Nial puts his heart and soul into jazz music

The Jakarta Post
6 July 2003

So, define jazz, Nial. Nial Djuliarso straightened his back, while his

fingers played aimlessly with a green straw.

"Jazz is freedom of expression," said the 22-year-old jazz pianist

firmly.

Well, isn't rock about freedom of expression, too? He hesitated a

moment.

"True, but jazz has more substance. Well, rock also has substance, but

jazz ... (pause) gives.. It's good for the brain because the music requires

extra thinking. It's good for the heart, soul, body and mind," he said.

"It happens in other genre too, but jazz is more intense and visible in

terms of musicians' interplay. Especially when you play live ... The energy

is like, wow!"

The student of Boston's Berklee College of Music spoke in the enamored

tones of a teenage boy prattling on about Britney Spears, his face glowing

with passion.

He still resembles an adolescent, with his self-admittedly "nerdy" look:

Glasses, pale skin, skinny, dressed in a Walt Disney dinosaur T-shirt and

sneakers.

But Nial has the composure and determination of an adult. And while he

is confident, for sure, he never comes across as arrogant, not bothering to

trash pop music or sniping that the music of Kenny G or Norah Jones is not

jazz.

"They're jazz, only lighter. That's good too," he said.

And while his peers are stuck in their Holden Caulfield moments, Nial is

soldiering on along on a career path rarely chosen by Indonesian musicians.

The journey dates back to when he learned how to play the piano at the

tender age of three, and grew up watching his father play the bass and

altosaxophone in jazz clubs all over Jakarta.

The real turning point, however, was watching a performance of jazz

guitarist Pat Metheny at Senayan Sports Stadium in 1996.

"The jazz bug hit me that night! It really touched my heart. I was so

impressed by the improvisation, the sense of freedom and the expression,"

he said.

That was when he decided to do what his engineer father did not by

pursuing a life of music.

"He's the most talented among my children. I love playing jazz, but my

parents didn't let me have a career in it. So, when Nial said that he

wanted to become a professional jazz musician, I fully supported him,"

Nial's father Pudjo Djuliarso said.

Pudjo then sent his second child, 15 years old at the time and a budding

tennis player ("I got too tired"), to the home of jazz in the United

States.

After spending his high school years in Tennessee, Nial later earned a

full scholarship at Berklee, where he first took a major in jazz

arrangement and production but switched to jazz performance last year.

"It turned out I prefer performing to doing the behind-the-stage thing.

Performing is more fun. We can directly express ourselves," said Nial, who

admires the likes of Red Garland, Wynton Kelly and Oscar Peterson.

Living in the U.S. helped nurture his talent and experience. He

performed at the Sarasota Jazz Festival in Florida, and at the prestigious

North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands with his own Nial Djuliarso

trio. In 2001 and 2002, he won the Hilton Head Jazz Society Scholarship

Competition in South Carolina.

Last year, Nial was one of an elite group of 28 young musicians from

around the world accepted by Jazz Ahead, a week-long jazz residency program

which was initiated in 1993 by premiere jazz vocalist, the late Betty

Carter.

The residency program, held at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington

D.C., is a a venue to pass on the jazz tradition by bringing together young

emerging artists with experienced performers.

During his school holidays recently, he played several gigs in Kuala

Lumpur, Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta.

After graduating next year, Nial plans to move to New York to work and

continue his studies.

"I want to sharpen my skills. When I get what I want and am satisfied

with what I'm doing, then I'm going to be back. I was born here. There are

some wishes to develop the jazz scene in this country," Nial said.

He added that except for noted jazz player Bubi Chen, there is no

Indonesian who plays pure jazz.

"I don't know why. People here mostly play smooth jazz, which is not bad

if it's played well.. Like Herbie Hancock, he is a crossover, a versatile

musician. He also plays smooth jazz."

Nial hopes more people take up jazz in this country so that there would

be rhythm sections when he returned home.

"I'm usually accompanied by bass and drum, because musicians here are

not used to playing jazz that I like to play, which is swing jazz. The

interplay in swing is more than the kind of jazz that is ting-ting-ting-

ting...

"Everyone can do that ting-ting-ting-ting. But swing is more difficult,

we have to be really focused," he said.

He criticized musicians who build up their own ivory towers and alienate

the audience.

"I guess that's the wrong attitude, because we need an audience as they

buy the tickets. We have to balance the music and the audience. Maybe

sometimes we have to compromise a little. But I guess if the music is good,

we hope that the audience will feel it."

Do you listen to pop, Nial? MTV?

"Not really. But I know Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin

Timberlake. I don't really listen to them, though, so I can't really

comment on them. But I guess musicians nowadays have to be versatile and

open minded if they want to survive. If I had an offer to play pop or funk,

as long as there's no other offer (for jazz), I'd take it.

"Because I believe that there's something that we can take from other

styles, which can be combined with what we've learned. That'd be good."

And so there Nial was, on stage at a cafe in Central Jakarta, looking

neat in a long-sleeved shirt, pants and loafers. His father stood against

the wall, watching, although many chairs were still available in the

audience.

Occasionally, Pudjo's cheers and excited clapping sounded through the

audience's polite applause. He also got on stage to make sure the piano was

finely tuned.

Through all his prowess at the complicated compositions, it was Nial's

unrestrained passion that showed through.

Labels: music, profile

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