone could do anything," he said. He played a cover on my most favourite Bob Marley song, Waiting in Vain. His musicians have good skills in varied Balinese music instrument and kecak vocal arangement. I guess they're all his hometown friends from the village of Batuan in Bali, and the best i think.

The next thing, he asked his percussionist to have a competition with him in Balinese percussion, gendang. But instead of playing the real thing, he played it, again, on his guitar. I have never seen a man played like that, even Steve Vai. Then he loosened up a bit by an romantic improvisation with his piano sounded guitar, but it ended when one of the comittee ran through the stage, and he started to play some silly carnaval songs to adjust with the situation he said. What a guy.

Then he cover an Al Jarreau but converts the diatonic scale which consists of 12 melodies into Balinese scale which is, ehm, five, damn creative man, damn.. He continued with the Countrycrazycengcengan. He proved that his speed is not only with his picking hand to tap but also his left hand. His skills are incredible and that put him as one of the golden Indonesian musician.

Ending his show with a cover on Roxanne, Balawan has proved that he was a great jazz musician, and I think that's what jazz performance should be like. It's not only with incredible skils and improvisations but also with a passion and spirit and entertaining as well.

Heheh sori pas balawan pake bahasa Inggris soalnya biar temen gue yang diluar bisa baca, coz Balawan is so special, walau sebenernya udah banyak cdnya beredar di Eropa dan jadi barang langka di Indo, heheh. Untung gue ada channel untuk dapetin musiknya.. Pokoknya nonton Balawan bener'bener bisa nutupin kekecewaan gue di siang hari karena gak nonton benny dan bubi chen. I can't wait for JGTC next year.

Salam buat Ferani dan Ella yang udah nemenin gue, cai dan anak'anak ars 03 lainnya yang dateng dari bandung, temen'temen di feui; ivan, anto, erik, monsur dan deta, kanti yang buka kafe, anak cc'99-'04 yang dateng kesono dan ni ketut (udah kawinin aja itu Balawan).

Ryan ngoceh'ngoceh at 12/22/2004 05:22:00 PM 0 ikut'ngoceh

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