Syaharani: Good music, good friends
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Syaharani still gets a buzz, that irrepressible welling of excitement and nerves, whenever it’s time to step on stage. In fact, the rush can get the better of her.
“I always have to run to the toilet before I go on stage,” the 36-year-old singer joked Tuesday at a South Jakarta coffee shop.
“It doesn’t matter where it is, it’s always that same feeling of excitement even though every performance is different … It’s like meeting your boyfriend again.”
She will be back on center stage Friday night for her debut at the 9th International Jakarta Jazz Festival in Senayan, Central Jakarta. She was still a young performer making a name for herself in 1997 when JakJazz was held before an eight-year hiatus. Contractual obligations kept her from performing at last year’s event.
The sultry-voiced singer, who is known as Rani, will perform a set of about nine songs with her band, The Queenfireworks, formed last year. As well as originals from their first album, Buat Kamu, there will be a rearrangement of Bob Marley’s Turn Your Lights Down Low and an on-stage mime who will interpret one of the songs.
She is excited by the opportunity to perform — “it’s really nice knowing they recognize my new band,” she says — and she praises JakJazz for showcasing local talent.
“Usually, most of the big stars are from outside (at local music events). Here there’s Idang Rasjidie, Maliq & D’Essentials and others. So it’s good … I think JakJazz has always done that, and its ticket prices are still within reach.”
Although it’s only three days before a performance, the singer is not swaddled in a turtleneck, sipping warm chamomile tea and refusing to talk to protect her “instrument”. Instead, she downs a cappucino and picks at a calorie-laden slice of blueberry cheesecake. Slim and with the angular features and dark eyes of her mixed South Sulawesi and Greek heritage, she says she eats what she wants and likes a glass of red wine and her cigarettes.
She is a “people person”; she loves to meet new people and learn from them. It was a shared feeling of camraderie with other musicians that led her to jazz music.
Rani was born in the cool hill town of Batu, outside Malang, East Java. An eclectic range of music rang through the household, from her mother’s jazz and semi-classical records to the choices of her brother and four sisters. She also had her own favorites, especially Guruh Sukarnoputra, Keenan Nasution, Yockie Suryoprayogo and Fariz RM.
She came to Jakarta for high school and became acquainted with the music industry. It was not a good first impression.
“I had a relative who worked as a producer, and he showed me all of the things about the artists who were big at the time …,” she said.
“For me, it was very complicated, it seemed that they didn’t have much time for their family or to contemplate … I told my family that I didn’t want that kind of life.”
Rani returned to East Java, going to college and singing in a cover band, doing versions of songs by groups like Genesis. But she decided to give Jakarta another try.
“I sang at cafes and clubs, it was fun. I got to meet a lot of different people, which got me thinking. And it provided me with a lot of logical conclusions about life.”
She also was welcomed into the community of musicians. It was mostly a brotherhood of sorts, but Rani says she was welcomed as one of the boys.
“My seniors took me along to play at many sessions. They always watched over me, they cared for me. So I drank but not too much, because they were there … it made me think, well, it’s OK …”
She describes the community as “pure … we go up on stage with a lot of love, we play with the people we love and we give it to other people. There are no boundaries, and we are free.”
Rani made the commitment to jazz 10 years ago, when it was still very much a niche market. It still is, inevitably, but the scene is growing here. A group of young, dynamic musicians, from Maliq & D’Essentials to the charismatic, fedora-wearing Tompi, have done away with the intimidation factor for their peers.
“It’s getting better; more people now understand that jazz is not ’scary’ music,” Rani says. “People like Maliq and Tompi are showing that the music can be simple, but still jazzy. It’s nice to let people know that jazz can be a very familiar music, it depends on which type you choose.
“It’s going to get better for jazz, because the trend is changing little by little.”
Rani also loves to write; she pens poetry and has a regular column for a Batam-based newspaper. A compilation of her writings is scheduled to be published next year. She also is in talks with producers for a second album, to be released in 2009, with The Queenfireworks.
But she takes nothing for granted; she learned from experience not to get beyond herself in her expectations. In a freak accident in 2002, she was hit by a falling disco ball while rehearsing for a show at a Jakarta hotel.
“I had never thought about it before, but when I had the accident, and couldn’t sing for a few months, I didn’t feel OK because I realized that I know myself better through singing … Maybe I thanked God so much (after recovering), because this gift is really a big one for me, because through singing I could get a lot of friends …”
She has overcome the panic attacks that crippled her after the accident and, as with everything she experiences, good and bad, discovered something new about life and herself.
“I don’t feel afraid of anything, of what will happen. Whatever we can fix, then we do. If we can’t, then we will learn …”
Syaharani will perform at 9 p.m. at Senayan on Friday, November 23.
Source: The Jakarta Post
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