Ozomatli's diverse rhythms get Jakarta audience dancing

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 03/27/2008 12:08 PM  |  Potpourri

ON THE STAGE: Nine-piece band Ozomatli performs at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta on Tuesday. The band is touring Indonesia (Jakarta, Surabaya and Palembang) on the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)The audience at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (GKJ) was as diverse as the music and the personnel of Ozomatli, the musical group performing at the theater Tuesday night.

The show started a little bit awkwardly when the Los Angeles- based Latin hip hop band began with their song, "City of Angels".

The song was irresistibly groovy and inviting, while the audience -- a mixture of solemn diplomats, students and journalists -- were stuck on their confining chairs, unable to decide whether they should stand up and succumb to the beat or just sit down politely and dance with their thumbs.

Luckily, the collective indecisiveness did not last long. When the Spanish-English band Ozomatli played their sweet Latin-flavored piece, "Can't Stop", some of the audience members, especially the younger ones, could no longer bear the temptation and began to dance.

Most youngsters had left their seats by halfway through the show and were bopping together at the front of the stage.

It was obviously a rare frenzy night at the theater that usually keeps its audience in check, especially during classical and theatrical performances. It appeared with Ozomatli on the stage, the art center's staff members had no reason to be strict that night.

Formed in 1995 by musicians who shared the same concerns about social and human rights issues, Ozomatli represents the ideals of democracy in the U.S.

The band members come from different cultural backgrounds (Latin, African and Japanese) and although their recent tours have mostly been facilitated by the State Department, they are not always in line with the Bush administration.

Music is definitely a good start for a cultural dialogue; it has the ability to transcend differences, be it language or even ideology.

Ozomatli has traveled to countries where people called the U.S. government "the new imperialist". But band members say they toured with "nothing but love" and the desire to share and learn from others.

"Sometimes, the people and the government are totally different things. One of our first trips -- don't tell the embassy about this -- we went to Havana, Cuba. We went over there, basically to learn.

"Most Americans have no wants, needs or desires to go to Cuba, you know. For us as musicians, it's a Mecca of percussion, a Mecca of musical knowledge. So, we actually got over there with nothing but love, for us to take the opportunity to go there and play music," the band's saxophonist, Ulises Bella, said during a press conference before the show.

It is perhaps their openness to influences that make their music so familiar to an Asian audience, including Indonesians. Most of the songs performed in the concert at GKJ were in Spanish, but this did not hinder the interaction between band members and the Indonesian audience who instinctively yelled "lagi, lagi, lagi!" (again! again! again!) before changing to "we want more, we want more*" at the end of the show.

"We realize that there's obviously a certain connection that can be so deep between people and cultures. It's worth it to gamble to go to places where they might not like us or they might not appreciate, or whatever. We take that gamble to make that connection," Bella said.

MIXING ACT: Members of Ozomatli step down off the stage and interact with the audience at the end of their performance Tuesday in Jakarta. The band mixes Latin, hip hop, jazz, salsa, funk and reggae genres as well as Middle Eastern and African styles of music. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)Ozomatli's music is a mixture of the modern sounds of hip hop, jazz and funk, and the traditional sounds of world musical heritages found in Africa, the Middle East and China. The group do not merely mishmash the different genres, but consider musical fusion as a natural,evolution of music.

"When I was in Alexandria in Egypt, I walked over to a CD store and sat next to a guy smoking cigarettes for about three hours asking him about all the music. At the end of the day, I walked out with a box of CDs, that way I could go home and really listen and really appreciate the sound of that area of the world. Slowly, those influences start creeping into our music," Bella said.

With their belief in the value of diversity, which they also recognize as Indonesia's national philosophy, they jokingly consider themselves the cultural ambassadors of the U.S. when interacting with people from other countries.

"The funniest moment I had was in Cairo when this guy came up to me and started ragging about the American government ... it opened up a conversation and by the end of the conversation we realized that we had a lot in common. I think it might have changed the opinion about stereotypes people have of the West and it changed my opinion about the stereotypes people have about the Middle East," Bella added.

The U.S. State Department has sponsored Ozomatli's tours in Egypt, India, Nepal and Argentina.

"We identify with Ozomatli because of how diverse their background and ethnicity is. We want to show the world that the U.S. is a country with different viewpoints, backgrounds, languages and different ways of living.

"Ozomatli represents that, even in their name. Their name is from Mexico. That tells you how they have international flavor," Assistant Press Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Stafford A. Ward said, adding that the State Department would probably continue to support Ozomatli's tours in other countries.

Ozomatli's performance at GKJ was indeed a parade of cultural diversity as people grooved to music that ranged from the sounds of Led Zeppelin to Bob Marley.

At the end the show, Bella and other band members mingled with the audience and sang together with them accompanied by percussion and trombone.

Ozomatli will play at Surya Park, Surabaya, on March 29 and at BKB Plaza Palembang on March 31.

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