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This year’s Java Jazz Festival may be done and dusted, but these days the spirit of jazz remains very much alive throughout the capital and its satellite cities all year round. Jazz fever has infected many of the country’s young and talented musicians, spawning new hybrid sounds within the burgeoning scene.

Margo Jazz, a music community in Depok, just to the west of Jakarta, provides the opportunity for jazz lovers to come together every week to swing, scat and jive to their heart’s content.

Established in early 2009 by jazz enthusiast Tri Budi Waskito, Margo Jazz is the backbone of the growing jazz scene in Depok. Home to students from the University of Indonesia, Pancasila University and Gunadarma University, Depok is the ideal breeding ground for fresh and promising talent, filled with young musicians and their appreciative fans.

The Margo Jazz community is named after the mall where the group holds its weekly performances, Margo City. Every Friday night, from around 8 until 11, the community invites jazz lovers to enjoy an array of free performances at the Margo Friday Jazz event.

So far, the event has been a success. Andri Brendley, a 23-year-old full-time musician whose band, Kosakata (Vocabulary), is part of the Margo Jazz community, said around 80 to 100 people came to the event every week.

“It’s been going really well,” he said. “We discovered that there are a lot of young people in Depok who are into jazz.”

Aside from the joy of putting on a show for fans, Andri said the weekly gathering had also been good for Depok’s jazz musicians, by giving them the opportunity to perform for a live audience and improve their skills.

Andri said his band, whose music he described as a combination of jazz, funk and rock, has been able to improve considerably since joining the community.

“It is great to be able to meet other young jazz musicians every single week and share our knowledge with each other,” he said.

While the 60 bands that regularly take turns to perform at the weekly event are not paid, Andri said the experience and exposure generated by the community was well worth the effort.

Encouraged by their success in Depok, Andri and his band, Kosakata, have gone on to play at numerous events throughout the country, including a highlight gig this year at Java Jazz on the Move, a yearly series of warm-up events that take place before the main festival.

Having developed greater confidence from the experience, Andri said he and his band were now planning to release their debut album in 2012.

“We are very excited about the project. I guess the community has given us the confidence we need to finally release our own album,” he said.

Event organizer Tri said that the community had not only exposed bands to opportunities for future success, but had also exposed local audiences to a genre of music they might not otherwise encounter.

Tri said that because jazz was usually performed at upscale clubs and cafes, it was a genre often associated with musical elitism and the upper classes.

However, by bringing jazz bands into a common space such as a mall, he said the community had been able to attract new fans to the genre, including university and high school students.

Tri said Margo Jazz was hoping to change the perception of jazz as inaccessible and open the door for new fans.

People wanting to stay and enjoy the performances can take a seat at one of the mall’s cafes, but other mall visitors are welcome to come to enjoy the music without buying anything, Tri said.

Andri said, “Sometimes, we give the audience cafe vouchers. The bands don’t really care. They just want to show off their music and have fun.”

Having watched the development of jazz in big cities like Jakarta and Bandung, Andri said he never could have guessed that the music would take off like it has in Depok.

“I think the atmosphere here is so great,” he said. “Anyone interested in the future of jazz in Depok or in Indonesia should come and join us.”

Margo Friday Jazz
Every Friday
Free
Margo City Mall
Jl. Margonda Raya
Depok
Tel: 021 7887 0888,  0813 1594 4455