ER
JOCKIE Soerjo Prajogo (September 14, 1954-February 5, 2018) is an Indonesian musician, songwriter who has been a member of various music groups such as Badai Band, God Bless, Giant Step, Kantata Takwa, and many more. Although in the end Jockie was better known to the public when he joined the rock music group God Bless.
His ability to play in different musical realms, from rock, a little classical, a little jazz, pop to ethnic, makes Jockie like water that penetrates any space and dimension without having to erase his identity. Jockie is able to blend into any musical genre without losing his character in the music.
God Bless Band’s Musical Career
Joined God Bless in 1972. His keyboard playing style is considered to have contributed to the character of God Bless’ music. By adding classical accents, especially by mixing the sounds of piano and Hammond B-3, one can already guess the character of God Bless, although at that time, as usual, all rock groups that emerged in Indonesia played more repertoire of foreign groups such as Deep Purple, Yes, Edgar Winter, Spooky Tooth, Kansas and many more.
Jockie’s position in God Bless was replaced by Abadi Soesman in the album Cermin and again in the work on the album ‘Semut Hitam’’, which was released in 1988.
In 1977, Jockie Suryo Prayogo was in the path of pop music. At that time, Jockie became the arranger for the album Lomba Cipta Lagu Remaja, which was held by Radio Prambors Rasisonia. His breakthrough in arranging songs such as Lilin Lilin Kecil (James F. Sundah) was seen as an injection of new blood into the pop music industry, which was currently experiencing a boom in pop songs with simple chords and lyrical themes that tended to be whiny and dreamy.
In the same year, Eros Djarot invited Jockie to work on the soundtrack album for the movie ‘Badai Pasti Berlalu’ along with a number of other names such as Chrisye, Berlian Hutauruk, Debby Nasution, Keenan Nasution and Fariz RM.
This album was phenomenal, especially in terms of musical arrangement, which presented broader chords and more poetic lyrics. Interestingly, the function of the keyboard instrument became dominant in this album. The keyboard sounds felt orchestral and symphonic, something we often hear in the repertoire of groups like Genesis and Yes.
This style of musical arrangement continued when Jockie Suryo Prayogo worked on Chrisye’s solo albums such as ‘Sabda Alam’, ‘Percik Pesona’, ‘Puspa Indah Taman Hati’, ‘Pantulan Cinta’, ‘Resesi’, ‘Metropolitan’ and ‘Nona’, which people often called creative pop.
The year 1984 was the last time Jockie and Chrisye worked together. But for Jockie, who was also quite productive in releasing a number of solo albums, he still played in the pop field by working on albums of various singers, starting from Dian Pramana Poetra, Keenan Nasution, Vonny Sumlang, Titi DJ, Andi Meriem Matalatta, and many others.
Three years later Jockie rejoined God Bless. The album ‘Semut Hitam’ (Logiss Record, 1987) was released with a fresher rock music concept. This period also showed Jockie’s interest in returning to rock music. He began to work on various rock albums as a composer, player and music director on albums by Mel Shandy, Ita Purnamasari, Ikang Fawzi and Nicky Astria.
In the late 80’s Jockie was also involved in the albums ‘Raksasa’, Story of God Bless and Apa Kabar? At the same time, Jockie joined the Kantata Takwa project initiated by Setiawan Djodi. In this Kantata Takwa community, Jockie encountered another dimension of music. Here he mingled with artists ranging from WS Rendra to Sawung Jabo. [source/photo special]
