Jazz: An Interview With Indra Aziz and Barry Likumahuwa

Well, well, this is kinda intriguing. Back in year 11 (now I'm in the senior year) I was handed a task from my Research Skill teacher, I forgot what it was really about but to my knowledge I was obligated to conduct an interview. So back then I decided my topic, it was about jazz scene in Indonesia. At that time what came out first in my mind was Indra Aziz. He's one of the most influential young jazz musician in Indonesia, whom I thought would be great to interview. Thank God we now have Twitter, I contacted him through Twitter. He was very generous that he replied my tweet and he told me to send the questions by email. He replied email as well and he suggested me to interview Barry Likumahuwa, another young talented jazz musician in Indonesia. As a result, I  successfully interviewed two professional jazz musician! So, in this post I'd like to share the result of my interview with Indra Aziz and Barry Likumahuwa. I wish I can still contact them and another Indonesian jazz musician to conduct another interview. Enjoy!

Indra Aziz

Rayhan (R): Why did you choose jazz as the music you master?

Indra Aziz (I):When u study music, u can't escape jazz study, that's where I fell in love with jazz (real jazz that is)

R: In your opinion, what are so special about jazz?

I: Jazz gives musicians freedom thru improvisation. Yet very complex and interesting to those studying music. It is mostly acoustic thus natural. And the syncopation is very appealing.

R: What differentiates jazz to other genres?

I: For jazz the possibilities are endless.

R: How does the community interact?

I: Now, thru websites, forums, mailists, and of course in concerts and jam sessions

R: How well does this genre goes in the music world today?

I: Vocalists saves jazz from disappearing.

Barry Likumahuwa

Rayhan (R): Why did you choose jazz as the music you master?

Barry (B): I never choose jazz. Jazz chose me. The main reason is because of the musical enviroment, which was build since I was a baby. Even since I'm still in my mom's tummy. My pregnant mom would go & sing jazz in clubs or hotel, and my dad would play together with her. That's why I love jazz before I was even born.

R: In your opinion, what are so special about jazz?

B: Jazz is special for me coz I can express my feelings freely thru the music. And to go there u must achieved a certain level in ur musicality, for me its challenging. And last but not least, jazz is all about groove, whether if its swing, funk, latin or brazillian.

R: What differentiates jazz to other genres?

B: The honesty and sincerity of the music. Coz we don't have to make music that sells in the musical industry.

R: How does the community interact?

B: The community I may say is surprisingly developing in a very good way. Lots of youngsters have this urge to actually understands jazz, and the community get together once a month, or some even once a week. Giving us musicians more places to perform :)

R: How well does this genre goes in the music world today?

B: In the music world jazz has always been good. But in indonesia particularly, tho it'll always be a segmented music, jazz is expanding in ways that our jazz seniors can't even imagine. Hopefully it'll stay that way in the next 2years, 7years, a decade, 3decades or even centuries! :)

Spain - Chic Corea Acoustik Band (Video)

Spain is one of the best jazz standard tune of all time, and Chic Corea's masterpiece of all time.

In this video I'd like to share you is Chic Corea's performance with his acoustic band featuring the great John Patitucci and Dave Weckl. It's incredible how they improvise and create that musical bond. This is what I always call as 'speaking without speaking' with the language of music. And well, this is the level I'd like to reach as a music player :D

Lick Autopsy: Nightmare (4:26-4:29) - Avenged Sevenfold

In this post I'm going to dissect a lick on Avenged Sevenfold's newest audio work, "Nightmare". On 4:26 to 4:29, you can hear a short lick that fills the vacant spot on the rhythm, right after Shadows sings "die/die again/drenched in sin/with no respect for another".

What I found interesting in this lick is the scale. Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance played a harmonic minor on D that finished on the second octave from where it first begins (D second octave). Another interesting thing is how they recorded the lick; either Synyster/Vengeance on first guitar played the lick firstly, and then the second guitar began the lick seconds after the first guitar played the lick, so that it imitates a delay-effect sound.

Basically, a harmonic minor goes:

1-2-2#-4-5-5#-7-8

So when applied in D, it goes:

D-E-F-G-A-A#-C#-D

In this lick, Synyster and Vengeance developed the scale quite simple. They played octave of the scale and drive forward to the second octave of the scale but they didn't finished it off to D in the third octave. They also changed the arrangement of the scale itself.

To make it easy to learn, the lick can be chopped off into 3 parts,

1st part is a normal ascending harmonic minor scale, but finished on A# and pulled back to F:

D-E-F-G-A-A#-A, then add one more note (F) so it goes D-E-F-G-A-A#-A-F. The second F is the same F as the F played before.

2nd part is a development of the scale:

E-F-A-A#-C#-D-C#-A#


3rd part actually contains ascending minor harmonic scale in the second octave from where it began, but started with 3 notes from the first octave area.

The ascending part goes D-E-F-G-A-A#, but you have to add 3 notes in the start which are A, A# and C# and arranged consecutively, A-A#-C#. So the 3rd part goes: A-A#-C#-D-E-F-G-A-A#.

The lick is the combination of all 3 parts, so you can mix all 3 parts up like:

D-E-F-G-A-A#-A-F-E-F-A-A#-C#-D-C#-A#-A-A#-C#-D-E-F-G-A-A#.

Quite easy isn't it? For note, this lick is played in the second D octave, and for easier and more similar playing to Avenged Sevenfold it is recommended to start the lick on 5th string on 17th fret. Don't forget to add heavy distortion to blow those ears hearing you play this lick ;)

Here is the video of how the lick sounds like

See you on the next lick autopsy, NOW YOUR NIGHTMARE COMES TO LIFE!

Album Review: The Beginning of A Beautiful Life - Maliq & D'Essentials

It's been 6 years since the very first time I had a listen to Maliq & D'Essentials. And I believe, Maliq & D'Essentials was and is the pioneer of this kind of music scene that is currently on top of the top music scenes in Indonesia, especially Jakarta. What made them a pioneer and the great one, were their bravery to bring a kind of music that Indonesian music scene, at that time, had never ever listened to before, and their dedication for the sake of what they call "music and live instrument quality". As a result of their respectable bravery, this kind of music they brought is no more unfamiliar to Indonesian music scene. And as a result of their dedication, Maliq & D'Essentials is now a band, a name, a music figure, a product that people would spend their leisure time and money to see.

Maliq & D'Essentials sing about how dreams made their way to who they are now in "Beautiful Life", an Erykah Badu-ish track with unique chord progression and addictive syncopation combined with groovy bass line. By this album they showed us once again how good they are in setting unusual theme or sets of a love song in singing "Penasaran", a song with sweet chord progression, even sweeter when Angga & Indah sing "ku denganmu/selalu menajadi pertanyaan/tanpa sebuah jawaban tentang cinta/ku denganmu/tak banyak buang waktu/terus mencari jawaban". For the sake of dancefloor's blessing, they arrange "Get Down and Slide". They absolutely know how to show us what is it like when Michael Jackson sings a disco song along with Jamiroquai and Maroon 5 playing the music.


Maliq & D'Essentials didn't forget the best way to be commercial without losing their identity in their first single "Terlalu", mixing varied type of music altogether in one song like "Berbeda", or how to create a perfect linguistic combination of lyric without making the song sounds so bad like in "Maybe You". This is how they dedicate their creativity for the sake of something they called as "music and live instrument quality", and maybe this is what they call a beautiful life.

Song Review: "Raw Dog" - Dream Theater (God of War III Official Soundtrack)

"Raw Dog" is an incredible, insane, and orgasmic 7 minutes instrumental journey. Perhaps when you listen to this song, you cannot recall any of Dream Theater's past work, referring to Dream Theater's whole new instrument sounds and music atmosphere performed in this song. Typically Dream Theater-ish, the song has awesome odd-time signature parts which when you hear it once you'll probably have to count like you do in your math class. 

The atmosphere of this song offers you a chug-ish progressive metal, stab you right in your ears with explosive syncopations, double bass kicks, heavy riffs and fluid keyboard and guitar solos. Truthfully, it's a cruel audio work you can never resist! 

There is an impressive change you can hear if you are a Dream Theater follower or progressive metal/rock lover, it's John Petrucci's well-engineered guitar sound. It's heavier than ever compared to any songs you can hear in Dream Theater past works. I didn't found any specific specification of what changes he made in his guitar sound, but I suspect he recorded the track with different position of mic-ing, and of course the amp equalizer.  Overall, this song sounds more modern in sound.

I really admire the odd-time chug in the intro, which can really kicks you hard! What made the song more awesome are the syncopation in 3:22 that creates a 2-2-1-1 pattern, further more, the syncopation in 5:38 that goes 2-3-4-2-1! You can also hear high speed pentatonic solo from John Petrucci and Jordan Rudees' synthesizer.

This song worth a listen, buddy!

Musically Blogging

Welcome aboard, welcome to Real Music Talks.

Basically this blog reviews everything in music; albums, songs, markets, trends, or even any specific historical genres or events in music. But you'll also probably read some of my personal experiences, analysis, description of my current music exercise and et cetera.

I'm open for comments, critics, or perhaps if you want me to review or analyze something, I'm available!

Cheers!