I completed my Bachelor in Music Arts and Education at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht in the Netherlands. I finished my Master in Urban Arts and Cultural Industry at Institut Kesenian Jakarta.
What is your view on the current jazz music situation in Indonesia?
Good, that's all. At least we are still in the proper development process. The problems now are the music ecosystem, which is still left without care, and the lack of space for further development in jazz.
In the current situation we do really depend on jazz festivals. So we don't really need to complain about jazz festivals that doesn't feature "real" jazz music because without it we basically have nothing.
The space for new developments has to be created. Our infrastructure has been the same for the last 8-10 years, but the number of players have grown. So, if you can picture the situation, our infrastructures have stayed the same for the last 8-10 years (even decreased in some places), but the number of musicians has grown. There is very little appreciation in the media, while in the same period of time our universities have produced many quality scholars. So clearly, there is some wrong with this pattern.
What does this mean? This means, the room for appreciation has to be created, media has to be created and supported, festivals have to be properly used in its own capacity; in the popular music industry, and in traditional jazz environment. Metaphorically speaking, many people only complained about the cage, without realising that maybe the chicken is in the wrong cage, because there aren't many cages with the right habitat condition. The solution? Build new cages for the correct habitat.
As a jazz guitarist who is also actively working as an educator, do you have any concern for the current situation of jazz guitar education?
Guitar? Too narrow. Our current music education is still in the "how to?" phase; not "where to?". For example, "how to play guitar". It is still too narrow. We should move on to the "where to" phase. For example, how to play bebop, how to play baroque, etc. And we still haven't used this cultural context to understand more about own identity as Indonesian musician.
Jazz has now become a lifestyle. Without building the appropriate art spaces and public infrastructure, jazz education won't make much difference, or does everyone who can play really well only can perform as session player?
Many of them don't want to make album because they won't meet the financial breakeven point. So, now we don't have any new innovation and now all these smart undergraduates still don't know why it's hard to find a job in the music industry? Maybe we can take a look from this perspective first.
The education has to be relevant. Our current situation is the result of putting elitism over standard and competency without building new art spaces, Like the term "music conservatory" is a bit off for Indonesia. When I was studying in Europe, the term "conservatory" was used to conserve their culture, which is classical music. But what is the context of "music conservatory" in Indonesia? We should know where we are heading with this without forgetting the historical and cultural context.
