One Thousand Musicians for Java Jazz
Thursday, 01 February, 2007 | 13:37 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: In one month’s time there will be a great event in Jakarta: the Java Jazz Festival 2007, running from March 2-4.

Jazz lovers are preparing to be entertained by not less than 1,000 local and foreign musicians who will perform at the Jakarta Convention Centre.

According to Paul Dankmeyer, the Program and Artistic Director of Java Jazz, foreign musicians who will be on stage include Jamie Cullum, Level 42, Sergio Mendes, Chaka Kan and Jeffrey Osborne.

“The first phase of tickets (at a price of Rp800,000) for Jamie Cullum have been sold out,” he said.

From Indonesia, there will be also senior musicians such as Jopie Item, Dian Pramana Putra and Emerald, who are part of Indonesian jazz history.

Such disbanded groups as Karimata and Humania have reformed as well for the sake of the event.

Dankmeyer added that the festival--”Share the World” is the theme—will fuse jazz with African, Brazilian, funk, soul, rock, hip-hop, Latin, R&B, and Indonesian ethnic music.

In order to warm up the atmosphere, Java Jazz performances were also held in Bandung, Surabaya and Yogyakarta of last week.

Java Jazz is becoming more colorful as well and Sadao Watanabe, a renowned Japanese Jazz musician, will be appearing with his young pupils.

They are planning a concert that will be dedicated for children during the break of the festival with “Children Are the Future” as the theme.

The show will be held on March 3 at the Jakarta Convention Center, where Java Jazz will take place.

“Indonesia is the second country that hold the concert by Sadao Watanabe. The first concert was in Japan,” said Peter F. Gontha, the Chairman of Java Jazz Festival.

Watanabe will be collaborating with 300 pupils from the Dwiki Dharmawan and Elfa Secioria schools.

“In addition to perform a repertoire of Sadao’s music, the concert will also show the varied rhythms of this country,” said Dwiki.

The said rhythms, for instance, would come from Sundanese rampak kendang and Balinese delaganjar.

SS KURNIAWAN