Tag Archives: Indonesia Jazz Review

Arts

Bebas bereksplorasi lagi di Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017

10 February, 2017 think archipelago

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Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017 is the sixth jazz festival held by Komunitas Salihara in Teater Salihara, Jakarta. think archipelago is a proud media partner of the music festival which runs from 11 February until 26 February 2017. To see more of their schedule, please click the Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017 banner found in think archipelago website.

Jazz Sans Frontieres kembali menjadi tema festival musik jazz mini Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017. Di pagelaran keenam ini, Komunitas Salihara konsisten memamerkan keunikan konsep jazz tanpa batas.

Komunitas Salihara tetap mempertahankan semangat menjadikan acara ini ajang bagi musisi jazz kontemporer untuk bereksplorasi, dan untuk pasar pendengar musik tanah air di luar konvensi umum jazz Indonesia.

Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017 akan dibuka pada hari Sabtu, 11 Februari, oleh salah satu anggota Six Strings, gitaris Andre Dinuth, yang akan menyertakan bandnya the Andre Dinuth Group.

Narasumber dari pihak penyelenggara mengatakan, Andre dan kelompoknya akan menghadirkan jazz bernuansa rock-progresif, dan memberikan sentuhan tradisional seperti penggunaan alat musik Papua tifa, seperti halnya saat mereka tampil di Java Jazz 2015.

Keesokan harinya giliran Indra Perkasa & Gadgadsvra Ensemble tampil dengan daya tarik seni visual. Penata musik film Tabula Rasa di tahun 2014 ini sebelumnya menimba ilmu di Institut Musik Daya Indonesia dan kemudian di Universitas California, Los Angeles, di bidang film scoring.

Eksplorasi hingga inovasi bermusik yang berlangsung selama 2 pekan di Teater Salihara, Pasar Minggu, menempatkan rangkaian konser jazz ini sebagai sebuah festival.

Menurut penyelenggara, ada prioritas bagi para penampil muda dengan gaya yang lebih beragam dan unsur baru melalui teknik-teknik canggih, juga bagi para grup yang mencoba keluar dari batasan-batasan jazz umum untuk mencari sesuatu yang lain dengan bentuk-bentuk yang baru dan bebas.

Jadwal pertunjukan Jazz Buzz Salihara 2017 adalah sebagai berikut:

Andre Dinuth, Sabtu, 11 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB
Indra Perkasa & Gadgadsvara Ensemble, Minggu, 12 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB
Attilion, Sabtu, 18 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB
Cinconotas, Minggu 19 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB
Arief Winanda & Pamuncak Mudo, Sabtu, 25 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB
Imanissimo, Minggu, 26 Februari 2017, 20:00 WIB

HTM:

Rp75.000 (Umum)
Rp50.000 (Pelajar/Mahasiswa)

Arts, Environment

Jazz di alam Indonesia

17 November, 2016 think archipelago Leave a comment

Jazz gunung adalah pagelaran musik tahunan yang diadakan tanpa putus sejak 2009 di kawasan wisata Bromo atau Taman Nasional Tengger Semeru, Jawa Timur. Musisi yang pernah tampil di antaranya adalah Djaduk Ferianto, yang pada awalnya juga adalah penggagas konsep acara ini. Ia hampir selalu tampil setiap tahunnya bersama sekian musisi seperti Kua Etnika, Trie Utami dan Idang Rasjidi. Selain itu ada pula Syaharani, Balawan, Dewa Budjana, Tohpati Ethnomission, Kulkul, Benny Likumahuwa beserta anaknya Barry Likumahuwa, vokalis Iga Mawarni, hingga musisi di ranah indie dan pop seperti Banda Neira atau Yovie Widianto, dan Rieke Roslan.

Gunung Bromo yang merupakan tanah vulkanik yang terkenal dengan keindahannya memberikan pengalaman yang berbeda. Penikmat jazz tidak hanya mendapatkan pengalaman auditif namun juga visual yang diberikan oleh keindahan alam Gunung Bromo. Jazz Gunung yang diadakan selama 2 hari merupakan bentuk apresiasi yang diberikan kepada para penikmat jazz.

Jazz Atas Awan merupakan rangkaian acara yang diselenggarakan dalam Dieng Culture Festival di kawasan Gunung Dieng, Jawa Tengah. Jika Jazz Gunung hanya menampilkan satu pagelaran konser, Dieng Culture Festival memadukan kebudayaan tradisional dengan sisi modern, yaitu jazz.

Jika selama ini jazz hanya diasosiasikan ke penikmat musik kalangan tertentu, Jazz Atas Awan menawarkan pagelaran yang lebih terkesan merakyat. Berlatar belakang artefak Candi Arjuna, Jazz Atas Awan tidak memberikan sebuah panggung megah yang memisahkan pemusik dan penonton. Konsep ini ditawarkan agar jazz dapat dinikmati semua orang.

Kedua pagelaran tersebut menawarkan keindahan alam terbuka, kebudayaan, peninggalan sejarah dan musik jazz dalam satu kemasan. Sama-sama diadakan di ketinggian 2000 meter di atas laut, siapkan pakaian musim dingin karena suhu yang tak biasanya rendah di alam terbuka.

Acara-acara serupa turut bermunculan, seperti Ngayogjazz di Yogyakarta, Prambanan Jazz, Banyuwangi Jazz Festival, Maratua Jazz yang juga mempopulerkan pariwisata Kepulauan Derawan, Mahakam Fiesta Jazz Samarinda, Jazz Pinggir Kali Purbalingga, dan Ijen Summer Jazz yang berlatar belakang pegunungan Merapi. Kedua terakhir digelar untuk pertama kalinya tahun ini. Ubud Village Jazz Festival yang berlangsung selama dua hari setiap tahun sejak 2012, diikuti oleh sejumlah grup internasional, dan di antara musisi lokal terdapat Salamander Big Band dan Sandy Winarta.

Arts

Freedoms Jazz Award 2016

14 November, 2016 think archipelago Leave a comment

The consistency of a few people in the industry has led them to hosting a music award for the young and talented musicians whom they are so dedicated to find in this country. These people are some of the first who spotted Joey Alexander. And after hosting Freedoms Jazz Festival last year, iCanStudioLive reintroduced similar concept in August 2016, but by adding a score in holding Freedoms Jazz Award 2016 as the closing remark.

Continue reading Freedoms Jazz Award 2016 →

Arts

East and west jazz collaboration

18 October, 2014 think archipelago Leave a comment

Goethe Haus Jakarta’s regular agenda of setting up international jazz musicians under the now familiar event Serambi Jazz continued to please the audience whom mostly long for an experimental type of music out of the industrialized music on the market.

The play on Thursday, 16 October, not only showing the fresh compositions made by each side, the European represented by Benny Lacker and the band, the French Karim, and the Indonesian guitarist who had appeared several times in Goethe Haus, Johanes Radianto, but they also brought a mixture of songs in their list from different places of origin.

In their own twists, tunes such as Jimy Hendrix’s From 6 to 9 to Indonesian folk song Gundul Pacul were surprising enough that by the end they were applauded by standing audience across the auditorium.

As the third time of such anticipated music project, the involved musicians have more confidence to introduce new forms and possibilities which are non-existent in mainstream music.

Some instances were the screeches of string bass that created the sense of slowly receding creepiness in one of the trio’s composition, or the creation of sounds from Karim’s keyboard that played out well with his composition.

Arts

East meets west in jazz concert at Goethe Haus Jakarta

26 June, 2014 think archipelago Leave a comment

The concert by musicians of two continents in Goethe Haus last year was worth-remembering.

Jazz is not for the faint-hearted, especially those who make a living out of it in Indonesia. Unlike any other places, jazz is more than just a choice for Indonesia’s aspiring musicians. It is a conviction that fortunately has gained appreciation over time by the public.

Everything is so specific and segmented when it comes to jazz. Just like when the word public is mentioned, meaning a very specific audience who generally reside in the city, are fond of western culture and history, continuously repositioned themselves in this ever globalized world society.

Riza Arshad hinted at how he coped with frustration having to shuttle back and forth from Jakarta to Bandung. His shows as the co-founder of simakDialog, a prominent jazz band in Indonesia had been limited to these two cities.

That evening, as he hosted two German jazz players playing in Goethe Haus, he voiced his pent-up dream that one day he would in turn be hosted in Germany. Jakarta and Bandung have been known as two of the leading cities in the country in terms of its art scenes.

For the likes of simakDialog, the band with its own style signifier, even less people can get in tunes with the way they express themselves through music.

Nevertheless, Arshad does not falter. He continues to create songs with unfathomable names. He often took listeners by surprise with several climax slipped into the composition, not to mention the random intensity of the rhythm.

Since its inception, simakDialog consists of special percussion section that uses kendang. A formation of three people fills this section, and has become inseparable to the band. Arshad leads the band with such confidence.

He said that the songs they play are “unlike any other alay bands.” He soon got response of laughter and even bigger applause.

Arts, Indonesia Jazz Review

The quartet who play music, with a caveat

26 September, 2013 think archipelago Leave a comment

Groups of musician insert a few elements of surprise in their shows to entice the increasingly discerning audience. They offer something different, but anticipated. Surely no one can’t blame them for trying.

Playing on the stage with a dark backdrop and under fixated dim lighting in Usmar Ismail Hall, Jakarta, Tuesday night, one would forgo the thought of visual spectacle that night and expect the most in auditory treats from evolving jazz of Italy and Middle East.

And then four of them came out of the main hall entrance instead of the backstage. They love to foray into the aisles and trigger the audience’s participation. As if one time seemed not enough, they reserved the energy for three more mood-rekindling rounds.

Seeing the taciturn audience before them, the band’s bearded front man, Carlo Actis Dato, who have played musical instrument since childhood, a similar case to the rest members, forcibly shouted at anyone seating in front of him to sing from the guts, dragged women to stomp their feet and dance alongside him.

Their choreography involved changing costumes and disassembling saxophone. All of this was done without losing the tempo, and the music never stopped playing.

Dedicated contemporary artists

If dedication is any indication, then Actis Dato Quartet is one of the most professional contemporary musicians of the world.

Their background in music can be stretched back into the very early formative years. Some of them were born into the family who either made a living from concert to concert or took music education seriously.

Their venture into jazz took considerable amount of effort and patience, rather than simply based on binding spontaneity overnight. They carefully thought of how to make a performance that as thrilling as their music.

They present themselves in an amusing way. Song selection fit into this disposition. The result on the stage was not at all an experiment, but a concerted effort to make a lasting impression.

Overshadowed by the comical gestures and laughters, they posed a warning about the commonly neglected notion, that the most important thing in music is to make incomprehensible tone and rhythm of a different part of the world entertaining to people.

As is the case with the term happiness, music is far beyond absolute definition, such as good melody or harmony. On top of that, music should make you feel good.