Soloevent.id – Keroncong is not only played by Indonesians, musicians from the United States can also bring it. That is evidenced by the Band Grass when a guest star on Gesang Stage on Wednesday (07/18/2018).
That night. the audience immediately rewarded a big round of applause when Hannah Standiford (vocalist, cak) sang the opening lyrics of “Caping Gunung”, “Ndek jaman berjuang …”
After completing “Caping Gunung” with solemnity, Hannah accompanied by Andy McGrew (selo), Kylie Dosier (cuk), John Priestley (guitar), Nat Quick (bass), Paul Wilson (violin), and Danis Sugiyanto (violin) continued the performance through the “Pejuang Sejati”.
In the third song, Andy introduced three friends. They do not hold musical instruments, but rather complete the appearance of the Band Grass with performances of crankies. “This is the art of painting that has been very long,” he said when explaining what crankies were.
For those who don’t know, crankies are still “bersaudara” with wayang beber and wayang kulit. The story is spread from paper rolls. For scene displacement, the puppeteer plays a paper roll using a device. Just like wayang kulit, crankies also use blencong – in a modern form – to highlight sheets of paper that are unfolded.
Accompanied by crankies, the Grass Band sang folk songs from his homeland, “John Henry”. Uniquely, when played in Indonesia, the title of the song was changed to “Mas Joko”, while the lyrics were replaced by Javanese.
There is another uniqueness. Music “Mas Joko” is a mixture of country and keroncong. “Because we are from Virginia, one of the country music centers in America,” said Andy. The man who works as an ethnomusicology lecturer at the University of Richmond explained “Mas Joko” told the story of a poor man who became a hero.
Keroncong is a flexible type of music. If you previously played keroncong with country, in the fourth song, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, Hannah et al. combining keroncong with Appalachia music, Still accompanied by crankies, the duration of this song is longer than the third song. Whereas in the fifth song, “Lowland of Holland”, the Grass Band includes the rhythm of Irish music.
But unfortunately, the appearance of the Band Grass on the Gesang Stage must end. In closing, “Walang Kekek” was chosen which was popularized by Indonesian keroncong maestro, Waldjinah.
