Jazz luminaries to entertain Jakartans
By Johannes Simbolon
JAKARTA (JP): The A Mild JakJazz '96 festival opens this evening at the Gelanggang Mahasiswa Soemantri Brodjonegoro arena in Kuningan, South Jakarta. For three days, Jakarta's jazz lovers will be entertained by 43 groups, including 36 locals and seven foreigners.
Veteran saxophonist Sadao Watanabe from Japan is one of the best known headliners this year. His standard jazz style has earned him legions of fans here, both young and old. Throughout his career, the 63-year-old Japanese legend has toured around the world in support of such hit albums as California Shower, Hunt Upwind and Elis, which stayed on the American jazz charts for weeks in 1989.
His alma mater, Berklee College of Music in Boston, awarded him an honorary doctorate degree last year and the emperor of Japan honored him with the Purple Ribbon Medal the same year.
At this sixth JakJazz festival he will team up with Indonesian saxophonist Embong Rahardjo and young jazz rock saxophonist Eric Merienthal from the U.S.
Mezzoforte from Iceland is back to greet the many fans they earned at the past two JakJazz festivals. The quartet from Reykjavik has just released its last album, which contains Jakarta Dream, a song written in commemoration of the group's participation in the 1994 JakJazz festival.
The group will perform with the same lineup of Gunnlauger Briem on drums, Eythor Gunnarson on keyboards, Johnny Asmundsson on bass and Fridrik Karlsson on guitar.
American guitarist Mike Stern is also expected to lure many to the festival. Some Jakartans were lucky enough to witness his guitar magic at the Blue Note last year. His time spent playing with such diverse groups as Blood, Sweat & Tears, Miles Davis, Billy Cobham, Jaco Pastorius and the Brecker Brothers has helped him to create a style of his own that mixes rock, jazz, blues and bebop. Guitar Player magazine even named him America's best guitarist in 1993.
Stern this time will team up with Richie Morales on drums and Jeff Andrews on bass. Andrews also joined Stern at the Blue Note club last year.
Ethnojazz
The festival will also feature Itslyf, a "multinational" group of musicians from Austria, India, Indonesia and the U.S. The group caught the attention of international jazz observers when it released its debut album of "ethnojazz" called hepCaolin, released on PAO records/Polygram a few years back.
The leader of the band is Austrian vocalist/trombonist Paul Zauner, a well-known jazz innovator in Europe. At the festival he will be accompanied by Franz Hackl on trumpet, Thomas Kugl on saxophone, David Gilmore on guitar, Kenny Davis on bass and Gene Jackson on drum. Two of the musicians on hepCaolin, Pawan Kumar, a world-acclaimed tabla player from India, and Jalu Pratidina, an Indonesian kendang (drum) player, will not play this weekend for reasons unknown.
Young American saxophonist Eric Marienthal is the other big attraction scheduled for the main stage, along with Sadao Watanabe, Mezzoforte, Mike Stern and Itslyf. Merienthal will be accompanied by local musicians Aminoto Kosim on keyboard, Indro on bass, Tohpati on guitar and Uce on drum.
Women
Although dominated by male players, past JakJazz festivals have featured a handful of women. This year, the festival has invited the all-lady group Inside Out. This modern jazz group is made up of composer/bassist Belinda Moody from Australia, vocalist/composer Clare Foster from Britain, arranger/pianist Mei Shun from Singapore, composer/saxophonist Fiona Burnet from Australia and drummer Carola Grey from the U.S.
This will be the fourth appearance at JakJazz for Moody but a first for the others.
Los Caballeros, currently playing at Jamz, is the only non- jazz group playing at the festival. The group is expected to perform such Latin favorites as Volare, Bamboleo, Macarena and Marina.
The local participants scheduled to play are Bill Saragih, Embong Rahardjo, Dewa Bujana Trio, Indra Lesmana, Tamam Husein and his band, TNT Explosion, Inang-Iwang-Yance, Gilang Ramadhan, Zithermania and Chlorophyll, PIG, David Ades, Elfa Seciora and his big band, Kiboud Maulana and his blues band, Budi Haryono, Eric Yusuf and DKSB Idea band, Krakatau, Ireng Maulana Eet Sjachranie, Simak Dialog, Plastik, Kamadatu, Edo Voodoo, Oele Pattiselano, Lydhian Band, Mathari Band, Four Brothers and the Erz Brothers.
Apart from the country's more established jazz musicians, JakJazz '96 will feature newcomers like the UI School of Economics Band, Jazz Campus and the Akpar Trisakti group. Though relegated to performing in the food court area, their shows should not be overlooked. They represent the generation that will replace Bill Saragih and Ireng Maulana, and it is the young musicians that will determine the shape of JakJazz festivals to come.