Foreign musicians, singers widen locals' horizon
Foreign musicians, singers widen locals' horizon
By Rita A. Widiadana
JAKARTA (JP): Although nationalists must be ecstatic that fewer foreign artists performed here this year, a number of high- quality imported shows managed to sneak in and delight local music buffs.
The performances of Phil Collins, Japanese-born Kitaro and Jon Bon Jovi afforded a rare chance for Indonesian musicians to widen their horizons. The foreign concerts, packed by thousands of fans, also allowed audiences to taste good music and to watch international-standard shows.
British rock-superstar Phil Collins, also a member of the Genesis rock group, opened l995 with his single concert before 40,000 fans at the former Ancol race circuit in March.
Security was extremely tight at the first open-air music concert since the Metallica riot in l992. The Metallica fiasco labeled Indonesia as unsafe among foreign musicians.
Only a few foreign musicians included Indonesia in their tours, preferring to perform in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines instead.
The Phil Collins concert organizers employed hundreds of Armed Forces members to patrol the show in order to build Jakarta's reputation as a safe concert location.
The soldiers, however, made the concert seem more like a battlefield than a entertaining music show. Only Collins' excellent performance managed to ease the tense atmosphere.
During the concert, Collins presented 12 hits from his six solo albums, Face Value, Hello I Must be Going, But Seriously, No Jacket Required and his latest Both Sides of the Story.
The success of the Phil Collins concert led to more foreign entertainment.
In May, Indo Ent entertainment agency presented a one-off Bon Jovi concert called Crossroads to the East, part of the band's Asia tour.
Bon Jovi and the band guitarist Richie Stephen Sambora, keyboardist Dave Bryan Rashbaum and drummer Hector "Tiko" Torres satisfied more than 100,000 spectators with their best songs in a two-hour concert at Ancol in North Jakarta. The concert's theme was No drugs, no alcohol.
Unlike Phil Collins' show, the Bon Jovi concert was marred by hundreds of gatecrashers trying to force their way into the middle of the venue.
The gatecrashers, however, couldn't keep the Bon Jovi and Collins open-air concerts from being the hits of the year.
Another hit was a concert by New Age musician and composer Kitaro, he enchanted more than 3,000 music lovers at the Senayan Indoor Tennis Stadium in September.
Kitaro provided spiritual music for his fans during his An Enchanted Evening world tour. The one-night performance proved that Kitaro, born Takahashi Masanori in 1953, is really a master musician.
The concert was opened by a medley of ten of Kitaro's hit songs from various albums, including the famous Silk Road, Mandala, Dance of the Sarasvati, a pop song Caravan, Planet , Winds of Youth, Cosmic Love and Chant from the Heart.
Through his vigorous performance, Kitaro illustrated how he explores the sounds of nature -- water, wind, fire, rolling stones and thunder -- through his synthesizers.
Kitaro's music was recognized after Silk Road, a highly acclaimed television documentary series based upon the ancient silk trade route. RCTI screened the series for several years in Indonesia. Kitaro's combination of passionate, gentle and naive melodies charm music lovers worldwide.
Kitaro is credited with 12 albums including Astral Voyage, Full Moon Story, Silver Cloud, Asia and The Light of the Spirit.
He won a Golden Globe Award for the best soundtrack Heaven and Earth, for Oliver Stone's Vietnam war film of the same title. In the song, Kitaro incorporate Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese musical elements to create an Asian melody.
Ban
Rapper Vanilla Ice (Robert van Winkle) performed at the M Club in October and British band Take That hit the Jakarta Convention Center in November. British group Wet Wet Wet and other top musicians like Peabo Bryson, James Ingram, Kool and the Gang, George Duke and Earl Klugh also brightened the local music scene this year.
This was also the year the government extended performance bans to foreign artists. In the past, only local cultural groups suffered from such bans.
La Toya Jackson was slapped with the first ban, with her scheduled concert series in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya in May being canceled.
Intense objections by politicians to the planned concert by the 36-year-old sister of mega-star Michael Jackson turned La Toya's name into a household word in Jakarta during May.
The strongest objections to her visit came from the powerful Golkar political grouping.
Her nude spread in Playboy magazine and shocking revelations about her family apparently were considered "at odds with the ethics and morals of the Indonesian people". This earned her a ban. Besides, the general view of officialdom was that she is "not an entertainer of internationally acclaimed quality".
The news of La Toya's ban spread widely and was headline news in many newspapers. The most discouraging aspect of the ban was how far it was blown out of proportion to its importance.
Many newspapers urged politicians to pay attention to more pressing matters instead of fussing over La Toya Jackson.