All out for music: Minino Garay (left) dances while playing the triangle and Baptiste plays the piano.

Baptiste Trotignon on piano and Minino Garay on percussion mesmerized the capital’s jazz lovers with a simple and intimate concert.

The night was still young, but the auditorium of the French Institute (IFI) in Central Jakarta was already filling up with people for a jazz performance from French pianist Baptiste Trotignon and Argentine percussionist Minino Garay.

The renowned Trotignon, who was hailed by Le Monde daily as “perfection from A to Z”, made his debut in Indonesia on May 16 as part of the Printemps Francais 2016 festival. The duo also performed in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on May 17 and in Sanur, Bali, on May 18.

IFI cultural attaché Didier Vuillecot, who has known Trotignon for 15 years, said he had asked him to play in Jakarta after finding out he was in Asia. “He is one of France’s distinguished pianists,” he said. 

At 8 p.m., the duo walked onto the stage and, under a blue light, opened their concert with “La Peregrinación” (Pilgrimage), a composition by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramirez.

Trotignon was dressed simply in a black long-sleeved shirt, maroon pants and black shoes. Garay was more colorfully garbed, wearing orange-framed sunglasses, a blue hat, white shirt, tight blue pants and bright red shoes.  

In music we trust: Baptiste Trotignon (left) and Minino Garay.

Trotignon played his delicate piano chords, his eyes closed as he struck the row of keys. Garay followed the rhythm and slapped his cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru. They performed 12 songs and compositions in 75 minutes, with Trotignon often using a small purple towel to dab sweat from his face and neck.

“Honestly, [Indonesia] is very hot,” he said of his first impressions of the country.

With a traditional Argentine touch, the duo played legendary works from great artists, such as “La Javanaise” (Javanese) by French singer Serge Gainsbourg, “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (Don’t Leave Me) by Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel, as well as “Le Jazz et la Java” (Jazz and Java) and “Toulouse” (Toulouse) by French songwriter Claude Nougaro.    

 “The biggest challenge in integrating piano and percussion is the absence of bass. Therefore, my left hand takes a role as ‘the bassist’,” Trotignon said, adding that with percussion, a perfect acoustic sound could be created without using a sound system.

In the middle of the show, Garay left his cajón and came forward with a triangle. He danced while playing it, his musical partner joining in as the music got faster and faster.

Before playing their final piece, Garay unbuttoned his shirt under a dim light, and slapped his chest loudly. Trotignon’s energetic composition “Awake” then closed the concert. As the show ended, long and loud applause flooded the auditorium as the duo took a bow.

Trotignon said he had known Garay for five years and they had proved a good match; he is a jazz musician interested in traditional music, while the Argentinian is a traditional musician interested in jazz.  

“The first concert we did was five years ago in Córdoba, Argentina,” he said of Garay’s hometown.

Born in Paris in 1974, Trotignon began playing piano at the age of 8. At home, when he was little, he played a piano belonging to his father, who was an amateur pianist. He said he felt good when he played it for the first time.

“When I was a teenager, I began learning jazz,” said Trotignon, who appeared in French director Alain Corneau’s film Le Nouveau Monde (New World) in 1994. In 2002, he won the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris at the Martial Solal International Jazz Competition. A year later, Les Victoires du Jazz, an annual French awards ceremony devoted to jazz, named him Best French Newcomer for his two albums, Fluide and Sightseeing.

On the album Flower Power, released in 2005, he collaborated with French jazz composer David El-Malik and Italian jazz drummer Aldo Romano. In 2014, the annual French classical music award Victories de la Musique Classique nominated him Composer of the Year for his first major orchestral work, Different Spaces.

 Although Garay grew up in Argentina, he has resided in France since 1988 and has collaborated with many French jazz musicians, from Julien Lourau to Daniel Mille.

 “In France, I am the first percussionist [to have entered] the jazz community,” said Garay.

 Trotignon said he was interested in collaborating with Indonesian jazz musicians, something he has not done before.

 “I have worked with a lot of American musicians,” he said. “North America […] invented jazz music. So, as a European jazz musician, I always share a lot of projects with American musicians.”

According to Trotignon, when it comes to harmonies, jazz is very sophisticated, something that may not appeal to a younger audience. Jazz musicians face the challenge of maintaining the sophistication, but ensuring that people of all ages can enjoy the music.

“We like to do sophisticated music, but we don’t need people to understand it. We just need people to feel it. We are trying to express something that is more about feeling,” he said.  

— Photos by A. Kurniawan Ulung

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