Courtesy of Didi Mudigdo
Australian jazz singer and pianist Didi Mudigdo will miss next year's Java Jazz Festival -- not because he is not interested in performing at the prestigious event, but because he will be in Japan.
Since he left Sydney three years ago, Mudigdo has lived an itinerant life, moving from New Zealand, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia to perform at festivals and jazz clubs, and produce live albums.
"Most of the time I was locked in a contract in a particular venue. It so happens that anytime there is a festival in Jakarta, I'm locked (in a contract) in a different city," Mudigdo told The Jakarta Post.
"I have never played at the Java Jazz Festival, all my friends from Australia have played there, but I have never been available," he said.
In between contracts, Mudigdo has toured and performed in many jazz festivals, the highlight of which he said was the prestigious Sapporo City Jazz Festival -- featured in his last recording.
Mudigdo, currently on a tour that will take him to China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore, was about to perform at the Nine Muses Club in South Jakarta on Tuesday when he met with the Post.
Moving from one place to another, he said, was nothing new to him. Born in Australia to Indonesian parents, the 37-year-old was raised in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, before returning to Australia in the mid 1980s.
"My parents were both recipients of the Colombo Plan Scholarship. They came to Australia to study under the scholarship. They were married in Australia and I was born there. In the early 1970s we moved around a little bit, we moved to New Zealand and Indonesia," he said.
"I lived in Indonesia twice, when I was in elementary school I stayed for about three to four years. And when I was in high school I lived in Indonesia for about two years. In between those two stays, I lived in Malaysia and Sir Lanka."
Mudigdo said he was "quite old" by the time he was first introduced to the piano.
"We didn't have a piano until I was about 12 years old. It was also by chance, because when we arrived in Indonesia we rented a house that already had a piano in it," he said.
He said long before touching the piano, he had already learned to play the ukulele from his father, an accomplished architect who played guitar.
"When I was about eight years old, for my birthday (my father) gave me ukulele. That was great for me as a child because I could be like my father."
The ukulele not only introduced the young Mudigdo to the excitement of playing music, but also gave him a basic introduction to being a solo singer.
He often sang traditional Indonesian songs with his father.
"'Kolee Kolee arumbai kolee...' I don't know where it's from and I don't know the rest of the words," he laughed, failing to remember the traditional song from Ambon, Maluku province.
Two years after discovering the piano, Mudigdo became interested in jazz.
"I had a friend in high school whose elder brother was a jazz lover so I went to his house and listened to his jazz collection," he said.
Infatuated with the genre, Mudigdo learned to make basic jazz tunes on his own before his father took him to a jazz school owned by Indonesian jazz legend Jack Lesmana.
"At the time, Jack Lesmana was still alive. I used to see him. He used to pop in while I was playing. At one time, he came in and played the bass while I played," Mudigdo recalled.
He developed his musical gift when he returned to Australia and enrolled at the University of New South Wales to study electrical engineering. He continued his jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Mudigdo had his first professional gig when he was in college and went on to perform in many musical events, including in concerts staged to mark the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
He was a Top 10 finalist in the 2005 Australian National Songwriting Contest in the jazz category before leaving the city.
His music kept changing, he said, but most of the time he played what people called "post-pop" or 1950s-1960s jazz.
"That's what I enjoyed playing the most. I also enjoy 1970s jazz and 1980s jazz, but I didn't get the chance to do it very often."
He said he was interested in collaborating with Indonesian jazz musicians and producing an album here, but so far had no thoughts about staying long term in Indonesia.
From a cross-national family, only Mudigdo and his elder brother hold Australian passports.
"I always look for long-term performances where I could stay in a country for two or three months and see their culture and learn their language. This is what I am interested in," he said.
Mudigdo acknowledges, however, that he cannot lead this nomadic lifestyle forever.
"Yeah, I know (I have to settle somewhere), but I'm not sure where that is," he said.
