Yeah, so it's time to re-record and re-post my Titim Fatimah collection, for my own pleasure and yours :) She is my favorite sinden after all and I'm sure, with my Focusrite soundcard the sound quality will be much, much better....
Titim Fatimah was born in 1938 in Deli, Sumatra but moved soon to her parents home town Subang in West-Java. She was immensely popular in the 50's and the 60's, if she would arrive somewhere, often whole crowds would gather, chaos would ensue but at her concerts most people would sit quiet, mesmerized by her voice. The first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, would often invite her to perform at the State Palace in Bogor when there were important foreign guests...
Back in the 50's the sinden, female singers at the wayang puppet shows would sit in the back, not to be seen, only to be heard when they had to sing their parts. Titim Fatimah and that other fantastic sinden who was as popular in those days, Upit Sarimanah, changed all that. They would be more and more in the front till at a point they would actually sit at a podium, elevated above the other musicians and puppet player, much to the chagrin of one of the greatest puppet players of that era, R. Barnas Somantri, who, in an interview, likened them to pests on a tree....
Later on Titim Fatimah and Upit Sarimanah were leading their groups, quiet an achievement in male dominated Indonesia in those times!!!!
She and Upit Sarimanah did not get along, I've written about that before on this blog. Story goes (and I've heard this from the great maestro Tan Deseng who produced most of Titim Fatimah's records and who wrote lots of her songs) Titim went to an Upit Sarimanah performance in Garut, a small city outside Bandung. Upit was at that time already an established artist, Titim was at the beginning of her career, and Titim wanted to ask Upit if she could study the art with her. Now, what was said I don't know but Upit was very condescending to Titim and dismissed her.... It's too bad all that happened, they really were the biggest at their craft in their times and God knows what fantastic things they could've done together....
Be that as it may, I love the music from the both of them. Where Upit's music and singing was more refined and geared towards the elites, Titim's music and singing was more raw, more geared towards the masses....
There was a period, in the 1960's when Titim was the highest paid artist in Indonesia, a time when artists like Titiek Puspa and Bing Slam et were at their most successful....
Anyway.... Titim Fatimah....
GET IT HERE
Enjoy!
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