Jazz, Titi DJ and hula girls at JAMZ

JAKARTA (JP): It's been years since I've been to JAMZ. Not since they moved out of the little club across from Blok M Plaza to the Aston Hotel. Talk about moving on up, George and Weezie style.

So, after all these years I finally get around to seeing what the place looks like now and guess who else shows up the same night? Titi DJ.

What a coincidence, or was it? It seems everywhere I go lately, there's Titi. Listen Titi, if you want to meet Penn just call Penn up, but please stop following Penn around.

Location: JAMZ is located in the Aston Hotel, sometimes known as the Lippo Sudirman Grand Suite Hotel, though it is not really on Jl. Sudirman but just a little way back. The actual address is Jl. Garnisun Dalam No. 8, Karet Semanggi. You can phone them at 574-5670. Get more information about their location and other things at www.jamzclub.com.

Hours: The Pub & Restaurant is open for lunch Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is open every day from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The New Orleans music lounge is open Monday to Saturday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. And the Mardi Gras room is open daily from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., though it can close earlier or later.

What's it got: JAMZ has everything. It has a very wide selection of food (though my companion said his club sandwich was like something you'd be served in a three-star hotel coffee shop and my Cajun chicken tasted like your standard, everyday grilled chicken breast) and a full assortment of drinks. On the entertainment front, there is blues and jazz, disco, top-40 cover bands. JAMZ is really trying to cater to all tastes and needs under one roof.

Bill, please: JAMZ is somewhat more expensive than your normal club. But since it is located in the Aston, I guess that is to be expected. A draught beer is Rp 25,000, a Manhattan Rp 41,500, frozen Margarita Rp 49,000 and so on.

Here's looking at you: Visiting the Lippo Grand Suite is always a bit surprising. Just spitting distance from Jl. Sudirman it seems a world removed. It's a bit like Disneyland; here's Tomorrow Land, Adventure Land, Lippo Land. It just feels disconnected from reality, which is probably good.

JAMZ itself is divided into three separate venues. One floor is the Mardi Gras room, which is the disco. Just down the hall from that is the New Orleans room, which is the music lounge and host to blues and jazz bands. Upstairs is the largest of the rooms, the Pub & Restaurant. The pub, as it shall be known, usually has bands playing top-40 music, but the night I went there was a special performance by Titi DJ for JAMZ privileged cardholders.

Let's start in the pub. It is really crowded. Though, that could have been because of Titi. It has a big stage, lots of tables, a big bar. It looked like a nice pub, at least from my point of view, wedged into the middle of the crowd.

I will tell you, though they roped off the upstairs to prevent non-cardholders from getting in, they eventually let down their guard, allowing anyone, including our party, to get upstairs for the show. We caught about the last 15 or so minutes of Titi and I have to say she is really good. She has a great rapport with the crowd, is funny and can sing, too. A big hit with the crowd was when she brought some fellow up on stage and got him dancing to Kopi Dangdut.

Enough of that, because I couldn't really see enough of the pub to allow me to discuss it. To the disco then, which is by far the weirdest room. I walked in here to a hula show in the middle of the floor, apparently being put on for the sole benefit of the five or six JAMZ employees in the place. By the time I went to the disco, I had had several drinks so I wasn't sure if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Then, as I watched the three hula girls, their leis lit up, I began to get a little shaky so I had to escape.

The disco was, when I visited, empty. It has a little bar, some stools along the walls, a DJ in a glass cage in the back and a little oval "fenced" off in the middle of the room. It is a very small disco and one feels whether, maybe, a disco is not really the right thing for the place.

And it turns out the hula girls were somehow connected to the Titi DJ show. Or I think so, because I spotted them coming in the door as I was leaving the Titi DJ show. I hope there was a reason they were there.

Finally, the music lounge. Again a small bar, several low tables and stuffed chairs taking up all the floor space in front of the stage, with some chairs and little around the wall. The whole space is small and finding seating, particularly good seating, was difficult. An intimate jazz club is nice, but this was a little too intimate. It also wasn't very dark and smoky, two things the JAMZ in Blok M had in spades.

By the way, the Idang Rasjidi Kwartet, with Margi Segers on vocals was on. They were very good and I would recommend catching them on Wednesday nights.

Last call: JAMZ is a very interesting place. They might want to consider doing something different with the Mardi Gras room because Jakarta already has enough bad discos. The Pub & Restaurant looked interesting and I will be going back to get a look at it when it's not so packed out. And the New Orleans room, the venue that sets JAMZ apart from other clubs. There are lots of discos and lots of pubs and restaurants with live bands playing top-40 music, but there are not many jazz and blues venues in the city.

While this one is a touch small and maybe not quite smoky or dark enough, it is a comfortable venue to hear some really good music. (Penn Dawson)