Jazz in Kuala Lumpur
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v4i2.141Keywords:
constructed identity, local jazz, Malaysia, popular music, urban cultureAbstract
This article will focus on the development from ‘doing’ to ‘making’ jazz in Malaysia’s main urban centre Kuala Lumpur. ‘Doing jazz’ is here understood as ‘doing what the others do’, a practice of creating musical equality with existing practices that are considered ‘up-to-date’ in a small world of self-taught jazz musicians of which some were trained abroad. ‘Making jazz’ goes far beyond this understanding. It aims at creating difference and uniqueness in a conscious way, using individual resources related to local culture and history. However, the polarity between imitative and original has many facets resulting from ethnic, religious and social contradictions within the cultural construction of Malaysia. From this perspective, the role of different racial backgrounds and knowledge bases of various audiences and of jazz personalities, together with their self-perception, needs to be examined. Based on a brief outline of the social background and a concise historical overview, questions of shifting identity as well as of musicianship in the specific urban culture of Kuala Lumpur will be raised and discussed. Does the new generation, facing hegemonic representation, develop racially indifferent attitudes towards jazz or does it aspire to contribute a self-determined individuality, accepting the blurring of borders between global jazz and Southeast Asian popular music?
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Jähnichen, Gisa (2008) Turning Perspectives on South East Asian Music Practices. Serdang: UPM Press.
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Matusky, Patricia, and Tan Sooi Beng (2003) The Music of Malaysia: The Classic, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions. Burlington: Ashgate.
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Philip, Susan (2003) ‘Birth of a Nation: Performative Constructions of National Identity in Three Malaysian Plays’. Tirai Pangung 6: 38–58. Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya.
Pragasam, Lewis (2008) Ethnic Asian Rhythms for the Modern Drummer. Pacific: Mel Bay Publications.
—(2009) ‘I tell people learning music, it’s not about the instrument, it’s about life’. Interview with Sabahsongs, 26 November. http://sabahsongs.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/malaysian-drummer-lewis-pragasam-interview- sabah-kota-kinabalu-2009/.
Salleh, Johari (2011) Personal communication, 4 March 2011, in UKM, Bangi.
Shenzhen Daily, 30 March 2004. ‘Boys Startles Music World’. http://www.newsgd.com (accessed 22 July 2009).
Surin, Jacqueline Ann (2006) ‘Devoted to Theatre—Interview with Marion Francena D’Cruz’. The Sun, 20 April 2006, http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=13869 (accessed 31 August 2010).
Tan Sooi Beng (1997) Bangsawan: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera. Penang: The Asian Centre.
Tan Chong Yew (2010) Personal communication, 1 February 2010, in UPM, Serdang.
Wooley, Stan (1999) ‘Charlie Mariano – A Jazz Pilgrim’. Jazz Journal International 52: 6–43.
Yousof, Ghulam Sarwar (2009) ‘The Culture Issue—Whither National Culture?’ Project Malaysia, No. 4, http://www.projectmalaysia.org/articles/the-culture-issue-whither-national-culture.html.
Zawawi, Ibrahim (1995) Popular Culture at the Crossroads: Malay Contemporary Music. Kuala Lumpur: Akademi Pengajian Melayu.
Al-Ghazali. 2009. Music and Singing. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust.
Atkins, E. Taylor (2001) Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Philadelphia: Duke University Press.
Atkins, Taylor E., ed. (2003) Jazz Planet. Oxford, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Augustin, Paul (2011) Interview, 19 September 2011. Bangkok City Jazz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpqxe8gKfDg&feature=player_embedded.
Barnard, Timothy (2006) Film, Literature and Context in Southeast Asia. P. Ramlee, Malay Cinema, and History. Asian Studies: Debates and New Directions, ed.
Cynthia Chou and Vincent J. H. Houben. Singapore: International Institute for Asian Studies, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestley (2004) The Rough Guide to Jazz, 3rd rev. edn. London: Rough Guides Music Guides.
Chan Cheong Jan (2011) Personal communication, 4 October 2011 in UPM, Serdang.
Cotrell, Stephen (2004) Smoking and All That Jazz. Smoke—A Global History of Smoking, ed. Sander L. Gilman and Zhou Xun, 154–59. London: Reaction Books.
D’Cruz, Marion Francena (2011) Statement on the One Malaysia Policy in a public discussion of the keynote given by Dato’ Norliza Rofli, Director General, Department of Culture and Arts, Ministry of Culture, Arts & Heritage, Malaysia, 24 September, Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Bintang.
DiPiazza, Francesca (2006) Malaysia in Pictures. Minneapolis: Visual Geography Series Books.
Elsner, Jürgen (2002) Wedding Music in the Hadramaut. Omani Traditional Music and the Arab Heritage. Publication of the Oman Centre for Traditional Music, vol. 6, ed. Issam El-Mallah, 115–27. Tutzing: Hans Schneider Verlag.
Gillespie, Dizzie, and Al Fraser (1979) To BE, or not... to BOP. New York: DaCapo Press.
Hanbal, Ahmad ibn (1895) Musnad. Reprint. Beirut: Dar Ihya' at-Turath al-'Arabi. Vol. 6.
Hwang, In-won (2003) Personalized Politics: The Malaysian State under Mahathir. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Jähnichen, Gisa (2008) Turning Perspectives on South East Asian Music Practices. Serdang: UPM Press.
Jones, Andrew F. (2003) ‘Black Internationals—Notes on the Chinese Jazz Age’. In Jazz Planet, ed. Taylor E. Atkins, 225–44. Oxford, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Kahn, Joel S. (2003) ‘Islam, Modernity, and the Popular in Malaysia’. In Malaysia: Islam, Society and Politics, ed. Virginia M.Hooker and Norani Othman, 147–68. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
King, Ross (2008) Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya: Negotiating Urban Space in Malaysia. Asian Studies Association of Australia. Singapore: NUS Press.
Kua Kia Soong (2008) ‘Racial Conflict in Malaysia: Against the Official History’. Race & Class 49/3/33. London: Sage Publications.
Lau, Elaine (2011) ‘In Conversation—Groove in Motion’. Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, issue 840 (10-16 January).
Leong, Keith (2010) ‘Towards a Liberal Malaysia’. The Nut Graph, 12 March 2010. http://www.thenutgraph.com/towards-a-liberal-malaysia/.
Lockard, Craig A. (1998) Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Ma’rof Redzuan, and Laily Paim (2010) Personal communication, September 2010, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Human Ecology.
Mann, Andrea (2008) Lost in Transposition. http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2008/3/17/lost-in-transposition.
Matusky, Patricia, and Tan Sooi Beng (2003) The Music of Malaysia: The Classic, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions. Burlington: Ashgate.
Molasky, Michael (2003) ‘A Japanese Story about Jazz in Russia—Itsuki Hiroyuki’s “Farewell, Moscow Gang”’. In Jazz Planet, ed. Taylor E. Atkins, 191–276. Oxford, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Nicholson, Stuart (2005) Is Jazz Dead?: (Or has it Moved to a New Address). New York: Routledge.
Nor, Mohd Anis Md (1993) Zapin: Folk Dance of the Malay World. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Ong, Frank (2011) ‘AkashA—Performing a Worldview’. In Preserving Creativity in Music Practice. UPM Book Series on Music Research, No. 3, ed. Gisa Jähnichen and Julia Chieng, 149–62. Serdang: UPM Press.
Ooi, Kee Beng (2003) ‘Three-tiered Social Darwinism in Malaysian Ethnographic History’. Southeast Asian Studies 4, no. 1/2: 162–79.
Orkestra RTM—official website. http://www.orkestrartm.my/jazztribute2008/ (accessed 28 January 2011; website contract finished on 1 May 2011, partly continued with http://www.rtm.gov.my/orkestrartm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=27).
Philip, Susan (2003) ‘Birth of a Nation: Performative Constructions of National Identity in Three Malaysian Plays’. Tirai Pangung 6: 38–58. Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Malaya.
Pragasam, Lewis (2008) Ethnic Asian Rhythms for the Modern Drummer. Pacific: Mel Bay Publications.
—(2009) ‘I tell people learning music, it’s not about the instrument, it’s about life’. Interview with Sabahsongs, 26 November. http://sabahsongs.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/malaysian-drummer-lewis-pragasam-interview- sabah-kota-kinabalu-2009/.
Salleh, Johari (2011) Personal communication, 4 March 2011, in UKM, Bangi.
Shenzhen Daily, 30 March 2004. ‘Boys Startles Music World’. http://www.newsgd.com (accessed 22 July 2009).
Surin, Jacqueline Ann (2006) ‘Devoted to Theatre—Interview with Marion Francena D’Cruz’. The Sun, 20 April 2006, http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=13869 (accessed 31 August 2010).
Tan Sooi Beng (1997) Bangsawan: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera. Penang: The Asian Centre.
Tan Chong Yew (2010) Personal communication, 1 February 2010, in UPM, Serdang.
Wooley, Stan (1999) ‘Charlie Mariano – A Jazz Pilgrim’. Jazz Journal International 52: 6–43.
Yousof, Ghulam Sarwar (2009) ‘The Culture Issue—Whither National Culture?’ Project Malaysia, No. 4, http://www.projectmalaysia.org/articles/the-culture-issue-whither-national-culture.html.
Zawawi, Ibrahim (1995) Popular Culture at the Crossroads: Malay Contemporary Music. Kuala Lumpur: Akademi Pengajian Melayu.
Published
2012-03-28
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Jähnichen, G. (2012). Jazz in Kuala Lumpur. Jazz Research Journal, 4(2), 141-170. https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v4i2.141
