Now there’s no denying the influence of Dewa’s ethnic and cultural background on these recordings and it certainly comes to the fore in the albums sprawling epic Kalingga. Lamboya is currently the favoured tune, receiving slightly more repeats than the other tracks and to be honest I’m not entirely sure why – perhaps just the way the guitar floats effortlessly across the 11/8 rhythm. Great fretless work from Jimmy and I have no idea what Vinnie is playing here, but I’m not complaining. Capistrano Road on the surface is a more laid back affair allowing Dewa freedom to play some sweet guitar. A track that is electrifying from start to finish. Again immensely infectious and icing on the cake with Jimmy Johnson turning in a splendid melodic bass solo. Duaji & Guruji on the other hand has a rockier edge to it, whilst still retaining a vigorous intensity within a jazz fusion mould. A spiralling little piece with an infectious melody and nicely complemented by Gary Husband on synth. The album opens with Fifty, a celebration of a landmark age recently reached by Dewa. With such an awesome rhythm section there’s very little that could go wrong? And it doesn’t, in fact this pared down, power trio line-up, gives Surya Namaskar the edge on the two previous releases and there’s more spontaneity to proceedings – well certainly to these ears… The album also featured are Larry Goldings (piano & Hammond) and Bob Mintzer (saxophones & clarinet).Īnd now, here we are in 2014 with Surya Namaskar which features the returning Jimmy Johnson on bass and this time around the drum seat is taken by the wonderful Vinnie Colaiuta. An impressive cast of top notch musicians appeared on the album including world renowned drummer Peter Erskine and the incomparable Jimmy Johnson on bass. The same year saw Dewa follow up Dawai In Paradise with the equally impressive Joged Kahyangan, which once again looked into his back catalogue. Kromatik Lagi and can be found on Dawai In Paradise album. A nice illustration is the track below, recorded here at Gedung Kesenian (Jakarta) in December 2007. Dawai In Paradise (2013) reflected differing stylistic moods, perhaps a reflection that the material had be culled over a number of years, but still, an absorbing album. With such a relatively short time frame between releases there may be a tendency to recycle material or ideas, but this certainly isn’t the case here, as each of the three albums has a flavour and style of its own. The focus of this review however is on Dewa’s solo works and in particular his 2014 release, Surya Namaskar (Salute To Sun).Īlong with his output with Gigi, Dewa Budjana has released seven solo albums, with the latest three appearing within the last eighteen months, or so, on the MoonJune Records label. A band who have enjoyed a twenty year career releasing albums annually, with impressive five figure unit sales. One of the more recent is Indonesian guitarist Dewa Budjana who I have no doubt will be a relatively unknown name to many, although within his native country he is well established in his ‘day job’ with commercial rockers Gigi. Guest, Bass – Dave Carpenter (R.I.P.A rich vein of qualitative progressive jazz/rock/fusion can always be found over at MoonJune Records and across many years now I’ve discovered a fair few gems there.Flute – Saat Syah (tracks: 3, 5, 9 to 11).Executive-Producer – Leonardo Pavkovic. Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar – Dewa Budjana.Drums – Arie Ayunir (tracks: 7), Ronald Fristianto (tracks: 3), Sandy Winarta (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6).Composed By, Arranged By, Producer – Dewa Budjana.Bass – Bintang Indrianto (tracks: 7, 8), Rishanda Singgih (tracks: 3), Shadu Rasjidi (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6).Arranged By – Aminoto Kosin (tracks: 8).
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