Legendary musician Bubi Chen a true devotee of jazz
Legendary musician Bubi Chen a true devotee of jazz
By Mehru Jaffer
JAKARTA (JP): The euphoria over independence from the Dutch
and the Japanese was still in the air when ethnic Chinese were
asked to take on Indonesian names.
Soon the language and practice of Chinese religion and
festivities were also prohibited in the process of instantly
trying to naturalize the country's ethnic Chinese minority.
Later, under the new order regime of president Soeharto, the
Chinese community here was suspected of being more loyal to
communist China and were killed in large numbers.
Caught in the midst of all these extreme joys and sorrows,
Bubi Chen, 62, perhaps the greatest living jazz musician in the
country, continued to smile his dazzling smile that often
competes with his mesmerizing piano playing on stage.
The name Soeprawoto was suggested for Bubi by none other than
president Soekarno himself and he accepted it with a smile. He
continued to smile even when jazz was banned in the country and a
bonfire made of all records and manuscripts. Never mind that he
was not allowed to play jazz in public, it was enough for Bubi
that he could play it in private, just for himself.
"What would be the use of being angry? What has anger ever
resolved?" questions Bubi after having witnessed much madness in
life. What helps him to keep his sanity and to go on smiling in
the face of all the contradictions that life keeps throwing up is
his love for jazz and his firm faith in the Almighty.
Born on Feb. 9, 1938 in Surabaya, a city that is considered
the New Orleans of Indonesia, where the seeds of jazz music were
strewn on the shores of the port town mainly to entertain British
and Dutch soldiers.
Bubi's older brothers were among the leading entertainers of
that time.
The youngest of nine children of a very traditional, Buddhist
father and a modern Christian mother, Bubi was playing Beethoven
and Mozart at the age of 10 years. His mother wanted Tan Koan
Jien, Bubi's original name, to be a master of western classical
music. But what the little boy really enjoyed was improvising on
the piano. It helped that five of Bubi's brothers were also
musicians and by the time he was 16 years old there was little
doubt in his mind as to what he was going to do for the rest of
his life.
He started by playing in his brother's band and eventually
took over the band, which he feels was not the first one but it
certainly was the first good jazz band in post independent
Indonesia. And even before he was 20 years old, Bubi was earning
his own living.
After independence when jazz was banned, Bubi played the piano
in the presidential palaces in Jakarta, Bogor and Denpasar. But
president Soekarno's strict order to Bubi was that he must never
improvise before him on the piano. So he played light,
entertainment music and often on request traditional Javanese and
Mandarin music.
Bubi remembers president Soekarno talking to him like an older
brother as he made preparations at the palace for parties in the
evening. "Often he was dressed in a pair of casual trousers and a
T-shirt that sometimes had a little tear under the armpit,"
recalls Bubi, who feels that Soekarno was great simply because he
wrested freedom for Indonesia from the Dutch.
"That one deed is enough to make him immortal in my memory,"
he said on his last visit to Jakarta when he came here to
participate in a week-long centennial celebration for Louis
Armstrong, the founding father of jazz who turned the world of
music upside down with his improvising on the trumpet and as a
vocalist.
Bubi continued to smile softly and looked calm when he talked
to The Jakarta Post one morning as if he had nothing to do with
all the thunder and lightening he created the previous evening
down at the Regent Hotel Jazz Bar in roaring memory of Armstrong.
Following is an excerpt from a talk with Bubi, who obviously
prefers to smile and play the piano than give interviews:
Question: How old were you when you had to change your name?
Answer: About 20 years old.
Q: Were you upset?
A: Every Chinese was upset.
Q: At that time you say you met president Soekarno often. Could
you not tell him how upset the Chinese were at having to take on
a new name?
A: I did not dare. It would have been suicidal.
Q: Do you think such measures were unfair or did Jakarta have a
good reason for imposing them on the ethnic Chinese minority of
this country?
A: I can understand Jakarta for taking these desperate measures,
but I can also understand the Chinese feeling bad about it.
But I don't think we have met here to talk about politics,
have we?
Q: In the USA, the birthplace of jazz, the music flourished as a
voice of black slaves against injustices of the white masters.
But here in Indonesia jazz was introduced to entertain and please
the Dutch, the colonial masters. Any comments on your association
with such music?
A: When I play jazz I don't feel that I am entertaining anyone.
The only thing on my mind is that I must please myself. If the
public likes the music I play it is OK. If not, then please look
for the exit door. Jazz is not just entertainment for me.
Q: What then?
A: Jazz is my life. It is my everything.
Q: How successful has jazz been in buying you your bread and
butter?
A: I have been lucky enough to have tasted success and earned
money too.
Q: You did not have to supplement your income by following
another more lucrative profession?
A: Yes I did. I collect the nest made from a bird's saliva and
sell them. These nests are considered very precious and a
delicacy in Chinese cuisine. They are very expensive but much in
demand.
Q: Did you ever ask president Soekarno why he did not like jazz?
A: I would not dare. But I suspect it was because he was against
everything that was western that came from America and England.
But once I did tell him that he could not really be against
improvisation.
"You improvise all the time while giving a speech by not
reading from a written script but talking extempore," I said to
him. And I loved his reply. He said, "That is something else. You
are not me."
I found that a great answer.
Q: What would he say to you when you went to play for him at the
presidential palace?
A: He would philosophize. Once he told me by way of advice that
one should keep doing one's own job and not meddle in other
people's affairs. I still follow that advice of his.
Q: How would you describe president Soekarno's relationship with
the ethnic Chinese?
A: I haven't a clue. But again we are drifting away from music
and going too much into politics.
Q: Jazz in fact was dying under the presidency of Soekarno. What
happened when the New Order regime took over?
A: Nothing much. But at least there was no witch-hunt and no ban
on jazz.
Q: But countless ethnic Chinese were killed ... where were you at
that time?
A: At home, on the streets, playing my music.
Q: Escaping into your music?
A: You can call it that.
Q: Was anybody you know hurt?
A: I believe in God. It is my staunch believe in the Almighty
that protects me, my family and friends at all times.
Let us talk about music, about all the jazz festivals I have
attended around the world.
Q: As you played cross country in America for a whole three
months or in Dusseldorf and Berlin were you ever tempted to stay
on in the west where jazz is a much more swinging affair?
A: Never. I love my country too much. I love living here.
Q: But what relevance does jazz have to the average Indonesian on
the street?
A: I really don't know. I have never thought about these things.
Q: If you were to look back on your life, how would you describe
your legacy?
A: I am proud to be part of the jazz scene in Indonesia and my
legacy is to have attracted countless Indonesians to this great
school of music. I am very proud of all the youngsters who have
taken music lessons from me.
Q: And how do you see the future of jazz here?
A: It is very difficult to look into the future but I am
optimistic that as long as musicians like Bill Saragih, Kiboud
Maulana, Ireng Maulana and Indra Lesmana are allowed to teach and
perform freely, people's love for jazz will only increase.
Q: Any message for young musicians?
A: Only one word for all those who want to play music, practice!
And never think that you are the king of the jazz world after a
little bit of success.