Braga Jazz Walk #22 : The Report

It’s certainly not easy to maintain the regular monthly event for many months. We have to manage the lineup according to variety of styles and formats, we have to think of supporting and/or motivating the newcomers while providing enough space for the success ones to join the party, either to promote their new moves or simply want to share happiness with the younger ones. Of course, we also have to deal with their availability, asking their most updated profiles and be ready to find backups if any of them postponed their participation due to some reasons. It’s not easy.

But now, looking at how the Braga Jazz Walk is doing, we feel really blessed. For a year and a half this event has been opening the chance for jazz lovers in Bandung to enjoy live music performances at the historical location that’s easy to reach without having to pay a single dime. We have featured hundreds of talents and tens of bands/projects/groups and the talents are keep on coming. Other than showcasing new bands to our stage, we are keeping updates on those who have played too.

Full moon outside, some part of the city got heavy rain, but we all kept warm inside the mall with colourful jazz. This is the report of Braga Jazz Walk #22 where vibrant colors of jazz were found, brought by all young musicians.

We started with pop approach brought by a man who has been in many talent search programs, Andre Arizky. This pianist with baritone voice is not a stranger to this event. He has played several times including a special tribute to Elton John, in special Christmas Edition 2015 and in a couple of jam sessions. Recently he’s building his career in a new acoustic group Tiganama.

Andre took some songs from his long list of repertoire for this edition, and gave the theme ‘galau’ (in English: mellow). He began with John Legend’s “All of Me” with an excerpt of a famous song from Judika, “Aku yang Tersakiti”. Then he sang a popular song not many people sing anymore today, “What About Love” from Lemar. A slower, smoother version of “Englishman in New York” and then his ‘themesong’ for Braga, Elton John’s “Rocket Man” before closing his session with Tulus’ brand new song, “Pamit”.

Whether in group/band or solo, Andre Arizky always knows how to entertain. Thick baritone voice, good piano playing skill and charming while performing are always a catch. Playing and singing top 40s which are familiar to everyone’s ear gave a warm start for the Braga Jazz Walk #22. You may succeed in your career thoguh talent search programs, but even without it you still can have success if you are talented and serious in building your career. Andre Arizky has it all, so we have no doubt that he will go higher and higher.

Exactly on the same date of this event, April 21st, Indonesia commemorates the Kartini Day, referring to R.A Kartini, a prominent national heroine from Java that’s known and widely respected as a pioneer in women’s equal rights especially in education. The fruit of what she fought for can be felt even until now, including a young girl we featured in this edition, a cheerful 22 year-old girl who’s really good in drumming. Her name is Marissa Wiguna, and the band is simply named Marissa Wiguna Band.

We first found Marissa Wiguna when she was still a teenage girl serving as the drummer of praise and worship in church. Knowing that this girl has the X factor, we brought her to the secular world with a band called Out of 7. If before she was more into rock, in Out of 7 she digged more styles including jazz, soul and funk. While the band is currently paused, she found a breakthrough by being selected as the drummer of Singapore senior rock guitarist, Mr Moliano Rasmadi who’s famous with his band the Lovehunters. With this new band, Moliano in Rock, she aims an international career playing classic rock.

Still, we think she serves tasty jazz beat. As she is still in young age, we encouraged her to establish her own trio where she could gain better attention. Then the band was born. Joining her in this band is her own husband Widiyanto Sutanto and a bassist/multi-instrumentalist/composer, Farhan Faikar. They played together for the first time in a jam session at our event Javana Jazz Lounge last year (http://jazzuality.com/jazz-event-report/javana-jazz-bistro-3rd-edition-the-report/). Realizing that they like playing together, they formed an alliance as a band.

Her trio turned out to be ferocious right from the start. Taking Coltrane’s “Mr P.C.” enabled them to do a lot of manouvers, including a tasty drum-bass battle between Marissa and Farhan. They carried on with a swing standard “All the Things You Are” in boppin’ mode. A surprise came when they took “Ibu Kita Kartini” to celebrate Kartini Day which has been rearranged totally different in free jazz and once again gave a fully loaded action. Then, they hit the climax big time with a very difficult song to play, Chick Corea’s “Got a Match”.

Throughout the songs the players were really on fire. Widiyanto showed his fast piano playing using both keyboard and piano. Farhan did many delightful fast walking bass as he teased his team mates several times whenever he could. As for the band leader Marissa, she was captivating. This trio managed to catch the attention of mall-goers and dragged them to watch the performance. Complex compositions served mercilessly took people to the edge of their seat. Speaking of the letting out the passion in madness, these three stunts did it all.

Indonesia is fortunate to have a couple of great lady drummers throughout the years. But not many step forward to establish their own band. We think Marissa Wiguna should do it, and yes, turns out we are right. Whether it’s rock, disco or jazz, this young girl can serve lively beat. Good tempo, good control, good skill and the x factor, she should get good recognition she deserved.

The third band is a band with unique jazz, Continuum. This band was born a year ago in Bandung. Some of them are working in Jakarta, but they still come to perform frequently to Bandung. Starting as a trio, lately the band has added a vocalist. Continuum are Willyam Yuzaq (drums), Hajar Asyura (guitar), Dyva (bass) and a young lady with smooth but mysterious vocal tone, Mirna Nurmala. We have invited them to our other event in Bumi Sangkuriang, but it’s time to have them tasted the Braga stage.

Continuum started as a jazz trio, playing a song from the guitarist of Esperanza Spalding, Matthew Stevens titled “Woodwork”. Hajar stood tall and strong in front on this one. Mirna joined the boys shortly after and sang “Nakamarra” from Hiatus Kaiyote’s collection. The eerie version of Sundanese classic “Bubuy Bulan” gave a strong statement of how noir can they go. Then, “God Bless the Child” came in a different way. To seal their gig, they chose a song they played so well from The Jongens Quartet, “Miss Jones”.

On the surface it seems like they are playing standard, but if you listen carefully you will get the impression that they actually have some more nuances in their music which gives contribution in building a strong musical chararcter. While Mirna works well in front to paint strong color, Willyam Yuzaq who is also the drummer of Radhini gives sharp beats. Hajar is a great jazz guitarist graduated from Venche Music School up to the advance class and Dyva is essential on bass. A good jazz band like this should keep their existance, which becomes one of the reasons why we are proud to bring them in to this event.

The jazz scene in Bandung is currently in great weather. There are many jazz communities appear everywhere with loads of talents. What’s good about this is that the communities are not competing with one another. As one of the clear evidences, here we invited a very good band from Butterfieldjazz Society to play for the very first time. The name is 5Petani (in English: 5 Farmers).

5Petani consists of 6 personnels: Gerson Valdo Siahaan (keyboard) Frank Navayo Pattinasarany (guitar), Fauzan Rijal (bass), Yoga Wardana Kusumah (acoustic guitar), Athina Niassrin Muhamad (saxophone) and Arbi (drum). Occasionally they have two additional players: Hilmi (percussion) and Sidix (flute/bamboo flute). All personnel agreed that agriculture is the prime mover of the Indonesian economy, and farmers stand at the tip of the spear, that’s philosophy that the “5Petani” hold in mind in sharing their heart and soul through music to their audience.

They were formed just two years ago, in mid 2014. But they do move fast. They have performed at the Java Jazz Festival and currently aim big especially after releasing their EP. We planned to invite them since at least 6 months ago, but only now finally we got the chance to do so.

The complete ensemble of jazz farmers took their position on stage, as we interviewed Angga Wardana, the curator of Butterfieldjazz Society. This band played all original songs in light fusion with splashes of ethnic from the sound of bamboo flute. “Pelangi” was the first, which immidiately showcased their awesomeness as both individual and unit. After this fresh-feeling song they carried on with another cheerful arrangement, “Anak Petani”. Eight young musicians were having fun on stage. Not only they played their instruments, they were playful too all over the stage. The third song was their single “Matahari” that went with a bit of Sundanese nuance, and then for the last song 5Petani played a composition made by Frank titled “Zefania”.

Just like land, music has to be culvitated to bear good fruits. So we like the philosophy this band has. The way they play and the music style brought us back to more than 20 years ago when Karimata was born. At that time, Karimata also consisted of talented young musicians who played light fusion with some ethnic musics involved. Now, 5Petani brings back to the joy. We wouldn’t be surprise if some dacceds from now they have the same success story. May success be upon you guys! And kudos to Angga Wardhana and his Butterfieldjazz Society. Man, what a band!

As we still got a little time left, we directly opened the jam session. The 9 year-old Nadine was the first to take the chance. We have featured this little girl a couple of times before. Now she already has two own songs and currently working on establishing her own trio. Joining her was Farhan Faikar (bass), Frank Navayo (guitar), Athfy Fadhlika Shafa (drums) and Erick Gabe (vocal). Together they gave a final blast with “Route 66”.

Braga Jazz Walk #22 turned out to be a very interesting edition courtesy of all young players. We thank all playing musicians who put up a good show, and certainly we thank everyone who came. We will be back next month on the third Thursday with fresh batch, including a pianist from Jakarta graduated from Groningen. Stay tuned for the complete info, see you then!