First stop - Java Jazz
Posted by Jagadeesh on Tuesday, July 6, 2010
This is early July and with the impending monsoon about to sweep across India, I'll pause a moment to reflect at this point in time - our long pending debut album "Indian Accent" will hit stores in about 3 weeks from now. 2009 is really the significant peg in our journeys, when we were invited to perform at the Java Jazz festival in Jakarta. The sponsors rug under our rhythmic feet miraculously stayed on, ensuring that we reached our first oversea gig and Kenny's (wilson Kenneth) first ever gig with MoonArra. I often tease him saying that he just got on to the bus and landed right on stage with us. The atmosphere was electric at the Sultan Jakarta which was connected by an underground conduit to the gigantic venue. We would have breakfast every morning and watch Harvey Mason, Kirk Whalum or Dave Weckl or Simon Philips and a host of jazz greats dig into theirs. Our performance on stage was like a dream -15mins for sound check and then onto a set of 45mins and the Cendrawasih 3 Hall was full! The collaboration with Gilang Ramadhan, Indonesia's top drummer was like a torrential downpour on stage with Kartik and him exchanging solos on Konnakol, Khanjira and drums. It was true energy and emotion! I'd just had time to buy a new guitar in one of the shops - a Line 6 variax 300 nylon acoustic and Kenny his GB&A bass which he took half a day to choose. The line 6 was one of the best decisions I made, as 20 gigs later, I'm still amazed by the sound. The Indonesian people are full of smiles and happy to help whereever - my Ovation needed adjusting and Rudy, an Indonesian corrected it and wouldn't accept payment for it. I gave him my red 'merc' cap after noticing the many mercs parked in his garage! The other highlights were being invited to party on Peter Gontha's beach house and Kenny injuring his knee after running up the escalator and filming his own knee being stitched up by the hotel doctors while we fumed! The Java Jazz team must be commended for the wonderful hospitality, the detailed and efficient tour schedule, the precision and the professionalism in organising and event of such scale and proportion.
Tags: moonarra java jazz world fusion simon philips kirk whalum dave weckl