Braga Jazz Walk #06: The Report

Jazz is full of improvisation. Jazz is full of innovation. It’s bursting with creative energy, respecting diversity and versatility. Jazz is played by young and old, of all creed and color. Herbie Hancock once said, “The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness”. All of these are the spirit we keep in Braga Jazz Walk. Eventhough this is just a small, local community event, we try our best to keep it alive and based everything we do in it. We invite all kind of bands that enlive the jazz spirit. We try to push the regeneration, (re)introduce jazz to young musicians and the society, and give contribution towards the jazz development. Other than these, we also wish you bring some educational matters in variation. One of the way is to present tribute to legends. We hadn’t done it yet, but in Braga Jazz Walk #06 edition finally a well-established jazz band agreed to step on the plate.

The tribute was given to a legendary Jazz-funk master who passed away a few months ago in September, Mr Joe Sample. Aside from his illustrious solo career, he had a band who achieved a legendary status as well: The Crusaders (formerly known as The Jazz Crusaders). And the band tributing Mr Sample and his group at this event was Chakraborty.

Before we get down to it, The Braga Jazz Walk #06 as usual featured two more performances. The show started a couple of minutes after seven with Nouveau. Nouveau comes from Telkom University Bandung and established from a collaborative project of several bands, They have to go changes especially on the lineup too many times until they had to drop the word ‘Project’ and use only Nouveau as the name.

Nouveau are Fachmi Satriyo Yogaswara (vocal), Camelia Yunitasari (vocal), Wiim Bahar Maulana (guitar), David Winalda (guitar), Mohamad Naufal Ihsan (bass) and Wira Majid (drums). More about the past members, eventhough they have quit the band, interestingly they still support the band, either as the additional players or crews. They have visited our events many times, only now we could put them in one of the three spotlights.

The groove started early with favorite songs among youngsters, “Kamu”. The Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” kept the cheerful mood. The vocalists did a great job in front, showing how soulful they are and how high they could climb. The third song was Dian PP and Deddy Dhukun’s “Masih Ada” in a happy disco beat. The disco beat continued on with “Treasure”, one of the recently happening hits of Bruno Mars and brought to the very end with Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be”.

This considerably new band is clearly rooted in pop Jazz with delicate Soul and RnB being glued into their concept, plus infectious disco beat. They don’t want to make anything too complex. They light it light but tasty. That should be able to reach the music listeners as wide as possible. One of the evidence was found in this event. They managed to drag good number of people too to watch them. We’re just happy to find more and more jazz-oriented band especially good ones like Nouevau.

If you’re following the Rising Star Indonesia 2014, you should have seen this next performer’s face. He’s getting more and more fans, which is good because he’s been doing it for quite some times now. He has even started playing piano since he was still 5 years old, probably has been singing ever since too. This talented young man’s name is Andre Arizky.

We knew him since a couple of years back when he was still singing in a Blues trio named Royal Flush. This year he joined that reality singing competition in RCTI and made it to Top 36 Wall Riser. Andre was also a contestant of StarVoices season 3. He didn’t win but it was enough for the public to spot his ability. We asked him to fill one of the slot in this 6th edition, he agreed and came up with a cool idea. He chose to perform basically alone, singing and playing piano just like one of his source of inspirations, Elton John. We have featured one man show before, singing and playing guitar, but we never had the chance to feature a man singing and playing piano. Especially when Andre was the one to do that, we immidiately agreed.

Dara Puspita’s “Burung Kakak Tua” and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” were just the warming up. “Hopefully I sing this one better than I did on TV”, he said before singing “Nuansa Bening”. Did he? Yes! It was deep. Next he took two songs from Elton John’s drawer. First was “Rocket Man”! Not many sing or even remember this song anymore, but Andre did a very lively cover. His voice matches Elton John, so does his piano playing. Then “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word” was perfectly executed by him.

He invited a female singer Lunar Simamora to be with him. The song? A Great Big World ft Christina Aguilera: “Say Something”. Wait, he still had one last present from Chicago: “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”.

He’s going to compete in X Factor. The audition is going to open very soon. Let’s wish him the best. A talent like him should be given enough chance to grow. Charming young man with cheerful, positive vibe, able to control the stage, able to bring life into just about any song and play multi genre, Andre Arizky will give more colors into our music industry. He can be the Indonesian Elton John, but it’s better not to label him anything so he can explore as wide as he wish. We won’t be surprise if one day this man becomes one of the big stars. Why not? He has it all.

Then, the final act, Chakraborty. Like we said earlier, they came with a special tribute to Joe Sample and the (Jazz) Crusaders. In the early 60’s, Joe shared the joy of hardbop which was popular at that time as one of the founders of The Jazz Crusaders. Joe’s play injected ‘soul’ into the band. Entering the 70’s, elements of rock, RnB, soul and funk became the headlines of global music. The Crusaders, that was the name since 1971, began to explore the jazz funk. Joe went more electric by using keyboard instead of piano. Again, he did very well with this style.

Joe is famous with his funk jazz. But don’t forget that this man can interpret anything with his skill. He could play anything with his own distinctive style. He was a flexible, no surprise since he grew up amongst various genres from gospel, jazz, soul, latin, blues to classical. This led him to become one of the pioneer of contemporary jazz pianist. He reached success too in solo career as well as several notable collaborations like with Lalah Hathaway and Randy Crawford. The music world especially jazz deeply mourned when he passed away last September 2014. He’s not with us anymore, yet the legacy lives on.

Joe Sample and the (Jazz) Crusaders are one of the most important names in the history of jazz. We’re proud to have the tribute served at Braga Jazz Walk by Chakraborty. Chakraborty is still a year old, but they have got many achievements and now stands as one of the most ready jazz band in Bandung to play just about anything. They never back out from challenge, they always happy to attend any jazz events eventhough they have no schedule to play. A good band with good spirit, passionate and focus. That’s what we think of this band.

They appeared full team with Joo Yang (drums), Adya Amru Hidayat (guitar), Ayu Sara (vocal), Yosua Setiawan (bass) and Nicodemus Horisson (keyboard). The tribute started with the title track of The Crusader’s 1979 album, “Street Life”. They made soul funk being felt all over the mall. A very popular song from The Crusaders and Bill Whiters, “Soul Shadows” in more dramatic style came right after. The third song was from the fine collaboration between two Crusaders members: Nils Landgren and Joe Sample titled “Don’t Take Your Love to Hollywood”. Time to step out from the theme, they sang original songs titled “Tiga” and their first single written by Ayu, “Kepahitan Termanis”.

The tribute was done nicely by them. They kept the essence of each song, but managed to give their own taste and interpretation to the works of Joe Sample and the Crusaders. A tribute is a good way to remind the young musicians of the artists/bands from any eras and the legacies they left to us. As we also holds education as one of the mission, we think presenting tribute is important. We plan to bring more tributes to other legends periodically, let’s hope we can make it. Chakraborty once again proved that they are reliable and great as a partner in crime. Oh yeah, cool original songs shows how serious they are in this business.

The jam session in this edition was gleeful. Many musicians took part in it: The Owcindful boys Nicodemus Horisson (who shared the seat with Andre Arizky on piano), Jere (bass) and Andre (drums), Inez, Ayu Sara, Arjuna Sirait, Erick Gabe and Andre Fernando (vocals) and Hajar (guitar). While Andre Fernando played guitar and sing, Erick and Andre Arizky were found singing and playing piano. The songs? Well, Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning”, John Legend’s “All of Me”, Vina Panduwinata’s “Dia” all the way to Chris Kayhatu’s “Rame-Rame”. In some parts they blended harmoniously as if they have had rehearsals, in other parts they were chaotic yet fun. Photo session took place while the jam session was still running, and with that the show was wrapped.

Interesting edition is added to Braga Jazz Walk. This one got variety of style, format and good balance between jazztertainment and education. We’re happy with the result, hopefully our partners in crime Braga City Walk and KPH Music feel the same too.

What’s next? Allow us to share the good news. Since the fourth Thursday of this month falls exactly on Christmas (December 25), we are going to bring you A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION. We call it: Braga Jazz Walk: Oldtown Christmas. Two bands and one children choir are ready to celebrate Christmas together with you. So, mark the date from now. If you’re going to spend holidays in Bandung during Christmas or if you live in Bandung and have no plan to go anywhere, do join us. On top of that, let’s keep the jazz spirit alive. See you in two weeks from now!

Watch the highlight here: