L

egendary Indonesian jazz pianist Bubi Chen died on Thursday evening in Semarang, Central Java.

One of Bubi’s relatives, Widiawan, said Bubi passed away at about 7 p.m. at Telogorejo Hospital following a cardiac arrest. “The doctors were unable to save him after he was admitted at 6 p.m.,” he said as quoted by Antara news agency. “He had passed out earlier at his home and was rushed to the hospital.”

Widiawan said the piano legend, who had been living in Semarang for the past two years, was a diabetic who regularly visited his physician.

“We do not know yet where he will be buried. We are still waiting for his children,” he said.

Bubi, who was born on Feb. 19, 1938, in Surabaya, East Java, is survived by three sons and a daughter who live in Surabaya, China and the Netherlands. Indonesian musicians left messages of sympathy on various social media sites upon hearing the news of Bubi’s passing.

The youngest of eight siblings, Bubi learned classical music on the piano. By the age of 17, Bubi was teaching music while taking a two-year correspondence course with the Wesco School of Music in New York, according to jakarta.go.id.

One of his instructors was Teddy Wilson, a student of jazz legend Benny Goodman. Bubi founded the Chen Trio in the 1950s with his brothers Jopie and Teddy. He also joined the Jack Lesmana Quartet which then became the Jack Lesmana Quintet.

Together with Jack, father of jazz singer Indra Lesmana, Bubi recorded Bubi Chen with Strings in 1959 which was aired on the Voice of America.

By the 1960s, Bubi was already widely known in Australia, Europe and the United States. Bubi and Jack were credited with adding an Indonesian flavor to jazz music especially at a time when then president Sukarno despised western music.

Bubi and Jack together with the Indonesian All Stars, which included Maryono, Benny Mustafa, Kiboud Maulana and Jopie, recorded the phenomenal album Djanger Bali, which mixed jazz with Indonesian traditional music, after attending the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1967.

Bubi, nicknamed “the Pearl of the East’”, was named as one of the top 10 jazz pianists at the 1997 Berlin Jazz Festival when he played a kecapi, a traditional Indonesian instrument, along with the piano.

He was also regarded as the Art Tatum of the East Tatum was renowned as the father of jazz piano.