Lief Java
Open-knowledge reference entry
Lief Java (literally "Sweet Java") was an orchestra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It was one of the first keroncong groups in the colony.
Members
Various musicians are recorded as having been part of the Lief Java orchestra. This includes Ismail Marzuki, a singer-cum-songwriter known for his nationalist works; the blind singer Annie Landouw; and the theatrically-trained husband and wife team Kartolo and Roekiah. Other members included Hugo Dumas, Atjep, and Miss Netty.
History
Lief Java was established in 1918 by Soewardi as the Rukun Anggawe Santoso Orchestra before changing its name to Lief Java in 1923. The orchestra used a variety of instruments, including cellos, flutes, guitars, and violins. Most of the artists were amateurs, with little previous experience. The orchestra practiced in Kampung Kepuh, Kemayoran, Batavia (now Jakarta), in the home of musician S. Abdullah, and played a variety of songs, both originals and arrangements or adaptations. The company had two musical divisions, keroncong and jazz.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2022. The linked authority identifier is Q15632104. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918 and 1923.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lief Java” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.