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Jakarta Post

Jubing, his jukebox and the lady in red

Light moment: The audience receive a pleasant surprise from singer Katon Bagaskara (right) during Jubing’s show

Harry Nazarudin (The Jakarta Post)
JAKARTA
Sat, March 7, 2009

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Jubing, his jukebox  and the lady in red

Light moment: The audience receive a pleasant surprise from singer Katon Bagaskara (right) during Jubing’s show. (Courtesy Of Marchellinus Handjaja)

Jubing Kristianto is one of Indonesia’s best fingerstyle guitarists. This a four-time champion of the Yamaha Festival Gitar Indonesia for acoustic guitar also received a Distinguished Award at the Yamaha Southeast Asian Guitar Festival 1984 in Hong Kong.

Together with famous pianist Jaya Suprana, he formed the Punakawan Quartet, which has performed in Australia, Singapore and Japan.

He has produced two well-known albums, Becak Fantasy (Fantasy Pedicab, 2007) and Hujan Fantasy (Fantasy Rain, 2008), both featuring Indonesian popular music with acoustic guitar.

In a recent concert in late February, he was accompanied by a beautiful young lady by the name of Rita Kusumawardani, who has been studying classical guitar since 1993 and has a very promising future on Indonesia’s musical stage. And she sings, too!

The spacious venue was Decanter on the ground floor of Menara Utara, Plaza Kuningan in South Jakarta. Decanter, the latest addition to Jakarta’s increasing interest in the wine culture, is run by wine expert Yohan Handoyo, whose fingerprint is evident in Decanter’s extensive list of premier and local wines, not to mention one of the best salad and pasta collections in town.

Jubing’s event, sponsored by Yayasan Oke Peduli Bangsa, was titled “Love’s In the Air”. He took to the simple stage with his acoustic guitar along with Rita, who dazzled in a ruby red dress.

Jubing began with solo performances of several pop songs, including Jose Mari Chan’s “Beautiful Girl” and Chrisye’s “Aku Cinta Dia” (I love her). Rita made her debut by showing off her soft, jazzy voice with “Loving You”.

The power of the duo hit the audience with “Something Stupid”, once performed by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman. Rita played the baseline guitar, leaving Jubing free to improvise with his magical fingers.

This was the first time in the recital that Jubing really let his fingers roam, showing creative movements with excellent technical skill. This was demonstrated again in the next song, a version of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”.

With her soft voice, Rita controlled the pace as the song progressed, with Jubing following with his improvisations. They made a nice pair, with the correct composition of music and vocals. Each song was rewarded with loud applause.

After the intermission, the audience received a pleasant surprise – Katon Bagaskara, a pop star who happens to be a good friend of Yohan, was present that night.

Listening to Katon sing the poetic lyrics while playing the guitar, accompanied by Jubing’s improvisations was an otherworldly experience for the audience (despite an amplifier problem).

Almost everyone present – men and women – sang along together, electrifying the usually quiet Decanter dining room. Katon’s short appearance showed everybody what it means to have such extensive experience and success in the music industry.

Following Katon’s performance, Jubing and Rita really picked up the spirit. They collaborated nicely in the song “Di Dadaku Ada Kamu” (You are in my heart) right at the end of the program.

Thanks to the audience’s thundering applause, Jubing gave several encores that night, including renditions of “The Bohemian Rhapsody” and his famous piece, “Becak Fantasy”.

“The Bohemian Rhapsody” with solo guitar is really a show of guitar mastery. “The Becak Fantasy” offered a different view. “This is really dangerous,” a friend of mine said, as we each nursed a glass of Argentinian Malbec, watching the lovely Rita sing our hearts away. “This mix of good wine, good food, good music, sung by a beautiful lady.”

Even the great Johann Strauss agreed with this – he wrote the composition titled “Wein, Weib und Gesang” (Wine, Women and Song) in 1869. In these gloomy economic times, we sure do need some good time, just to get by.

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