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)