Jazz Articles

YK Samarinda: Jazz for Borneo

by Ian Patterson
March 10, 2015

Ethnic fusion jazz is a term that has gained currency in Indonesia in recent years and is typically applied to bands who incorporate elements of Indonesian folk music--melodies and/or instrumentation--into a jazz-fusion aesthetic. The four-piece YK Samarinda from East Kalimantan, Borneo, falls into this broad category; its use of the sapeh (or sampeh)--a traditional lute originally used in ritual trance music of the Dayak and Orang Ulu people of central Borneo--lends a distinctive though secondary color to the more dominant ...