Sabah Habas Mustapha

3 Mustaphas 3 bassist and singer Sabah Habas has not been idle since the band hung up their fezzes and quit touring the world's stages in 1991. Following his love of Indonesian music to its source he recorded an album of his songs in Jakarta in 1994. Featuring some of the top players on the dangdut music scene, the album Denpasar Moon was released in Japan by Wave Records and in Europe by Piranha Records (now out of print, it is scheduled for re-release by Kartini Music in 2002). In Indonesia the title song became a million-selling hit following its use in a TV advertising campaign for Sony hi-fi's and was covered by many Indonesian artists.

The 1997 Kartini Music release Jalan Kopo, recorded in Gugum Gumbira's famous Jugala studios in Bandung, West Java. It featured some of the finest young players on the Bandung traditional music scene, namely: Ismet Ruchimat, who plays the zither-like kacapi, Agus Supriawan, who plays the khendang, a large double-headed drum played with hands and feet, together with three smaller drums known as ketipung. Asep Maung on the bamboo flute (suling) and Yadi Piteuk on violin.

Thus were born The Jugala Allstars.

Sabah Habas recalls: "Jalan Kopo was basically a collection of my songs which Ismet, Agus, Asep and Yadi played on in a session-player role. After we finished the recording we carried on jamming together and it was clear that this would be a really exciting direction to explore further."

The breakthrough came in 1999 when, with the addition of singer Tetty Yani Mugiono and second khendang player, Zenir, the Jugala Allstars assembled in On Studios in Bandung to begin work on the album So La Li..

"This time we wanted it to be a real group effort," says Sabah Habas : "I had a couple of basic ideas, and Ismet brought two of his compositions and we worked on those first. As the sound began to take on an identity of its own the rest came about through us all improvising in the studio. Once we had the instrumental structures worked out, we brought in Tetti Yani to sing some traditional Sundanese texts which we had adapted for our arrangements."

Released on Kartini Music in Europe and Omnium Records in USA So La Li has gathered much international praise. It was voted one of the best albums of 2000 in Froots magazine (UK) and led to the nomination of the group for the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music (Asia/Pacific category) in 2001. The Jugala Allstars embarked on their first European tour in June 2001 including appearances at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark and the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany. In July 2002 they will be touring the UK under the auspices of the Asian Music Circuit and will also be appearing at festivals in Portugal, Hungary and Austria. —Courtesy Calabash Music