JP/18/JABO

Sawung Jabo, artist-musician with a mission

Dewi Anggraeni Contributor/Melbourne, Australia

Accompanying Rendra in reciting and performing poetry is no mean feat.

You definitely have to remain in the background, while discreetly filling the space with the right mood. In his Australian tour this time Rendra has two very important people accompanying him, fellow Bengkel Teater Rendra (Rendra's Theater Atelier) artists, Ken Zuraida and Sawung Jabo.

Jabo played his part very well for the audience on Sept. 28 at the Sidney Myer Asia Center, the University of Melbourne.

Sawung Jabo, 54, is a composer-singer-musician who describes himself as having one foot in Indonesia and the other in Australia. Indeed, he has a comfort zone in Sydney, where he lives with his wife Suzan Piper, son Johan, and daughter Santi. That is, when he is not living in Jakarta, Yogya or Surabaya.

When he is performing, Jabo mostly plays and sings his own music. "Ninety-nine percent," he said emphatically. Since 1974 he no longer feels the desire to perform other people's music.

"Other people" means Western composers. However, Jabo felt the need to explain, "Some people make out as if I no longer like Western music. That's not true.

"I like it. I studied it when I was studying music formally, be it classical or popular. I still sing it in social events. But not when I'm performing. When I'm performing I want to sing and play songs that fit my soul. That's why I compose my own."

When he was a young man living in Jakarta, he would sing popular Western songs because he could relate to the lyrics and the music. "I was playing in pubs, my peers were young artists and musicians. It was the right atmosphere," he said.

Now, apart from his own music, Jabo concedes that he loves collaborating with other musicians such as Iwan Fals. And he does perform Gomblo's music happily. "Because I can feel its important message. His music deals with our environment, especially issues of living together in the current environment. Since he is no longer living to perform it himself, I do it for him," said Jabo.

In the 1990s before he joined Bengkel Teater Rendra, Jabo became interested in social responsibility in the arts. "My perception of our own social environment kept growing. I heard our politicians. I heard our pedicab drivers. There was a yawning gap in terms of communication here. Whatever worthwhile ideas the politicians were expressing did not necessarily reach the pedicab drivers, and vice-versa.

"I knew there were various means of narrowing that gap. People gave talks and lectures. Articles were written in newspapers.

"However I felt music and songs would be more effective, because everywhere people would enjoy music. So I saw my calling there. I wanted to help disseminate messages in all directions," Jabo mused.

Jabo learns a lot from various events in his life. Some, he confessed, stand out and are life-changing, though seen individually they may appear innocuous and too simple to be significant.

"On New Year's Eve 1972 I was wandering around Jakarta with my then girlfriend, savoring the city's nightlife. Then she asked me, `What do you actually want to be?' Spontaneously I replied, `I want to be a musician.'"

Shortly after that Jabo went to Yogyakarta, because he had heard of the music school there. Being a stranger in the city, he had no friends, and unfortunately, also very little money. So he had to sleep in railway stations.

Gradually he moved to the Malioboro area and made friends among those who hung out there. They would chat and hold informal discussions for hours. The experience inspired him to write the song, Time of 73. He really felt as if he had been woken up after a long sleep. And because it was in Yogya he was so stirred mentally, he also wrote Yogyakarta.

He did enroll in the Indonesian Music Academy -- now the Indonesian Institute of the Arts -- and put his head down in all seriousness. Apart from studying classical music, he also learned to play the cello there.

"Another turning point was when I met Rendra in 1977. My group, the Rural Musician Group, was invited to take part in the performance of SEKDA, staged by Rendra's Theater Atelier.

"I hadn't got to know Rendra that well then. But he came to me at some stage, and asked, 'Where are you from?' I said, 'Surabaya'.

"He then said, 'Listen to what I'm going to say, and listen carefully. If you are serious about what you're doing, you will be successful.' It was rather eerie. I thought, what is this man, a dukun?"

There is no doubt that the 27-year-old musician was extremely flattered by the special attention given by the great Rendra, no less.

Jabo has come a long way since then. And in 1997 he finally joined Rendra's Theater Atelier. "It was an honor for me, a sign of real recognition, because it is something not just everyone can join."

What is the dream he is yet to achieve?

"I would like to have a 1,000-square-meter plot of land in Yogya -- 200 sq m for a private dwelling; the rest I would like to make into a space for young people to hold workshops, and to house a library.

"Apart from that, I would like to hold workshops in Batu, Malang, with the local apple-farming community, and probably in Jember and Yogya."

Also, he wants to continue learning.