Bill Saragih (1933-2008) who passed away on 29 January 2008 is one of jazz maestros from Indonesia. His education background — as student of Berkeley College of Music — gave him a basic legitimacy for his career. More than that is his talent as entertainer and his unique voice — his soprano timbre voice – which made him very special. I saw his performance for the first time in 1998 for Tempo magazine first launching after banned by Indonesian government since 1994.
Fortunately we dont have data for his compositions and his album. When my friend Idrus F. Shahab from Tempo magazine asked about Bill Saragih album among my collections, I can not say any words because I dont have it. But last month, fortunately I find Bill Saragih album cassete entitled Sings ‘N Plays which consists of 12 songs. Five of them are composed by Bill Saragih, for instance Anna My Love, Tiana, Billy’s Groove, Tony’s Dream, and Song from My Father. This last song Song from My Father is slow jazz with ethnic lyric and accentuation. Truly superb melody. ( dikutip dari pringanhitam )
