TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In a cozy get-together last week, with a guest attendance that included oil mogul Arifin Panigoro, Mexican Ambassador to Indonesia Melba Pria, and a crowd of aficionados, three jazz musicians performed, jammed and generally had a good time on the stage.
They were composer, singer, professor and all–round jazz artist Deviana Daudsjah; crooner-who-happens-to-be-plastic-surgeon Tompi; and old-hand jazz musician Idang Rasjidi, there to celebrate Daudsjah's new album Tales of Indonesia, played solo on the piano live from the Soehanna Concert Hall.
The Soehanna is located in the Energy building owned by the Panigoro family, whose mother they honored by naming the hall after her. The Energy regularly hosts music evenings dubbed 'Jazz Ambassadors' to send off Indonesian musicians about to leave for gigs abroad, though this was not the case that evening.
Deviana Daudsjah spent 27 years in Germany after completing her studies in classical music, jazz vocals and pedagogy, and being appointed as rector of the school where she graduated in Freiburg.
"Indonesian kids are in dire need of children's songs," she said, "and so I thought I'd take some old songs with new arrangements and mix them up with some of my new compositions."
DEBRA YATIM