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t is not that difficult to make sense of piano prodigy Joey Alexander'€™s stratospheric rise. At the age of 12, he was nominated for Grammys in the jazz category, of all musical genres, making him the first Indonesian ever up for the prestigious award.

The reason is that Indonesia has been a fertile ground for prodigious jazz talents for decades.  

Jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but its DNA has become part of Indonesia'€™s history. Composer of the national anthem '€œIndonesia Raya'€, Wage Rudolf Supratman, toiled in obscurity in the 1920s, playing violin for a jazz band in Makassar, South Sulawesi, called Black and White. So popular was jazz back then that Supratman'€™s band was asked to play at weddings and birthday parties.

As jazz continued its journey to become a mainstream attraction in America in the 1930s and 1940s, the genre continued to captivate Indonesian audiences, with bands like the Melody Makers and Jolly Strings playing the latest version of swing to local crowds.

In the 1950s, while Miles Davis opened a new chapter in jazz with '€œKind of Blue'€ and Dave Brubeck experimented with time signatures in '€œTime Out'€, Indonesian talents like Jack Lemmers (later known as Jack Lesmana, the father of another piano prodigy Indra Lesmana), Nick Mamahit, Bubi Chen and Benny Likumahua blazed a trail across jazz frontiers and set up a foundation for the Indonesian jazz scene. If Indonesia had a jazz hall of fame, they would be the first to be inducted.

The combining of jazz and elements of indigenous music in Indonesia reached its pinnacle with the release of Djanger Bali, an album of six jazz renditions of traditional Indonesian tunes. A collaborative work between jazz maestro Tony Scott and the biggest Indonesian names in the genre, including Benny Mustafa, Bubi and Jack, the record was arguably one the best jazz albums the country ever produced. Released in Germany in 1967, the album has long been out of circulation and was only reissued last year for the Indonesian market.

Over the last 30 years, jazz has continued to mesmerize audiences, with fusion climbing to popularity with the bands Chaseiro and Simak Dialog, who have enjoyed both commercial success and critical acclaim.

These days, jazz may not be as ubiquitous as it used to be. You don'€™t hear jazz tunes being played on the radio or local television channels. The biggest jazz successes come in the form of Malik and the Essentials or Andien, who many consider only marginally jazz. But if you look closer, jazz continues its journey underground. In regional cities, jazz aficionados set up their own communities and champion small jazz bands that continue to experiment and break new ground.  

And this is where the Java Jazz Festival comes in. Its continued presence means that jazz will continue to be celebrated. And for every faux jazz performer like Robin Thicke or Sting, there will always be the real deal like the Yellowjackets, who will show the uninitiated how proper jazz fusion should be done.