Jaya Suprana: Jack of all trades

Aendra Medita, Contributor, Jakarta

He must belong to a rare breed of people in this country. Every time he opens his mouth, what he utters always catches his listeners by surprise. He is usually labeled a man of all trades.

Jaya Suprana, 54, is indeed an interesting figure. His personality, mind and thoughts are extremely unique and are sometimes beyond ordinary people to guess.

In his solo piano recital, You My Indonesia -- Peace for All, held in Bandung last Friday, the owner of a traditional herbal medicine manufacturer and an expert in kelirumologi (mistaken expressions), won loud applause from his audience.

Some 300 people crowded the hall of the French Cultural Center in Bandung to get a chance to enjoy this stocky pianist's performance. Some of them even had to stand at the entrance.

In this solo recital, Suprana advocated peace and called for a cease-fire in Iraq.

Besides being an accomplished pianist, Suprana is also a popular television talk show host.

His regular talk show Jaya Show, formerly shown on a private television station, now appears every Monday evening on state- owned TVRI, bringing issues as varied as issues in Aceh, the collapse of Pekalongan batik businesses, to the gyrating movement of pop singer Inul from East Java.

As a television host, he has interviewed very important figures like former president Gus Dur and the incumbent, President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

His talk shows are always peppered with intelligent jokes and smart humor, a skill acquired only by a handful of talk show anchors. "This is my style, I do this naturally" he said, when asked about his talk-show style.

For Suprana, a life lead seriously was also a natural human longing, including when playing the piano, talking, eating, drinking, and when doing an interview.

"Whatever I do, I always do it with full concentration. When I eat, I remember nothing else but eating. In an interview, I pay full attention only to my interviewers," he said, solemnly.

In a conversation, Suprana always speaks his mind, but what he utters always has intelligence and weight.

Richly experienced in the arts, Suprana is never one to do things half-heartedly. He once organized a montage of various national figures singing Indonesia Pusaka.

The montage included the voices of Gus Dur, Megawati, Amien Rais, Titiek Puspa, Gito Rollies, Akbar Tandjung, Hamzah Haz, Rima Melati, Nurul Arifin, Wardah Hafidz and Rudi Hartono.

In one of his solo piano recitals, Untukmu Indonesiaku, Damai Bagi Semua (For You My Indonesia, Peace For All), this multimedia presentation won loud applause from the audience. It was the manifestation of the restlessness and disquiet of Jaya Suprana.

"People have forgotten their fatherland and praise only the culture of other people. They take pride in Madonna, while, in fact, we have our own Inul. They idolize Beethoven but forget we have Ismail Marzuki," he noted.

"My Indonesia Pusaka owes a lot to Ismail Marzuki".

Suprana was greatly affected by the war in Iraq that he had planned, along with several artists, to hold a Make Love, Not War concert outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to protest the U.S.- led aggression in Iraq. The concert was canceled, however, when the situation in Iraq had begun to improve.

He also said that the uncertainties sweeping the Indonesia in recent years had caused people to doubt their own country, and made people believe that they could do whatever they wished to.

"Politically and militarily, we are independent. Still, we are not fully independent because of the shackles of foreign culture".

Suprana, who graduated from his music studies at Musikhochshule music school in the then West Germany (1967-1976), said that Indonesia was not worse than any other country in terms of music. Every musician had their own strengths and weaknesses, he said.

"Why do we always feel inferior to other people?" said the man who has also played piano recitals in the United States, Germany, Japan, Holland, Hungary, Spain, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

With this belief, Suprana always tries to forge a collaboration between art and multimedia to achieve originality and exclusivity in his performances.

In his Bandung recital, for example, he seemed to remind the audience of what had evolved in Indonesia, as well as the horror of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He said this world had too many heroes.

"There are too many heroes in our world and everybody feels like one," said Suprana, who is also known as the founder of the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI), adding that the greatest significance in his piano recital was his mission to use music to advocate peace for all.

It is a fact, though, that Suprana as a pianist has won acclaim from music critics at home and abroad thanks to the rich wealth of expressions in his performances.

Citations have been awarded to him by, among others, the Freundeskreis des Konservatorium Muester of Germany, the Indonesian embassy in Oslo, Norway and the Indonesian Music Education Foundation. He has many more to his credit as a pianist.

When asked about his choices in life, between being a musician, businessman, comic, kelirumolog, and talk show host, he lightly answered;

"Being born a human being. A businessman is a also human being, so perhaps, I'm a businessman with a penchant for art. I consider myself as art, you know."

When asked how the art world could continue and enjoy support from other institutions, he, again lightly, said, "All is spirit and good intention. The rest is my love to this world as it has allowed me to continue playing music and exist as a human being".

Jaya Suprana is no ordinary person although he always comes up with ordinary answers. He is distinctly different from ordinary people in that he can naturally and easily demonstrate his many skills.

Now that he has achieved quite a lot in his life, what else is he after in this world?

"What else. Death, perhaps," he said, laughing uproariously in a manner uniquely his.