C.TwoSix at Jazz Gunung

Last weekend, July 26, a live musical event of Jazz Gunung was held at Java Banana Bromo, claims to be a tropical lodge with the best panoramic view of Mount Tengger. The place is located at Wonotoro village, Sukapura subdistrict, Probolinggo, East Java. At 2000 meters above sea-level, it gives real cool fresh air with temperature between 14–18°C at daylight and 6–10°C at night. Blended with scenic view of the surrounding mountains, coupled with the mystical Bromo-Batok-Semeru trip afterwards, Jazz Gunung certainly gives a unique experience for Jazz lovers and lovers of natural beauty.

I got a free pass as a “photographer” of Apey, a friend who’s a freelancer of an on-line Jazz journal and a DJ of a cyber radio, and got a red pin, labeled with “press” on it. Cool. I then bought a black T-shirt, my favorite color, and a nice looking hat at Warta Jazz counter and I put it on my head with the red pin attached shyly on it.

A local traditional performing arts, named Jathilan, seemingly opened the event. Jathilan is a group uncoordinated dance where the performers, usually men, ride on bamboo horse and at certain point of time they enter into a state of trance.
The above picture, however, is a Reog mask dance that took stage right after the Jathilan. I believe they belong to the same group.

C.TwoSix, a group of Jazz community from city of Surabaya, took the stage after being introduced by Butet Kertaredjasa, MC of the event.

It was not that clear whether Butet was enjoying his cigarette, the cool fresh air, or the lovely scenery. It might be all of them.

The group played several familiar songs, such as Earth Wind & Fire’s In the Stone, Sade’s Smooth Operator, Bill Withers’ Just The Two of Us, and Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff.

The organizer provided simple but comfortable seats for Jazz Gunung spectators.

The two months old grass stage could provide ample space for the musicians to play their music compositions.

Personnel of C.TwoSix who played that day might not yet be among the high level of Jazz performers, but they certainly deserved to get credits, particularly for the male saxophonist, drummer, and the bassist. Unfortunately, i didn’t write down the crew’s name.

More practices and more live events are certainly needed for the group to improve their promising musical performance. I would expect, however, that they will play their original compositions next time I watch them on stage.

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