Jazz Mania...

Go Jazz Mania with papa in Jakarta

Jakarta, 4-6 March 2005.

Last weekend I went to Java Jazz concert in Jakarta with my father. My father flew all the way from Yogyakarta, my hometown, to Jakarta just to see this grand jazz concert.
I found out about this Java Jazz concert from my fellow colleagues in my office quite a while ago. Knowing my father's passion for Jazz music, I called him and asked him whether he'd like to come down to Jakarta and attend the concert. He said, "Yes!" And so I began making the arrangement.

First thing to do was to buy the tickets. Without thinking twice, and because the 'Early Bird' discounted price that the event boasted, I bought the tickets for Saturday, 5 March 2005 entrance, Earth Wind & Fire special show, and Incognito special show. Little did I know, that if I paid more attention, I would have seen that the event was sponsored by A Mild Sampoerna, which I have a friend there, who often give me free tickets, and in the case of this Java Jazz, was going to offer me a discount (from the early bird price) just right after my tickets are bought and paid for (AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa...). Anyway..., I still have my friend colleagues at the office whom also wanted to buy the tickets, so they bought the tickets at my friend's.

After all arrangements are done, concert and plane tickets are bought, acommodation in my auntie's apartment is settled, all we could do was just waiting for the concert day, with greater anticipation day in and day out.

Finally the day came, I went to pick up my dad at the airport on Friday. We go straight to auntie's aparment and chat with them for a while. Afterwards, we went to
EX to watch some movies, but since there is no good movie, we just circled the mall.
And..., finally it was Saturday, and it is time for us to watch the jazz concert. We went there at twelve, thinking that the Tiempo Libre music clinic was at twelve, but it was postponed until two. So we went out to Plaza Senayan to eat first.

The music clinic of Tiempo Libre started ahead of time. It's a good thing that me and my dad come early. It was SO SO SO COOL...!!! At one time they told us all to dance with them, I was so excited I jumped at my feet and danced with them! To my surprise afterwards, no one followed.. (o O..., shame shame) only me was dancing with them, but who cares lah.., this is a music clinic, we should join in! When they called the audience to join in and played some music with them, I was SO SO ready to go up there and played the clave, but I was too ashamed (a pity) that I stayed at my seat. Two other men got up though, one played the 'I forget the name' and the other played conga. It was so cool, because I was so so near them. And the music is very very entertaining.

After Tiempo Libre, we went to watch Elfa Secioria with his Elfa's Big Band and Elfa's Singers (Yana, Agus, Uci, Lita) woowwwwww..., the band was SO SO big and the music instruments were a lot! It was VERY very good.
After Tiempo Libre, we went to see Ireng Maulana band for a while. Afterwards, my father was tired already and we went home to rest and eat a little.

At about 20:00 we are back at JCC. We slipped in Music Dome to catch the last two or three songs from Deodato. The music dome has upper circular seat area. While in the middle, it is just one big space with no seat. It was so so crowded though that we only can stand on the right of the stage. Yet we didn't know at that time how crowded it would be later.

After Deodato, we went outside and saw that the queue line for Earth Wind & Fire show was already very long. Therefore we decided to queue. After a while, I thought that we were better if we go upstairs so that we could sit during the show. Wrong decision, after queueing quite a while upstairs I realized that the queue upstairs was a disaster waiting to happen. With a patio only about 2-3 metres wide, packed with people, the ally went on about five metres. People was so so jammed that I got scared and asked my father whether he still wanted to queue or not, but going back was not an option, the mob just pressed and pressed and pressed forward. AND THEY ONLY OPENED HALF THE DOOR!! I got scarer and scarer and yes, people was swearing, shouting, pressing forward, I was just afraid if a stampede happened. Finally I managed to go through the tiny door, they did not check tickets anymore. But when I looked back I couldn't find my father. Turned out my 64 years old father, about to be 65 nex month, was TRAPPED and SQUEEZED by the mob!! Oh.. no..!! Finally he managed to passed the door and followed me to our seats.
Fiuh..., Earth Wind and Fire was amazing though..., amazing, amazing, and very entertaining!!

Afterwards, my father and me did not want that experience to repeat, so when people were queueing like crazy for Incognito, we just went to see Jazzyphonic, some rap band, and went to Jazz Town. After all the cracy mob were into the Music Dome where Incognito played, we went in at the festival area and still we could enjoy the music very well from the right hand side of the stage, with plenty rooms for us to dance to the music...