Bali’s two-day music festival dedicated to Jazz, Ubud Village Jazz Festival (UVJF), returns 02-03 August 2024 for its 11th edition, hosting top national and international jazz musicians in the heart of Bali -Ubud.
This year’s Festival will be headquartered at the Sthala Ubud Resort in Ubud. The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Economy has recognized it as one of Indonesia’s top 10 national events.
First held in 2013, UVJF dedicates itself to featuring “purely“ and “truly” jazz artists, refusing to dip into the cauldron of “pop” cross-over artists to merely boost ticket sales. As a result, expect to hear the very “best of the best” in jazz performances over the two nights of outstanding music at The Sthala, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel in Ubud, Bali.
Two of the UVJF’s original organizers, Anom Darsana and Yuri Mahatma, two men who have known each other since 2009, remain committed to the success of the Ubud Jazz Festival.
In the early 2000s, Anom Darsana studied sound engineering in Switzerland while Jazz guitarist Yuri Mahatma worked in Indonesia as a musician-composer. Speaking at the UVJF 2024 Press Conference held on 25 July 2024, Anom said: “I went to school in Switzerland, and after graduating, I worked as a sound engineer at festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Festival, Cully Jazz Festival, and Lussane Jazz Festival in Switzerland before I returned to Bali and founded Antida Music.”
Back in Bali, a shared interest in jazz brought Anom and Yuri together, and they jointly questioned the lack of local jazz performance. While there were many self-proclaimed jazz festivals in Indonesia, none were dedicated to “pure jazz.”
Prompted by a desire to create more jazz performance opportunities in Indonesia, the two men, in collaboration with Yuri’s gifted jazz pianist wife, Astrid Sulaiman, resolved to embark on the bold enterprise of creating a festival focused exclusively on “pure jazz.” to cater to the growing base of jazz musicians and jazz aficionados.
The first UVJF edition occurred in 2013 at the Arma Museum in Ubud. It was a modest beginning, attracting only 150 spectators. Only in its fourth edition did UVJF begin to make a profit.
Initially, at least, budgets did not allow top jazz acts to be signed, but the organizers consistently managed to attract quality performers who shared their love for the jazz genre.
The unwavering idealism of those behind UVJF has paid off, earning a loyal following of regional and international jazz fans who return year after year for each successive Festival.
“UVJF has become a festival that jazz musicians love. We will never lose our idealism; we are on the jazz path and will remain on that path. We are known for this, to the point that there are musicians in Jakarta who say, ‘You are not a jazz musician if you have not performed at UVJF,’ and this is a source of great pride for us,” said Anom.
Uwe Plath, a saxophonist from Dortmund, Germany, is an international jazz musician who has been on hand from the Festival’s initial launch. Having personally seen the Festival grow phenomenally from a modest-sized gathering of 150 attendees to current sold-out venues and concerts, Plath commented further, saying: “UVJF has added color to the international jazz world. I still remember performing for the first time at the inaugural event, and since then, there have always been continual improvements. In Europe, UVJF already has an established name and reputation, with European artists now asking how they can be invited to participate and perform in Bali at our Festival.”
The 11th UVJF will move from the Arma Museum to Sthala Ubud Resort, which is booked to host the following four festivals. Organizers have determined that the Sthala will provide space for three separate performance stages at a hotel far removed from Central Ubud’s chronic traffic congestion.
Among the Indonesian and International acts booked for the UVJF are:
- Adien Fazmail Quinteto (RI)
- Collective Harmony (RI)
- Dian Pratiwi (RI)
- Jazz Centrum Quartet (RI)
- Galaxy Big Band (RI)
- FAWR Trio (RI)
- Benny Irawan Trio (RI)
- Erick Chuong Trio (Hongkong) featuring Sinuksma & Kanhaiya.
- Claudio Diallo (Swiss) with Indra Gupta & Gustu Brahmanta
- New Centropezn Quartet (Russia)
- Noé Clerc Trio (France)
- Rason, Rodrigo Parejo Quartet (Spain)
- Simone Prattico Trio (Italy)
- Uwe Plath Quartet (Germany)
- Zagórski/Skowroński Project (Poland) featuring Kajetan Galas.
UVJF is targeting some 2,500 visitors each day – a number that represents half the venue’s daily capacity
Related Links
Sthala Ubud – A Tribute Portfolio Hotel
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