Java Jazz Festival 2020

Erwin Gutawa at the Java Jazz Festival (Photo: Java Jazz Festival documentation)

JAKARTA - The annual jazz festival, Java Jazz Festival (JJF) 2020 has just finished being held at the JI Expo Kemayoran, from February 28 to March 1.

Java Festival Production as the organizer succeeded in presenting a festival filled with local and foreign artists.

Running for three days, this 16th edition of JJF presents performances and collaborative projects that we may never see anywhere else.

On the first day, February 28th, Chrisye Live by Erwin Gutawa was the one that the audience had been waiting for. Erwin Gutawa as the conductor presented Chrisye's songs using the original recording of his voice.

Reporting from his Instagram account, Gita Gutawa became a producer for this performance. They also invited Gerald Situmorang as a guest in this performance.

Several local singers performed for the first time on JJF, namely Marion Jola, Cantika, and Isyana Sarasvati.

Marion Jola comes with an interesting and interactive choreography with the audience. Then, Cantika collaborated with many musicians such as Pamungkas, Gamaliel, and Teza Sumendra to accompany him in singing.

Then, Isyana sang a Lexicon album with passionate energy. The three of them managed to attract the attention of the audience with their appearance.

JJF was also the first for singers Rini, Bruno Major, and PREP. From an independent realm, they have managed to enchant the audience with their signature songs that have only been heard digitally.

Realizing that enthusiasm, JJF made the three of them appear in two shows on two days and miraculously the audience always filled their shows for two days.

On the second day, February 29th, Nusantero Big Band became one of JJF's highlights. This combination of Indonesian and European musicians sings songs across genres so that cross-culture can be felt through their performances.

Maliq n 'D'essentials, a jazz band, is back for the audience. Even though they have performed several times, the crowd is very busy waiting for Maliq to sing their best songs and the newest one is Senja Teduh Pelita.

Their performance was accompanied by rain but did not discourage the JJF audience. Yura Yunita, who returned to Java Jazz, performed jaipongan and danced with the accompanying band and friends singing songs from his last album, Merakit.

The Jacksons, who appeared in three of them in the special show, presented 17 songs non-stop with hits that were awaited by fans. Some of them are Blame It On the Boogie, I Want You Back, ABC, I'll Be There, and many more.

They also thanked fans who were enthusiastic about their performance. The Jacksons have just celebrated 50 years of the group's founding and they only had time to stop by the capital through Java Jazz.

Entering the third day, collaborative projects such as 7 Bintang and the BNI Music Project were filled with spectators who wanted to hear singers from various genres into one stage.

The BNI Music Project, which consists of Cantika, Ardhito Pramono, Rizky Febian, Rebecca Reijman, and Nima Ilayla, took turns singing international hits.

Omar Apollo, who became a special show on the last day, sang 13 songs for fans. Opening with Ashamed, Apollo brought the audience drugged on his stage even though it was raining outside. He also sang songs that made him popular such as U Got Me, Cool Cat, Hit Me Up, Brake Lights, and so on.

Then, Andien, Marcell, and Shanty, who are members of the Yamaha Music Project, came to reminisce with the audience who came from various backgrounds. Church, Young Gun Silver Fox, and Brass Against sang their flagship songs on the third day for the first time in Indonesia.

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Once again, our Indonesian performers knocked every performance out of the park! Which one do you wish to see again? # BNIJJF2020 #JavaFestPro #RedeemYourselfThroughMusic # JJF2020

A post shared by Java Jazz Festival (javajazzfest) on Mar 1, 2020 at 10:21 am PST

Singer Tulus was one of the surprise lineups announced by the promoter one day before the last day. Tulus also appeared to sing a number of his hits such as Sewindu, Labirin, Teman Hidup, and the duet he did with Glenn Fredly and Yovie Widianto entitled Adu Rayu.

He also had time to invite Sal Priadi to the stage because Sal did not have time to finish his performance because of the heavy rain. They both sang “Do Not Love Me Is There” which was greeted by the audience choir.

That's the excitement of the 2020 Java Jazz Festival which was successfully held for three days. Java Festival Production will return with Java Jazz next year. Are you interested in coming to the next edition of Java Jazz?