JakJazz closes on a high note

JakJazz closes on a high note

JAKARTA (JP): The 1997 JakJazz festival closed on a high note
last night with crowds flocking to the musical fiesta, which
organizers admit had to be compromised to ensure its commercial
success.

The closing day of the three-day festival was a showcase of
top local and foreign acts.

The fact that some of them had nothing whatsoever to do with
jazz did not seem to bother the audience.

The day was kicked off with top local pop-rock band Dewa 19.
Their inclusion in the festival was obviously geared to attract a
younger audience.

As the night went on the familiar names of David Koz, Total
Touch and LA Allstars were called on stage.

A satisfied festival organizer, Ireng Maulana, claimed that
for the first time in years organizers were able to stay out of
the red.

Ireng said that as of Saturday night more than 20,000 tickets
had been sold, more than the initial target.

"We have already collected Rp 700 million (US$205,890) in
ticket sales alone," Ireng said, adding that money from ticket
reservations had not been included in the total.

There were also 10 sponsors that contributed an additional Rp
250 to Rp 300 million.

Ireng said the best recorded income had been from the 1995
JakJazz, which collected nearly Rp 400 million.

But he admitted that organizers had to compromise this year's
festival.

"From an artistic point of view we compromised more to get
commercial leverage," Ireng said.

He also apologized for the many organizational snafus, such as
continuously changing timetables, describing them as management
snags.

The experiment of incorporating an "Indonesian identity" in
the festival, by introducing dangdut, completely failed as jazz
fans deserted the arena.

It was encouraging, however, to see that other local jazz
musicians were no less of a draw card than visiting foreign acts.

Krakatau band was able to grab as much of the attention
yesterday as Jeff Lobard and Incognito yesterday evening with its
arrangement of songs like Melayang.

Already looking forward to next year, Ireng said that the
event's primary sponsors were likely to support next year's
event. (02/ste/cst/dev)