Traces of tradition cultures in Jakperc '97 performances

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): Traditional cultures are a bottomless source of inspiration for musicians. Their traces vibrate through contemporary music performances as essential elements remain distinct.

Three groups, all from disparate musical backgrounds, displayed their borrowing from a veritable ethnomusicology in the Jakarta Percussion Festival '97 (Jakperc '97) at Jakarta Fairgrounds in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, last week.

They were Tokakros, a percussion music group from Sydney, Australia, the Jakarta Percussion Orchestra (JPO) and a Gondang musical group from the Batak people of North Sumatra.

Tokakros' vocals were in English, yet the music was a mix of India's tabla, African djimba and Arabian darkaba, with the sound of a snare drum occasionally rising above it all. The chorus line swung in a crescendo, while the pulses of the drum searched for a middle ground of Eastern and Western rhythms. The constant was that both elements shared equal status, with neither vocals or music drowning the other out.

The group was founded three years ago by Peter Slattery, Gemma Turner, Linda Marr and Jess Ciampa. The four had previously played in other bands and met up occasionally for recordings. They gradually realized they shared a creative chemistry.

Peter's fascination with India's tabla lead him on several trips to the country. Jess started mastering Brazil's throbbing congas. Gemma and Linda have funneled their endless interest into traditional harmonious music, particularly from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. That also includes singing in more than 25 languages, Arabic, India and Polynesian among them.

"I used to be a member of a rock group when I was a teenager," said Gemma. "Then I heard a Macedonian singing and was so astonished.

"Sometimes I did it all, the rhythm, the melody and the words. Other times, Peter came up with something and we worked together based on that." She composed the bittersweet You Always Come Back, which she performed on both nights.

Mind the Gap also married vocals and instrumentals. The group carried the night through with Palau, with a David Bradie poem as the lyrics, the lively Boys & Girls and a Brazilian rhythm section fueled by Brazil's maracatu and Spain's merengue fanfaring beats.

Tokakros' songs resounded like ancient tunes. "We don't want to be esoteric, although our music has some elements of this," Gemma said.

After 20 years' studying Indian music, Peter knows that the 10-beat cycle tabla is odd for Westerners used to uneven beats. "It just sounds awkward and incomplete," he said. "But if you play that seven beats with every beat, so somebody can move to that pulse while you can do those things as well. By doing that you satisfy the esoteric part yet everybody stills has fun."

Tokakros will record their first CD in this month for release next autumn.

Batak

The Batak Toba, a subgroup of the Batak living around Lake Toba, is particularly famous for gondang, literally translated as drums. Ethnomusicologist Ben Pasaribu focused on the set of taganing (10 smaller drums), and other types like gordang and ogung.

"Taganing is one of the only traditional drums which can play melodious tunes, the other two are from Myanmar and Uganda," said Ben Pasaribu. "They only have limited scale up to five. It sounds close to modern scale."

The music was originally performed at religious or customary events, or simply for entertainment.

The 30-minute performance in Jakperc '97 was titled Bona Pasogit (The Hometown) and was inspired by the Cawan rites of village purification.

Opened by the crystal clear sound of Ben's improvisation of four pipes, it climaxed with the melodious taganing which was pounded in change of fanfaring and gently thumps. The interesting part surfaced when two men played saxophone and trumpet.

"Both are not novelties for Batak' people. We adapted them as part of our traditional music," explained Ben. Close to the end, the heart-rending sarunei traditional instrument played

"I use the traditional sound structure and rhythm yet the composition is a modern piece," said this dean at Nomensen University in Medan. "Batak people who hear it will say, 'this is still my music'."

Ben's gondang ensemble's group consists of his teaching colleagues and musicians, who play both classical and traditional music. "We are a bunch of 'crazy men' who earn some money from our formal job while grow our musical appreciation in our spare time," said Ben who teaches composition in the university. They have performed many times in plentiful festivals -- in Indonesia and overseas.

Ben himself started his music education by playing range of modern percussions such as timphany and marimba. "My basic is actually the western classic. But since I've learned the ethnomusicology I always ended up in something traditional."

Jakarta Percussion Orchestra was also rich with tradition.

Their dynamic rebana blended with smaller cymbal-like ceng- ceng. They astonished the audience as well as other musicians, including Alex Grillo, the notable French musician who jammed with them.

"I came only one day before performance and have no idea at all of what kind of music they're playing. What I found is truly great," said Grillo, who played his vibraphone.

Franki set up the JPO about a year ago at the request of the city tourism agency, who wanted a group with the Betawi (native Jakarta) traditional music. "It was such a coincidence since I've been researching Betawi music for the last two decades," said Franki, the chairman of Jakperc '97.

Franki contacted traditional musicians still living in Jakarta. "My musicians range from youngsters up to more than 70 years of age, people who have known the music and its tradition their entire lifetime."

He first listened to them play their own music. "I translated into modern music notation and based my composition from that paper work," he said. "It wasn't easy to persuade them to play according to what I composed because I was taking them away from their roots. In the end, they enjoyed themselves because they knew another way to play."

Like Tokakros and Ben Pasaribu, Franki applied the unique musical features to enrich his contemporary compositions. "That's the underlying message from Jackperc '97, to show and introduce the richness of our traditional percussion music."