JAKARTA Guitarist Gigi, Dewa Budjana, also raised her voice regarding the debate over the identity of the Prambanan Jazz music festival which was later criticized for not showing jazz musicians.
This polemic emerged after senior musician Indra Lesmana criticized the festival that carried the name jazz, but did not provide enough space for jazz musicians. The criticism did not mention the name of the festival directly, but the promoter of Prambanan Jazz, Anas Alimi, felt the need to give a response.
Anas assessed that music festivals still require a row of popular names to survive commercially. He even compared it with a number of international jazz festivals in the United States which also presented non-jazz musicians.
Seeing the polemic that is increasingly being discussed by the public, Budjana tries to bridge the two camps. In uploads on social media, the 61-year-old guitarist suggested that Prambanan Jazz still provide space for jazz musicians, in addition to presenting popular musicians to attract the masses.
I've never previously written (opinions on social media), because I don't like writing. If there is anything, I prefer to talk directly with the person," Budjana said while attending the BRI media gathering for Mount Series 2 Jazz in the Bromo area, Probolinggo, last Saturday.
According to Budjana, Indra Lesmana's statement was not wrong, especially considering Indra's position as an Indonesian jazz icon. However, he regretted that the discussion took place openly on social media, not directly between actually friendly parties.
"Mas Indra as a jazz icon is natural to express his opinion. But in my opinion, it's better to talk directly, because Indra and Anas are friends. If you say in the media, people's comments get more and more crowded, "he said.
Budjana also does not deny that Prambanan Jazz features too many non-jazz musicians. Even his own group, Gigi, according to him, cannot be categorized as a jazz group.
"It's true, almost all the performers are not jazz. Even Gigi is not jazz," he said.
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Even so, he admitted that he understood the dilemma faced by the promoter in designing a music festival.
"I also understand that being a promoter is not easy. But how can I keep the jazz. If it doesn't exist at all, it's like being misappropriated," said Budjana.
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