Jazz, Titi DJ and hula girls at JAMZ

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)