TIt all started with Jazz. More accurately, with a small boy who played mean jazz trumpet. Or was it a little girl with a precocious talent on the violin? Perhaps the lightening fingered flamenco/classical guitarist or the jovial guy who combined a spiritual journey to India with an in-depth study of the Tabla drums? It is each of these elements and more that make up Saharadja band. And now, one of Bali’s most accomplished musical outfits is going international. Rio Sidik made his first public appearance at the age of 10, playing with his Grandfather, a celebrated trumpeter back in the 50’s.

He instilled in his Grandson an obsessive devotion to jazz music which would remain totally unswerving until he fell in love with a violinist called Sally Jo. Australian born, though now an Indonesian citizen, Sally was classically trained using the Suzuki method and first came to Bali for some time out from her musical studies and found instead a life here.

She and Rio may have experienced a meeting of the minds, but musical harmony took a little longer to achieve; Rio confesses to frank puzzlement when he first heard Sally waxing Celtic on the fiddle. Yet it was his willingness to compromise and try out different styles that led to Saharadja’s distinctive globetrotting sound.

Their first release, One World, was billed as Rio and Sally with Saharadja as it was the couple that had been the creative force behind its songs, before the band became a really cohesive unit. The response to One World’s cleverly blended styles – from flamenco to drum n bass, gamelan to jazz and countless other traditions – was positive to say the least. The four other members of Saharadja, Gede Yudana (Acoustic, classic and flamenco guitar and vocals), Ajat Lesmana (didgeridoo and percussion), Barok Khan (banjo, tablia and sarod) and Badut Widyanarko (fretless bass) are each highly accomplished musicians who quickly realized that as a grouping they really had something. With the increasing profile of the band, it wasn’t long before there was interest from a management company.

This came in the shape of one Colin Law, a South African with a global event management company who was immediately struck both by the band’s easy camaraderie and of course their sound. There followed a tour of South Africa in January this year and so the Bali Smile strap line was born, both for the tour and their second CD which was released in February this year. From a tiny, if cosmopolitan and celebrated island, suddenly Saharadja had gone international.

The South Africa shows were not just about music, but incorporated theatrical elements which were carefully stage managed. The idea was to give the music a kind of narrative, looking both at the people creating it and the islands from which it sprang. The shows received rave reviews and the band, pop star treatment, to the extent of appearing on television talk shows.

And now Saharadja are off on tour again – on 8th of June they go to South Africa and then to England and Scotland. There are plans in the pipeline for a gig at one of London’s most renowned Jazz Clubs, Ronnie Scotts and then the Edinburgh Festival. 2005 promises a full on tour of Europe – this year they were a little late for the festival circuit. Rio’s first love remains Jazz – Miles Davies, Dizzy Gillespie and Freddy Hubbard are among his heroes – yet it’s with a broader focus that he, Sally and Saharadja have made a name for themselves, a compromise on his part that opened up new realms of creative possibility. Bali Smile? These guys are positively beaming. JD