Harvey marks 25 years of music

By Hely Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): While today seems a high time for young musicians, it paves the way for older pop stars to make a comeback - in style.

Chrisye did that last year by throwing a grand concert and releasing a remake of his album, the classic soundtrack of Badai Pasti Berlalu. Now Harvey Malaihollo, 37, has taken the cue - by preparing a solo concert at Hotel Mulia on Oct. 19 (with dinner, tickets are Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000).

The concert is titled Konser Perak Harvey Malaihollo (Silver Concert of Harvey Malaihollo). With a team of creative people - one of them is Indra Safera - this concert will celebrate the singer's 25th anniversary in the music world.

"I count it from the time I won a singing competition at national radio and television back in 1975, though I had already made an album two years before," said Harvey - now a father of one. People still remember how the skinny Ambonese lad performed on television with Rafika Duri who also won the first prize in the female category. And soon they became a classic duet in pop music before taking a different paths.

The winning opened a singing career, including some albums and plenty of festivals performances. Though they were far from a flop, Harvey's hits such as Dia, Jerat, Berdua, were never really a bang in pop music circles.

"All I know is I always sing songs I really like. Maybe they are not what the general public are into. But they were never badly received," said Harvey.

Harvey sticks mostly to his style: refined pop. Singing works of Elfa Seciora - known for his stylistic pop - he sometimes loosened up to belt out a dangdut song from Oma Irama for a special occasion. But once he made a mistake, as he was tempted to attract a younger crowd by singing something off his style.

"Instead of broadening my fans, it reduced the number," said Harvey. "But it was purely my bad strategy. Yovie (the young songwriter) is good. But I bought a song that was created for a singer with different style."

Vina Panduwinata and AB Three will be the guests at his next concert. "Rafika can't share the stage with me. She confirmed to come," said Harvey.

Expect a surprise from Erwin Gutawa--the music director--who is determined to back Harvey with his "big band" concept. "Heavy on wind instruments as a big band is supposed to be," said Gutawa who also helped Chrisye on his last pop comeback. The concert is only a beginning. Next month he will release a newly arranged album featuring his past hits.