Java Jazz grooves toward strong finale

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 03/05/2006 7:43 AM  |  Life

Simon Pitchforth, Contributor, Jakarta

It's now Sunday morning and no doubt you're at home, drinking cappuccino, perhaps smoking imported European cigarettes, feeling jazzy and considering day three of the Java Jazz Festival.

Well, today is your last chance to check out the festival which, in two years, has become as huge a jazz event as the famous North Sea Festival in Europe. Well, almost.

There are 15 stages of syncopated sax-uality to choose from the quality acts at the huge Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) in Central Jakarta. Today's highlights include Massada, a wonderfully hoary old 1970s, part-Indonesian fusion band, a peer of Santana and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra.

In the main Plenary Hall auditorium, Sunday's headliners include The Bob James Quintet (featuring the legendary Nathan East on bass), Indonesia's favorite British acid jazz act, Incognito and the 1970s funksters turned 1980s cheesy pop balladeers, Kool and the Gang.

Incognito will be showcasing the special guest talents of Carleen Anderson, goddaughter of Godfather of Soul James Brown and one-time member of perhaps the best of the early 1990s acid jazz bands, The Young Disciples.

Omar, the smooth, acid jazz crooner and writer of There's Nothing Like This, one of this country's most played acid jazz tracks, will also be joining Incognito.

As for Kool and the Gang, well who knows? Personally, I hope they'll dust down such 1970s funk grinders as NT, Jungle Boogie and Summer Madness, but their set could be more of a showcase for the group's 1980s pop hits, alas.

Don't despair, however, as some of the most innovative and enjoyable acts are to be found on Java Jazz's smaller stages. Raphael Gualazzi, whom I managed to catch on Friday night, plays again today and is well worth a look. Gualazzi hammers and vamps on his piano keys like some kind of white, Jelly Roll Morton boogie-woogie dervish, and has a richly soulful voice to boot -- which was apparently influenced by Ray Charles and Jamiroquai. Awesome stuff.

Slinky and soulful Vikter Duplaix will be sexing up the Aksara stage with his own brand of digital ""lurve"". Also worth a look is Italian pianist Chiara Civello, who will be pumping out some infectious Latin- and Brazilian-influenced tunes.

Japanese Jazz superstar and Chick Corea protege Hiromi will also be weaving her skillful hands around the pianoforte. She was a special treat early on Saturday night and is certainly worth checking out today. Mark de Clive-Lowe, Nu Jazz pioneer and fuser of jazz with ethnic and urban groove musics also sounds interesting.

As this piece went to press, Saturday's concert was already well underway. Like Friday night, the crowds were a little on the small side at the beginning, but were increasing as the night marched toward the headline acts.

As festival chairman Peter Gontha said, Java Jazz is a bit like one of those huge automobile shows -- everyone moves around a lot to get a look at all the different models until they find the one they like the best. This was certainly true for the many young women keeping a careful eye on the movements of a certain Eric Benet, who was about to take the stage on Saturday night.

Other early treats included Discus, a 10-strong Indonesian outfit who switched dizzyingly quickly between traditional Eastern music, funk, hard-core rock and Frank Zappa-styled jazz -- what the music nerds call ""studies in poliphony"". The sexy female singer's costume said it all -- a beautifully patterned ethnic robe that fell apart to reveal a pair of green, luminous hotpants. The new was cloaked in old, and it worked.

Some of the best acts on Friday played on the smaller lobby stages, with the aforementioned Raphael Gualazzi smashing his piano into matchwood, as well as Tony Monaco, who played some super soulful blues on his Hammond B3 organ.

Glen Fredly gave the local crowd some sing-along, karaoke thrills, but the best -- and also the best-received act I saw on Friday -- were the New York three-piece, Tortured Soul, whose human-drum-machine front man led the group through a tremendous set of live disco/house music.

The bass player invoked the spirit of the renowned Chic and Sister Sledge bassist Bernie Edwards, while the keyboard player skillfully layered Fender Rhodes and disco-synth sounds to create a densely syncopated groove that the crowd loved. These guys should think about coming back to Indonesia at a later date, they could clean up.

Java Jazz, in the meantime, is going from strength to strength.

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