MARA RADIO: INTERVIEW TAN DESENG ABOUT TITIM FATIMAH
Here's an interview with the Maestro Tan Deseng about the great Sundanese sinden (female singer) Titim Fatimah with some incredible music, I think these are unreleased private recordings and listening to them.... in my mind at least, she truly was THE greatest of them all.... Tan Deseng knew Titim Fatimah very well, he produced most of her records and composed many of her songs. Truly, an amazing tape this....
GET IT HERE
Enjoy!!!!
Pfooh... Well, I myself really like the Sekar Tjatur album, and Matjan Ucul, Pelita, for me, they're all fantastic, not for nothing that President Sukarno would call her to come perform in the Presidential Palace in Bogor when he had important foreign guests. Not for nothing that, in the 60's she was the highest paid artist for performances. She opened the way for female artists in so many ways.... And she was building and opening schools for poor kids.... She's basically what started all this, this blog, I was making music, sample based and bought an album out of curiosity and I was blown away, just..... blown away..... Came to find out she is so forgotten here and that's why I started this blog, way, way back.... I wanted to preserve this fantastic music.... Now it's a bit different, traditional music is now quite popular again with the younger folks, still quite smallish but go to a wayang show, you almost can't get there because it's so busy, jaipong shows in the villages, insane, energy that can't be explained....
Actually, and I've told this all before, numerous times, but everything is different now.... You can't find anything anymore, vinyl and cassettes, all gone, but back then, say 20, 25 years ago, nobody was buying all this stuff, specially vinyl, and I mean NOBODY. I would go to Jakarta, Jalan Surabaya the antique market and go through boxes and boxes that hadn't been opened in years, I would leave all black, covered in dirt and dust with bags and bags full of records, rare Western records. I would bring those back to Holland to sell for a bit of much needed extra money during those vacations. Always sold them in a pretty famous record store and every year I would blow them away with my finds, became kind of a sport and it was fun until I realized what was happening. They would give me say between 2 to 5 euro's for a record and then I saw those records going for 40, 50, 60 euro's and more, I was so disgusted with that.... Well, then I got into Indonesian records and I totally stopped buying the Western stuff.... I just wish I got into the Indonesian stuff a bit sooner, back then you could buy all those records for a dollar, half a dollar, some of the more famous ones maybe 5 dollars or so :) Now? Expensive like hell and like I said, you just don't find anything anymore, it's all the rage now, record collecting.... Kinda the same thing with cassettes but those, you can still find pretty cheap if you know where to go (and I ain't telling :) ) There used to be so many sellers, almost all quit because they just can't find anything anymore plus many, many, mostly kids, selling online now for much inflated prices....
Which of Titim Fatimah's albums would you recommend as a starting point?
ReplyDeletePfooh... Well, I myself really like the Sekar Tjatur album, and Matjan Ucul, Pelita, for me, they're all fantastic, not for nothing that President Sukarno would call her to come perform in the Presidential Palace in Bogor when he had important foreign guests. Not for nothing that, in the 60's she was the highest paid artist for performances. She opened the way for female artists in so many ways.... And she was building and opening schools for poor kids.... She's basically what started all this, this blog, I was making music, sample based and bought an album out of curiosity and I was blown away, just..... blown away..... Came to find out she is so forgotten here and that's why I started this blog, way, way back.... I wanted to preserve this fantastic music.... Now it's a bit different, traditional music is now quite popular again with the younger folks, still quite smallish but go to a wayang show, you almost can't get there because it's so busy, jaipong shows in the villages, insane, energy that can't be explained....
ReplyDeleteActually, and I've told this all before, numerous times, but everything is different now.... You can't find anything anymore, vinyl and cassettes, all gone, but back then, say 20, 25 years ago, nobody was buying all this stuff, specially vinyl, and I mean NOBODY. I would go to Jakarta, Jalan Surabaya the antique market and go through boxes and boxes that hadn't been opened in years, I would leave all black, covered in dirt and dust with bags and bags full of records, rare Western records. I would bring those back to Holland to sell for a bit of much needed extra money during those vacations. Always sold them in a pretty famous record store and every year I would blow them away with my finds, became kind of a sport and it was fun until I realized what was happening. They would give me say between 2 to 5 euro's for a record and then I saw those records going for 40, 50, 60 euro's and more, I was so disgusted with that.... Well, then I got into Indonesian records and I totally stopped buying the Western stuff.... I just wish I got into the Indonesian stuff a bit sooner, back then you could buy all those records for a dollar, half a dollar, some of the more famous ones maybe 5 dollars or so :) Now? Expensive like hell and like I said, you just don't find anything anymore, it's all the rage now, record collecting.... Kinda the same thing with cassettes but those, you can still find pretty cheap if you know where to go (and I ain't telling :) ) There used to be so many sellers, almost all quit because they just can't find anything anymore plus many, many, mostly kids, selling online now for much inflated prices....
ReplyDelete