TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Christina Perri closes 11th Java Jazz Festival
Superb voice: American singer Christina Perri entertains fans during the Java Jazz Festival 2015 at JIExpo Kemayoran in Jakarta on Sunday
Change Size
S
span class="inline inline-center">Superb voice: American singer Christina Perri entertains fans during the Java Jazz Festival 2015 at JIExpo Kemayoran in Jakarta on Sunday. JP/Awo
Performances by two young international pop stars Christina Perri and Jessie J closed the 11th Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival (JJF) on Sunday.
Singer-songwriter Perri performed to a full house at the biggest hall of JIExpo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
Clad in a white shirt and black shorts, Perri's appearance on stage was met with loud applause and cheering from the crowd.
Perri opened the show with 'Shot me in the Heart', which was taken from her second album, Head or Heart.
'How are you doing Jakarta? Apa Kabar?' she greeted the crowd.
Perri continued her performance with 'Run', 'Distance', 'Burning Gold', 'Arms', 'Lonely Child', 'One Night', Coldplay's 'A Sky Full of Stars', Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' and, of course, 'Jar of Hearts', a song that brought her into the limelight.
When the intro of 'A Thousand Years' played, screams resounded throughout the hall, as predicted, and the crowd immediately put up their phones to record her performance.
From the beginning to the end of the song, the audience sang along under the direction of Perri.
Throughout the show, she was very communicative, frequently greeting the crowd, asking them to dance and sing with her, giving brief explanations of the songs that she mostly writes herself.
Apart from singing, she also showed her virtuosity by playing tambourine, guitar and piano.
'Tonight all of you are part of my dream. Thank you,' Perri said.
Also performing on Sunday was Japan's Blue Note Tokyo All-Star Jazz Orchestra.
Under the direction of Hawaiian-born Eric Miyashiro, the orchestra immediately grabbed the audience's attention with its first piece.
'Hello Jakarta. Welcome to the 2015 Java Jazz Festival! We are delighted to be here, please sit back and enjoy our show,' Miyashiro said.
Some were nodding their heads, patting their hips with hands and swaying side to side in their seats to the jazzy tunes.
Apart from creating soulful compositions as an ensemble, each band member took center stage to show their individual skills in mini solo performances.
Blue Note Tokyo was established in 1988 by Miyashiro, and premiered its world debut at the famed Montreux Jazz Festival in 2014.
The JJF also featured local pop-jazz talent Lea Simanjuntak with the Timeless Jazz project.
'Are you excited? I am! You can sit, or you can dance with me,' she said.
In 'Everybody Says Don't' by Barbra Streisand, Lea showcased the upper range of her singing skills, generating applause from the crowd.
Accompanied by Rabukustik Big Band, Lea also covered lots of famous songs from different eras, such as 'Don't Rain on My Parade' by Barbra Streisand, 'This Will Be an Everlasting Love' by Natalie Cole and Liza Minelli's 'New York, New York'.
Thousands of festival-goers were grooving and jamming with over 100 local and international acts that performed on 16 stages over the course of the three-day event.
The 2005 Indonesian Idol winner Mike Mohede said apart from performing and watching his favorite musicians, JJF was also time to enrich his musical vocabulary.
'My experience with jazz is very limited, and through this event I can meet many great jazz talents whom I can learn about music from,' he said.
