Jakarta. After three days of live performances, the 2022 Java Jazz Festival officially came to an end on Sunday night.

Over the weekend, countless music enthusiasts made their annual pilgrimage to Java Jazz after its pandemic-induced hiatus. Java Jazz also came back strong with hundreds of artists on the lineup, ready to quench the festival-goers’ thirst for offline concerts. 

The festival, which ran from May 27 to May 29, had the Temptations Revue featuring Glenn Leonard headlining the last day. The five-membered vocal group showed up in sparkly black suits which they called the “Jakarta Special”. The stunning vocals, coupled with the energetic choreography, got the crowd excited. 

“Are you enjoying yourself? Thank you for having us. We are honored to be here with you tonight, and the party is just beginning,” lead singer Glenn Leonard said, before singing ‘You’re My Everything’.

The group also sang ‘Ol’ Man River’, ‘My Girl’, ‘Papa Was a Rollin' Stone’, ‘I Wish it Would Rain’ to name a few. The crowd clapped their hands to the beat. Some even got up from their seats and danced to the music.

"There are things that you can express through music, that you just can't express just with words," Leonard told the crowd.

Cross-Generational Collab

Singer-songwriter Fariz RM is a household name in Indonesia’s pop music scene.

On Sunday, Fariz —along with his iconic keytar— returned to Java Jazz to put on a nostalgic performance. 

"It has been two years since we last met like this. The energy here is really amazing," Fariz said.

Fariz, however, was not alone on stage. The 63-year-old performed together with two young soloists Faye Risakotta and Oslo Ibrahim.  The collab stage kicked off with a ‘Diantara Kata’ and ‘Selangkah ke Sebrang’ duet between Fariz and Oslo. Fariz then sang ‘Batas Rindu’ and ‘Nada Kasih’ together with Faye, before going solo again. 

Fariz chose ‘Sungguh’ and ‘Susie Bhelel’ for his solo, and later called the young musicians back to the stage. The crowd cheered for the trio as they sang Fariz’s top hits ‘Sakura’ and ‘Barcelona’.

The 17th Edition

The 2022 Java Jazz had 542 musicians of different genres, generations, and nationalities, performing over the three-day stretch. Legendary guitarist Dewa Budjana, pop group Kahitna, and many more performed for the last day of the festival.

This marked the 17th edition of the Jakarta International BNI Java Jazz Festival. The annual music festival first took place in 2005, but had to go on a hiatus in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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