Jazz bar offers place to unwind

JAKARTA (JP): Are you desperately trying to cast the cliche "crisis" from your exhausted mind?

A night out on the town can help forget worries, but the same tired faces and old tunes end up creating an even more depressing pall.

Harry's Jakarta, affiliated with its namesake in Singapore, is hoping it can be the favored night refuge when it opens its doors this Monday.

Jazz is the musical theme of the bar, located at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Jl. MH Thamrin.

"One of the reasons we decided to make Harry's a jazz bar is because of the immense support and demand in Jakarta for jazz," said the bar's representative, Thomas Zetterberg.

This local demand for the music was evident by the regular holding of the Jak-Jazz festival here, he added.

"JakJazz proves year after year that Jakarta audiences love jazz and blues, and we want Harry's to be a dynamic jazz environment where the musicians and the audience can let their hair down and have fun."

He said the bar's commitment to jazz included allocating time for rising local jazz musicians to perform, in addition to sets by established stars.

Zetterberg has recruited one of the country's best exponents of the musical form, Indra Lesmana, to put together the program for the bar between 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.

Jazz theme nights will include Latin jazz, acid jazz, rhythm and blues and Indra's own "strawberry jams" of freestyle jazz on Sunday afternoon.

Local musicians will not be the only entertainers performing in the bar -- open from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. every day -- as international entertainers will occasionally be scheduled as special guests.

Zetterberg said priority would be given the abundance of quality local musicians.

"But with the wealth of musical ability right here in Jakarta, the emphasis will definitely be on homegrown talent," Zetterberg said.

The bar's opening coincides with final goodbyes of many other entertainment spots as worried customers stay home. Is Harry's Jakarta a sign of unwavering confidence in a quick turnaround, or merely a case of bad timing?

"We didn't come up with the plan to open Harry's in a short time," said Ria Leimena, the hotel's public relations director.

"The planning goes two years back."

She is optimistic the bar will draw its share of regulars.

"Whatever the situation is, entertainment will always be needed." (ste)