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.