Sunny Side Up

Apparently the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival (JIJJF) is the largest jazz fest in Asia. Some even compared it to the North Sea Jazz Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. With just under 50 thousand attendees in 2005 and over a thousand performers, the organizers thought it's a good idea to stage it again this year and this time managed to attract around 60 thousand people even if Josh Groban declined a repeat performance citing a movie shoot (Groban in a movie???).

From 3-5 March, legendary jazz/funk acts like Kool and the Gang, Incognito, Brand New Heavies, Dave Koz, Vinny Valentino, Patty Austin, Eric Benet, and Lee Ritenour spiced up the multitude of international performers at the Jakarta Convention Center over the weekend. Extremely popular local acts such as Maliq & D'essentials, Tompi, Kahitna, Mocca, Sova, and Ello heat up the flavor in packed stages. Local newcomers Sore and Park Drive are definitely ones to look out for.

While the dozen or so indoor stages inside the convention center helped the scheduling of so many performers over up to 12 hours per day even if it meant overlapping sessions, it also posed headaches for those who had planned in advance. A number of acts were delayed up to one hour causing a chain reaction to those sharing the same stages in subsequent sessions although it meant that people had time to watch other performers they didn't plan on seeing or thought they'd never get to see due to the tight timetable.

The ticket prices were also unbelievable. A day pass cost Rp 350k (US$36) and a 3-day pass cost Rp 1m (US$103) while the 6 special acts cost Rp 150k (US$15) each in addition to the day pass. It helps that the show has so many major (and I do mean major) sponsors to cover the cost. With a day pass, you could attend every show aside from the special acts. How's that for the deal of the decade?

Going on Saturday meant I missed out on Kool and the Gang, Incognito, and the Moluccan session (the Moluccan islands produce some of the best singers in this country) but Brand New Heavies totally rocked. I got to see about eight or ten shows from 3 pm to 1 am. Dave Koz shared the stage with six Indonesian Idol alumni while Eric Benet appeared with saxophonist Michael Lington after his own show the night before.

I was warned that the cost of food inside would be expensive but turns out it's not much more than what they cost at the mall. If you compare it to hawker stalls then yeah, they're pretty pricey but you'd be crazy to.

It's definitely a show worth attending annually. Listening to studio recorded songs are fine but no album beats live performance. Not even live albums.

*apparently Kool & the Gang were delayed for 3 hours. O_O

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 10:19 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.