Wandering minstrels corner cattle market audience<\/p>\n
Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
A young woman clad in a traditional Javanese costume danced
\nunder the scorching sun at a corner of a traditional cattle
\nmarket in Pakuncen, Yogyakarta. Her audience was an amused crowd
\nof traders who were having lunch or just hanging around smoking.<\/p>\n
With her was an older woman singing traditional Javanese songs
\nto the accompaniment of a Javanese drum, sitar, kendang (drum)
\nand zither played by an old man and a middle-aged woman.<\/p>\n
Some cattle dealers swayed their heads to the drum beat and
\nmelody of the zither, while having lunch at a small foodstall.<\/p>\n
An elderly cattle seller rose and danced with the young
\ndancer. Sweat streamed down her face. When the music stopped, the
\nold man fished a Rp 5,000 bank note from his pocket and slipped
\nit down her cleavage. She smiled flirtatiously at him.<\/p>\n
Another cattle seller shouted at the young singer, asking her
\nto sing his favorite song Bojo Loro (Two wives), a contemporary
\nJavanese song, a mixture of Javanese and dangdut. This highly
\npopular music is locally called campursari.<\/p>\n
The street show has rekindled the spirit of regular market-
\ngoers.<\/p>\n
Unlike annoying street singers, whose number has sharply
\nincreased in Yogyakarta since the economic crisis in 1997, this
\ntraditional street music group is worth listening to, and it is
\npopular because the fee is not obligatory.<\/p>\n
Leader of the group 74-year-old Supono, or Pak Pono, knows
\nonly too well the right time to show up at the cattle market. The
\nband usually appears at midday or lunch time, when most of the
\ntraders have called it a day.<\/p>\n
"We can make a lot of money performing at the cattle market.
\nPeople here don't mind giving us between Rp 5,000 and Rp 20,000
\nfor each song we play," he said. The band gets between Rp 150,000
\nand Rp 200,000 for each session.<\/p>\n
Their income is shared between himself and his three band
\nmembers: his 49-year-old wife Lasasih who plays the zither; two
\nfemale singers -- Setiatun, 25 and Padmi, 40.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Pakuncen cattle market only opens once a month.
\nFor the rest of the month, they perform at other cattle markets.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Pak Pono's band performs on a door-to-door basis,
\nwhen they cannot perform at the cattle market.<\/p>\n
"We are lucky when there is a group of pedicab drivers or city
\nbus personnel who hire us to perform for them. When this happens,
\nwe don't have to wander about," he said.<\/p>\n
Strength and patience are well-reflected in Pak Pono's
\nblackened face. He still smiles when people in the street say
\nnasty things about him and his band, or when members of his
\naudience refuse to pay for his music.<\/p>\n
He has spent 20 years of his life busking.<\/p>\n
"I love music and I'm happy to earn money from playing music,
\neven though I'm only a street musician," he said.<\/p>\n
Pak Pono moved to Yogyakarta from his hometown of Semarang,
\nCentral Java, in the late 1970s, along with four band members,
\nincluding his wife Lasasih who used to be the group's singer and
\ndancer.<\/p>\n
Some 10 years after, two of his members died. While one of his
\nfour artists, the zither player, quit to form his own band in
\nSemarang.<\/p>\n
Of the original personnel, only Pak Pono and his wife Lasasih
\nremain. He recalls that he tried hard to re-establish his music
\ngroup. First he trained his wife on how to play the zither. When
\nshe was good enough with the musical instrument, he went home to
\nSemarang to recruit his neighbors, Padmi and Setiatun, as
\nsingers.<\/p>\n
He finally made it, but is worried about the group's future,
\nbecause he has no apparent successors.<\/p>\n
But Pak Pono is for the time being a popular street
\nentertainer, offering enjoyable music at a time when most buskers
\nare more renowned for being scroungers, scaring the public away
\nrather than attracting a regular, faithful audience.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wandering-minstrels-corner-cattle-market-audience-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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