S

alamander Big Band has 20 people performing, that’s twice the members of the Norway based prog-jazz giant Jaga Jazzist.

But that’s not the reason why they put “Big Band” behind Salamander. One of the main reasons is because they swing, carrying the legacy of the old cats from the early 30s.

They call it swing because the rhythm is lifting, swinging and constantly moving from medium to ridiculously fast tempo. The key rhythm section, that’s bass and drums, are expected to do well-calculated improvisations with minimum guiding patterns, in which what’s written on the music sheets are the arrangement’s core line.

Lead sections are expected to show what they’ve got on their instruments during solos: the more complicated the merrier. The remaining dozen of the horn section is what keeping everything together, so it goes.

Swing is not easy to enjoy and very much harder to play.

Yet, big band was a popular form even after swing’s popularity dissipated. Jaco Pastorius, one of the greatest electric bassists the world has ever heard of, in retrospect, insisted on having a big band for his much anticipated second release. The band was named Worth of Mouth.

Word of Mouth has 14 musicians; two of them played steel pans.

Steel pans have different sized bumps that have different sounds when hit. We have no idea who was the genius who first thought of steel pans as legitimate musical instruments, what we do know is that nobody played steel pans in Salamander Big Band.

There are Zein Arfah, Joseph Sinaga, Dicky Ampouw, Matt Ashworth and Bonny Buntoro on saxophones, Oki Dirgualam, Andriyono Haryono, Brury Effendi and the band’s regular leader Devy Ferdianto on trumpets. Agus Suherman, Andriyanto Haryanto, Ivan Imran Indramsyah, Afdhal Zickry and Arief Budhyana play trombones, while Imelda Rosalin and Rika Andriyani are in charge of piano and keyboard, respectively. Rizky Diansyah will play guitar with Roy Bimantoro on the low keys. Their drummer is named Augustinus, possibly born in August, aided by the equally important percussionist Adya Dhivara. Leading the band as conductor is a guest composer from Germany, a professor by the name of Dieter Mack.

Dieter Mack spent a year in Bali studying gamelan back in 1981, the same year Jaco Pastorius released the aforementioned second album.

Completing the band are Margie Segers, Imelda Rosalin, Nenden Shintawati and Gail Satiawaki in the vocal section.

Salamander Big Band has been around since September 2006. Set up by aspiring young musicians from Bandung Institute of Technology, they aim at keeping the spirit of swing alive, obviously by swinging as hard as they can.

They subsequently become known in the growing Indonesian Jazz scene, being one of a handful of swing big bands that can actually play. They have played at the country’s biggest jazz festivals and have performed various sold out concerts over the years.

Two anniversary concerts will be performed this September, at Balai Pertemuan Bumi Sangkuriang, Jl. Kiputih 12, Ciumbuleuit, Bandung on Sept. 21 and at GoetheHaus Jakarta, Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15, Menteng the following day for free.

If you know your music, call +62-81572930088 for Bandung concert reservation, +62-21-23550208 extension 116 and 147 for Goethe concert and see for yourself how hard a swinger the Salamander Big Band is.