ITBjazz!

  First of all, these are the list of performers that I watched on the second day of Javajazz Festival :

1. Merry Kasiman Project

2. Jazz Orchestra of The Concertgebouw

3. Miles Smiles feat. Larry Coryell, Joey Defrancesco, Omar Hakim, Daryll Jones, and RIck Margitza                              

4. Monday Michiru

5. Roy Hargrove RH factor

 This year’s Javajazz had a quite line up. A lot of jazz greats were performing this year, though not as spectacular as the predeccessors, but this year gave bunch of surprises like Miles Smiles featuring the other half-god ensemble (Larry Coryell, Joey Defrancesco, Omar Hakim, Daryll Jones, Rick Margitza) it was like “whoa, i didn’t see that coming !”. Overall, it was great ! (with a couple of minor but quite fatal human errors !.)

 Okay let’s give a brief review one performer at a time :

     I watched Merry Kasiman Project’s show, about halfway of the performance, because of traffic jam. Even just by watching the half of the show made me trembling (and craving for more obviously), the arrangement were very rich, tight, and divine. What makes it unique was the choice of the instruments in the ensemble. There were Trumpet, Saxophones, Clarinet, Accordeon and basic jazz combo consisted of Piano, Guitar, Upright-Bass, and Drum. The unusual choice of instruments produced a subtle sound and quirky in a good way !. Kudos for Merry Kasiman and her bandmates ! looking forward for your next performance !.

    Next,The Jazz Orchestra of THe Concertgebouw from Holland. This Jazz Big Band is one of the best big band that I’ve ever watched. Their arrangements were well-balanced and the soloist were great !. The way Hank Meutgeert (Conductor) say “terimakasih” for couple of times was also quite entertaining haha !. And in the middle of the show, Mr. Meutgeert announced that Roberta Gambarini will join them ! such a great surprise !. The first song was “On The Sunny Side of the Street”, and it was excecuted beautifully. She sang effortlessly, “she was like doing some sort of storytelling” said Sarah Dinna (one of ITB Jazz member). 

   Here goes the review of the “Half-God Ensemble” ( Miles Smiles feat. Larry Coryell, Joey Defrancesco, Omar Hakim, Daryll Jones, Rick Margitza). I can’t say anything, they were just great ! Omar Hakim was totally groovin’ the show ! and Wallace Rooney does resemble the great Miles Davis a lot, the way he play, the sound of his trumpet, heavenly !. Actually Joey were quite pissed of because his hammond (or rhodes, I can’t remember quite well) were drop-dead for quite awhile, but still he raped his rhodes/hammond gracefully !.

  Actually I was planning to watch Marcus Miller instead of Monday Michiru. but my back were hurting, so I couldn’t afford standing. Then I and some of ITBjazz members agreed to watch Monday Michiru to take a little break from all of that hyper-jazz performances to a more laid-back gig. And it was worthy ! (Her husband, Alex Sipiagin was in her band plus Gregory Porter appearance for one song, now that’s exciting !) she did a great job, though I was expecting her to play her flute more . Aftershow my friend Jan, a dutch-man who happened to be Alex Sipiagin’s student when he was still in college at Groningen Conservatory of Music (now he’s enrolling at SBM’s MBA), Introduced me to Alex Sipiagin. Alex was friendly, and he kindly gave some tips for us to note : “If you play jazz, all you got to do is LISTEN and TRANSCRIBE !”.

   Last but not least Roy Hargrove RH Factor. As a trumpet player myself (still in learning) Roy Hargrove was directly caught on my radar since his name was announced first time in the line-ups list. RH factor were supposed to perform at 11.45 PM but unfortunately they just get started at 2 AM. But it was worthy ! It was hard not to shake your doochie while watching the show, it was groovey and hypnotic as well !. Although it was sour at first , Renee Neufville (vocalist) brought the mood up, she is a genius !. Though another “dead instrument” accident happened to the guitarist (Todd Parsnow) on his SOLO (poor Todd, screw the soundmen !).  Aftershow, I got to meet Mr.Hargrove personally by sneaking to the backstage. And luckily his mood has quite lifted up,maybe because the crowd were also quite ravin’ (it must’ve made him happy), I asked several question and one of them were “How could you be so late ?” then he answered “Dude, me and my bandmates were ready since 10 PM”. Lastly, A tip from Roy Hargrove ” If you nurture the music, the music will nurture you dude ! so have no worry ! keep jazz alive !”.

   P.S. : A note for the next committees of javajazz, please sharpen your consciousness about the sound quality. Some halls were not quite suited for a music venue (or requiring some more adjustments to be a proper music venue) and please avoid “dead instrument” accidents, I find it quite fatal though (because It was also happened on John Medeski’s hammond last year on MMW’s show) . But I have to give kudos for the information center, they were great  !.

 So that’s it for the review ! and if you got any reviews of javajazz as well, I welcome you to submit ! 

(ITBjazz members and Mr. Hargrove, special thanks to Azman Azka)

sincerely, ~thealleycat

JazzTimes

Pada awalnya, majalah JazzTimes merupakan sebuah newsletter bernama Radio Free Jazz pada sebuah toko rekaman di Washington, DC, Amerika Serikat.  Perubahan nama menjadi JazzTimes tersebut terjadi pada 1980.

Majalah JazzTimes sangat menaruh perhatian pada tampilan visual dari majalah mereka, hal ini dibuktikan dengan hadirnya fotografer kelas dunia seperti Herman Leonard, Lee Tanner, John Abbott, Jimmy Katz dan Nick Ruechel. Majalah JazzTimes juga pernah mendapatkan penghargaan FOLIO: Gold Ozzie Awards, sebuah penghargaan paling prestisus untuk para penerbit majalah, khususnya dalam bidang desain majalah.

Majalah Jazziz yang lahir pada tahun 1983 ini selalu memberikan Limited Edition Collector’s CD yang berisi lagu-lagu dari featured artists pada setiap edisinya.

Downbeat

Majalah Downbeat merupakan majalah tertua yang membahas mengenai musik jazz. Majalah ini lahir di kota Illinois, Chicago, Amerika Serikat dan telah beredar sejak tahun 1934.

Nama dari Majalah Downbeat itu sendiri berasal dari istilah musik yang bisa disebut juga dengan “beat one” yang merupakan first beat dalam musical measure.

Salah satu fitur dari Majalah Downbeat yang paling terkenal adalah rubrik “Blindfold Test” yang ditempatkan pada halaman terakhir dari Majalah Downbeat.  Pada rubrik ini, para musisi jazz ditantang untuk mendengarkan, membahas, mengidentifikasi lagu, dan musisi yang dipilih oleh redaksi Majalah Downbeat. Dan musisi jazz tersebut diminta untuk memberikan rating dalam skala 0-5.

Pada tahun 1968, Bubi Chen, pianis asal Indonesia, terpilih sebagai salah satu dari lima pianis terbaik di dunia dan terbaik di Asia berdasarkan polling pembaca Majalah Downbeat.  Bubi Chen juga merupakan musisi jazz asal Asia pertama yang mendapatkan penghargaan dari majalah jazz yang paling prestisius ini.