A Dutch jazz band enlivened the road to The Papandayan Jazz Fest (TPJF) 2022 Saturday, October 2022. The event which took place at Mirten Lounge – The Papandayan presented the Jasper Blom Quartet and Kelapa Muda.
After last year’s TPJF was held online following local government regulations in the implementation of the event, this year entering endemic TPJF is again held offline/live from 28 to 29 October 2022. And before entering the festival, TPJF always opens it with Road to as the opening of the annual jazz music festival which has been held since 2015 at The Papandayan Hotel Bandung.
The Jasper Blom Quartet features four internationally acclaimed Dutch jazz musicians. The four musicians are Jasper Blom on saxophone, Reinier Baas on Guitar, Glenn Gaddum Jr on Bass, and Jamie Peet on Drummer.
These four musicians are prominent musicians, composers and guitarist producers from the Dutch Jazz scene and have shared the stage with almost all of the biggest famous artists in the Netherlands and regularly tour the biggest music festivals in Europe.
Blom’s witty compositions cover a wide range of stylistic influences from pop music through jazz to soundscapes that are free to improvise, this composition is felt when they perform some of their works such as Knor, The Homecoming, Your Beauty and my Brains, Isaac, The Least of your Worries and Waltz for Magnus.
Prior to the performance that night, the Jasper Blom Quartet held a music clinic which was attended by musicians and students from music schools in Bandung. During the session, Jasper Blom Quartet discussed different ways to arrange and compose songs for a jazz quartet and how to create diversity in the repertoire.
The Road to stage was opened by the performance of Kelapa Muda, the winner of The Papandayan Jazz Competition 2021. Kelapa Muda consisting of Samuel Song, Abraham Song and Josafat Song looked stunning with their compositions, improvisations and unique musical styles. The combination of contemporary and popular jazz elements was successfully presented in an elegant manner and managed to spoil the ears of the audience present. Jasper Blom Quartet closed their performance by collaborating on one stage with the band from Lampung.
The performance of the Jasper Blom Quartet is a collaboration offering from the Cultural Center of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – Erasmus Huis which has supported TPJF since 2018, by providing space for art, artists, and the jazz music community in Indonesia so that this activity can strengthen relations between the two nations.