Jazz on campus ahead of JakJazz
Jazz on campus ahead of JakJazz
JAKARTA (JP): Five thousand students gathered at the plaza of
the School of Economics of the University of Indonesia on
Saturday to watch the Jazz Goes to Campus musical show.
Idang Rasjidi, a noted keyboard player who acted as the master
of ceremonies along with model Debby Sahertian, motivated the
audience to brave to hot sun for hours with entertaining jokes.
The 18th annual event, organized by the student senate of the
school, seemed meaningful to the students in general and to jazz
lovers in particular, although some students said they came to
see their idols not just listen to the music.
Santi, a student of the School of Social and Political
Sciences, told The Jakarta Post that she was interested in the
music itself and wanted to watch the musicians' performances.
"Unfortunately the weather is too hot. The committee should
have put up tents for the audience," said the young woman who
used an umbrella to protect her from the sunlight.
To the musicians the campus event provided a preparation forum
for the coming JakJazz festival. The international event is
scheduled to take place in the next two weeks.
Indra Lesmana said that he and his two friends in the trio PIG
Band, Pra B. Dharma and Gilang Ramadhan, used the venue as a
"warm up" for JakJazz in December.
"We'll preform modern creative jazz at the venue," he said.
Ireng Maulana, one of Indonesia's jazz guitar masters, said
his band will perform ethnic jazz at the upcoming jazz festival.
"This campus event is a pre-JakJazz show because the time is
close to the biggest jazz event in the country," Ireng said.
The campus session was opened by the school's alumni band and
the Four Brothers band from Bandung.
The PIG Band then amazed the audience with their incredible
performance. Their unique music involved the use of the
synthesizer to produce the tick-tock of a clock in their
composition called Waktu (Time).
However, not all of the audience could understand the music.
"It sounds confusing. I can't understand it," a female student
said. "But I'm a big fan of Indra Lesmana."
After the performance, Indra told reporters that the campus
event has become a tradition.
The exciting performance of the Excel band, a group from
Florida, the United States, caused the crowd to press in around
the stage.
The band, which communicated well with the audience, started
their performance by playing popular songs such as Lately, I Will
Always Love You, How Deep is Your Love and Kiss. The band also
asked the audience to sing along with them.
Gino Williams, lead singer of the band, left the stage and
borrowed an umbrella, drawing enthusiastic applause from the
entire audience.
The crowd liked their music so much they asked for an encore
after hearing six songs. To fulfill the request, the band
performed a classic blues song called I fell good.
The Ireng Maulana All Stars performed bossas and standard
jazz, a more relaxing and calmer kind of music than that
presented by the other groups.
Yesterday's event was also participated in by the Buby Chen
trio and Elfa's Big Band. (05)