Bob James delivers top-notch performance
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The fun part of watching a live jazz performance is the improvisations and also the occasional interchanges -- nods, smiles and glances -- between musicians, which keep them on the same wavelength.
The fun is heightened when all the players are seasoned and have jammed together dozens of times before.
This was the case with the Bob James concert at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta on Dec. 11.
Bob James on piano, Jack Lee on guitar, Nathan East on bass and vocals and Lewis Pragasam on drums -- dressed casually, which fashionistas might lament -- gave a top-notch performance.
Playing six jazz compositions from his old and new albums as well as Fourplay's albums, James, 65, demonstrated his comfort in the genre 40 years into his career.
Fourplay's bassist East, 50, sometimes stole the attention from James with his superb bass playing.
However, his vocals are apparently not as superb as his bass playing as he seemed hesitant singing James' new composition from the Angels of Shanghai album, recently released in South Korea.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, like James himself said before they played the song, it was East's first live performance of the song.
"Forgive him if he forgets the words," James said jokingly.
Asianergy band members, South Korean Jack Lee, who has been playing with James for 10 years, and Malaysian Lewis Pragasam put in a quality performance, proving that jazz has found its place in Asian culture.
Gita I. Wirjawan, the president director of JPMorgan Chase Bank in Jakarta who also acted, through his company Omega Pacific, as the organizer of the event, took the opportunity to demonstrate his music skills.
James modestly invited Gita to the stage, explaining that they met and played piano together in Singapore.
He relinquished the seat in front of the acoustic piano to Gita, took the seat in front of a keyboard, and played Gita's composition Morning Walk.
Erasing the audience's doubt about the relatively obscure pianist, Gita, who studied at the Julliard School of Music before becoming a banker, was a pleasure to listen to,in spite of his self-deprecating opener that he would probably put a dampener on the audience's enjoyment of the night.
After a standing ovation, Bob James was back on stage alone and invited pianist Idang Rasjidi, who played for the opening concert with vocalist Tompi, to the stage.
James explained that the previous day he had visited Idang's studio in Jakarta, where he learned gamelan pentatonic tunes from Idang.
"We played for an hour and now I want to relive the feeling," James said.
Clearly, he managed to relive the feeling and somehow shared it with the audience. The fervor, the passion, the exuberance of making music.
The concert is scheduled to tour to Bandung on Dec. 12 and to Denpasar on Dec. 13.
James will perform at the Bangkok Jazz Festival with Fourplay as well as with the Angels of Shanghai Ensemble on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.
Angels of Shanghai is James' latest project, which blends Chinese traditional and modern jazz music.
-- profile of Bob James on Page 20