Balinese modern music in Seminyak Bali
Jay just left last night at 1am with Debbie and Sienna. Jay is a decent guitar player and singer and on a couple of occasions we went out checked out the music scene in Seminyak. A couple of nights ago at JP's Warung in Seminyak we saw a duo, 2 Balinese guys playing rhythm and lead guitar, knocking out some western standards.
Jay was offered to jump in with them for a song and played Sultans of Swing, by Dire Straits. We chatted about the general music scene out here and I said it was sad to see so much focus on thump, thump and DJ's. Jay said the guy he sat next to was an excellent player, better than many western players and had some really tasteful licks. He also said the 2 guys probably worked a lot harder than western musicians. "These guys have practiced all the harmonies and have them down, just like the record." He said. "A westerner would learn the song then improvise a bit and create their own version of the song." Out here they learn the riffs like it's classical music and try to get as close as possible to the original.
One funny thing was the when the guys were singing, they mumbled through some of the lyrics, obviously it was easier for them to copy the music than the words and the result was a sometimes meaningless line of syllables.
"It would be really interesting putting together a band over here." said Jay. "The talent is here, they've got it, it's just their equipment is often not very good and they haven't learned to express themselves."
Some of the Latin oriented bands that play in JP's have kicking musicians and if they ever broke away from always playing cover tunes and actually wrote their own stuff they would have something.
Jay and I discussed music scenes in places where we have lived and ended with the conclusion that as far as western music is concerned there is no place like the US. When I grew up in England I didn't know a single person who played a musical instrument. After moving to California almost every house I went to, had a guitar. That is also partially the case in Australia, although government regulations on noise control have suppressed bands and the pokey machines (gambling machines) have become the death of live music over there in the pub scene.
By Nick | Permalink
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