West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and other Popular Music

Amazon.com
Jaipongan emerged during the 1970s and was as much a pop craze as a traditional style. In it, a kittenish female singer-dancer, whose lyrics might deal with love, planting, prosperity, or the lack thereof, fronts a scaled-down combo of instruments typically heard during a gamelan (a large-scale court entertainment based on hypnotic cycles of drumming and chimes), such as gongs, metal xylophones, and percussion, plus a two-stringed fiddle called a rebab. Male backup musicians respond to the singer's comments with sympathetic or satiric ejaculations and melodic underscoring. Jaipongan was invented by Dr. Gugum Gumbira Tirasondjala, a producer-composer who moved with the times when Western influences were subject to government disapproval. His ensemble is heard here accompanying the delicately lovely voice of Idjah Hadidjah. The album also includes examples of kliningan, which calls for a woman vocalist, but adheres more closely to the gamelan structure and doesn't call for dancing. --Christina Roden

West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and other Popular Music,Various Artists,Idjah Hadidjah,Nonesuch,Indonesian,Int'l & World Music,Java,Pop,World Music

Average customer rating:

tonggeret...go get it (almost an anagram...)

A Delightful Musical Treat

Get up with it

West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and other Popular Music
Various Artists , and Idjah Hadidjah
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Indonesia | Far East & Asia | International | Styles | Music
General | International | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00007MEWH
Release Date: 2003-01-28

Tracks:

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Amazon.com

Jaipongan emerged during the 1970s and was as much a pop craze as a traditional style. In it, a kittenish female singer-dancer, whose lyrics might deal with love, planting, prosperity, or the lack thereof, fronts a scaled-down combo of instruments typically heard during a gamelan (a large-scale court entertainment based on hypnotic cycles of drumming and chimes), such as gongs, metal xylophones, and percussion, plus a two-stringed fiddle called a rebab. Male backup musicians respond to the singer's comments with sympathetic or satiric ejaculations and melodic underscoring. Jaipongan was invented by Dr. Gugum Gumbira Tirasondjala, a producer-composer who moved with the times when Western influences were subject to government disapproval. His ensemble is heard here accompanying the delicately lovely voice of Idjah Hadidjah. The album also includes examples of kliningan, which calls for a woman vocalist, but adheres more closely to the gamelan structure and doesn't call for dancing. --Christina Roden

Customer Reviews:

tonggeret...go get it (almost an anagram...).......2006-01-08

I've loved this CD since it first came out, and despair of finding others like it! More modern Dangdut and such feels too much like disco to me. But this would be on my "Top Ten Sexiest Late-Night Make-Out CD's" list. And it's always worked...Yum-m-m. Well, maybe I'm spoiled...But, still...this is music for the heart, the brain, the body...Beautiful playing, incredible singing, a palpable sense of mood. When people say "Pop Music", this is the kind of music I always HOPE they mean. But usually, they mean some kind of compromised schlock with traces of something real. But this CD holds up beautifully against both the most austere Javanese Gamelan AND Caetano Veloso (and Berg, for that matter...).

A Delightful Musical Treat.......2005-12-14

Having grown up in Jakarta to a mother who is ethnically Sundanese, I thought that this collection of Sundanese Jaipong and other popular music from western Java would be a wonderful way for me to reconnect with my cultural heritage. Indeed, I am pleased to report that this compilation did just that!

Idjah Hadidjah's strong vocals, in conjunction with a traditional Indonesian orchestra of varying instruments and a choir of accompanying singers, produces music that is both rich in detail and beautiful in sound. Although I needed my mother's help to translate the Sundanese lyrics into Bahasa Indonesia, the music allowed my mother and I to reminisce about old times, about all the wonderful memories that we shared together back in Indonesia.

My father, an admirer of the Indonesian culture, enjoyed the collection just as much as my mother and I did. Listening to my mother's translation of Idjah Hadidjah's lyrics, which included stories of rice harvests or a young girl renowned for her beauty, prompted him to share with us his own stories of living in Southeast Asia for over twenty years.

Music is, indeed, at its best when it has the power to evoke fond memories of the past as it did with me and my parents. "West Java: Sundanese Jaipong and other Popular Music" is a must-have piece for any musical collection.

Get up with it.......2003-04-26

Unlike the large, court-oriented gamelans, this music is a popular idiom sung by the enchanting voice of Idjah Hadidjah and buttresed by the supple hand drumming of Suwanda. What remains is the perfumed sound from the gongs and mallet instruments. Give Gugum Gumbira credit for organizing this music with Miles Davis like ingenuity.

Good quality recording too.

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