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span class="inline inline-left">JP/Blontank PoerJazz musician Dwiki Dharmawan asked music extraordinaire I Wayan Sadra if they could collaborate in mid-December 2009 after a rendezvous at a jazz festival in Yogyakarta.

Both musicians had only been given one the chance to meet and practice at Sadra’s work studio in Surakarta before performing.

“I wish we had been given more time to practice, I can’t imagine what the result would have been. Pak Sadra is an incredible musician. His mastery of all music instruments and his improvisation skills have shown his flexibility as a jazz musician,” Dwiki said of his senior after they performed in Bali.

Dwiki had only mentioned to Sadra that he wanted a strong Javanese music arrangement and entrusted his request to the man and his ensemble, Sonoseni Ensambel.

The result was amazing. The music received tremendous applause from the audience, with Dwiki promising Sadra another music collaboration abroad.

Unfortunately, we will no longer hear great music coming from the self-taught musician Sadra. The composer died on Thursday morning at 57 in a hospital in Solo, also known as Surakarta, Central Java.

The Bali-born musician passed away after he was treated for three days at Dr. Muwardi Hospital, suffering from a stroke and acute digestion problems.

He is survived by one wife and three children. Sadra was known as a unique musician with an endless passion to learn music.

He studied music from a young age, and soon mastered Balinese traditional music (gamelan) he learned from his family, who are mostly musicians.

He once took a major in music at the Jakarta Art Institution (IKJ) but failed to graduate. He tried again a little later and finished his studies while teaching at the same time.

He had just received a master’s degree from IKJ and was undergoing a doctoral program at ISI.

Sadra, who was granted the New Horizon Award from the International Society for Art Science and Technology, Berkeley, California, the US, was known as a humble musician who could work with people from different social backgrounds and music genres.

He was also famous for experimenting with different tools to create harmonious sounds. Sadra once used cow-leather and wooden sandals during a music performance to show that people could play and compose music with everyday items.

He liked to catch public transportation to reach his campus in Surakarta and only bought a motorcycle after receiving royalties for his music that had gone global.

But behind his down-to-earth persona, Sadra was a great musician with exceptional talent.

The Broadcasting Music Incorporation (BMI) produced some of his music, so did Frog Peak Composer Collective, in Canada, the American Gamelan Institut (AGI), Leonardo Journal Publication and The Japan Foundation.