A Man with Ukulele singing What a Wonderful WorldI’ve got to make this very quickly for there are monsters looming large and their shadows are hovering ominously above us.
In a long and boring commute, people would do anything to occupy their mind. Some are busy reading paper, some are listening to audio player, a few stare vacantly to the window outside, but most prefer sleeping.
One phenomenon that are striving in Jakarta’s shambolic but unique transportation system are a group of street performers called Pengamen.
They are ever present in every big buses and trains traveling to and from the metropolitan area.
During my short experience on buses from Jakarta to Bekasi, I have made some classification over these street smart band.
The best would be a group of men, in an ensemble, using more than one music instruments such as guitar, violin, and even percussions. They range between good and very good. Often times they are enterprising and entertaining with songs selection from the latest Indonesian top forty to rock classics. At one time they performed Vanessa Mae's Toccata & Fugue which blew passengers out of the water.
The second ones is a single adult male performer with a guitar or ukulele. In this group you can sometime stumble upon a select few with very good musicality. They have astonishing voice and several even have this unique ability to communicate with their audience ala radio DJ. These are rare breed though and you wouldn’t hesitate to spare some thousand rupiahs for these street entertainers.
The third ones and they currently make the most frequent appearances, are pure incomprehensible noises. Typically they are tone deaf underage and teenagers. You gave them spare change out of compassion and or primordial preferences, depend on whether they are singing your religion’s song book.
The fourth group are beggars and muggers masquerading as pengamen. From clapping hands and pleading money for their sick friend, or claiming to have just got out prison. They’re in short a disgrace to their kind.
Recent sudden fame of Aris (Januarisman), pengamen turned finalist of Indonesian Idol, shot to stardom from his incredible rendition of ST12 hit, would encourage fellow pengamen alike cracking to improve their fortune.
Like it or not, they will always be there, when the employment field and opportunities in the big city still difficult to find.
As for me, they have been an interesting company in my long and winding road home.
6 comments:
wow.. THAT i have to look out for in Jakarta later :)
Hahaha ... the good ones are pretty rare Lin :)
And any tourists would have to be brave to ride one of those big city buses, as they can be a bit daunting and dangerous.
That is why I planned to bring an audio recorder in any case I was lucky enough to meet a good one.
Good observation! Was just having a wishful thinking of volunteers who can teach these street performers to sing and play their instruments better, then commuting will probably be much more enjoyable :)
Halo Pak Bambang :)
Thanks for stopping by and comment.
There are several missionary organization providing Rumah Singgah for pengamen, usually for the under age ones.
Yup, after long and taxing day at the office, kick back in a bus with some nice rendition of Toto would be just awesome.
The bad singers definitely out number the good ones.
Yet, it is the lottery effect of one day you get a talented pengamen, who given the right opportunities could probably go places.
Toto? Really? Which song?
@Pak Rob,
Indeed ... it's very rare to find a good pengamen. I have been bringing my small recorder for 3 days now and no worthy one to be found.
Last night though it is a new one, this bloke just standing there stomping the bus floor with both feet resembling a beat and screaming some God knows what song. Nobody gave him money I guess, so he stormed out of the bus and scream "Pelit Semua!!".
O yeah I like Toto, there was this one time one pengamen singing 'I will Remember' with a guitar, it was quite good, made me hum along with him.
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