By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
April 2001

	Photo by Liz Linder
	Nial's Audio • "Inner Heart" (N. Djuliarso) Listen: slow | fast

Student pianist Nial Djuliarso cites jazz greats Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, and Oscar Peterson as his primary influences, but the musician who's had the most profound impact on him is a man he's spent a little more time with: his dad. When Djuliarso was young, his bassist father played jazz records for him, brought him to gigs, and took him to a life-changing Pat Metheny concert. And beyond merely exposing his son to music, the senior Djuliarso implores him to work to be better at it than everyone else.

"He's always telling me in music, there's no second place. You have to be number one," says Djuliarso, who was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Djuliarso's father, a jazz player who gave up his instrument in his mid-30s because he encountered younger players whose skill exceeded his, wanted to see his son succeed where he hadn't. "He kept telling me, 'If you're going to do it, do it seriously. You're not too old yet.'"

While Djuliarso received additional encouragement from his mother, the idea of studying at Berklee also came from his father, who dreamed of attending in the early 1960s. When it came time for Djuliarso to make the trip to Boston, his father gave him some advice.

"He told me to take advantage of the resources here, and to get in touch with this person, that person," Djuliarso said. "He also told me to arrive at least one month before classes to check out the place. By the first day of school, I knew what I was doing. I was ready to go."

By applying that same high level of preparation to his Berklee work, Djuliarso excelled in classes and performance, earning scholarships and opportunities to play with the best musicians at the college. Although his approach to studying music was paying off—Djuliarso admits to being a compulsive note taker in his early semesters—he has experimented with how he tackles course work and has found that a more relaxed philosophy can work well, too.

"I used to try to write everything down," says Djuliarso. "But I found that, in class, if you understand the concepts, you don't have to write everything down. When you don't take notes all the time, you save time and can pay attention to the teacher. I really like to learn, and I wanted to experiment with different styles and different ways of getting the information."

Although Djuliarso's attitude about learning is more laid-back, his piano-playing fingers never seem to take a break. Even when far from the practice room, during casual conversation in an office, Djuliarso's fingers are in constant motion, drumming out silent melodic lines on the arm of a chair. The idea of practice has become so ingrained, apparently, that his body continues its musical work while his mind is on other topics. That's a convenient arrangement when you consider some of the challenges he is facing in his classes.

Photo by Liz Linder

As the work gets more difficult, however, Djuliarso has found that simple solutions often work best. In Writing Techniques and Concepts for Large Ensemble, Professor Donny Nolan shared a concept that made an unwieldy and unfamiliar task—writing big band charts—seem less complicated.

"He told us to let each section sound good," Djuliarso says. "You have trumpet, trombone, and saxophone sections. If you make them each sound good, you put them together and guess what? Everything sounds even better."

After majoring in Contemporary Writing and Production for a few semesters, Djuliarso switched to Performance, a decision that has helped him not only hone his jazz chops, but expand his stylistic palette.

"I want to be a versatile piano player and keyboardist," Djuliarso says. "I'm not a jazz purist. You're more marketable if you can play the other stuff. When I call sessions I usually play jazz, but if somebody wants to play pop, funk, or fusion, I'll do it."

Djuliarso has also contemplated switching his major to Music Education, but instead, has pursued teaching privately part-time, and is working with a few students he found through Berklee's Career Development Center. He says he may try teaching as a career after graduation, but will likely focus first on performance for a year or two.

For now, though, Djuliarso is focused on getting as much out of Berklee as he can.

"I'm really curious about things, and I like to learn," he says. "I keep thinking that if I could study for free, I would try to stay here as long as I can."

Nial’s Top Five Albums, Plus One • We Live Here, Pat Metheny Group – "I saw Pat and his group in 1996 in Indonesia and it made me want to play jazz." • Relaxin', The Miles Davis Quintet, with Red Garland on piano – "Their version of 'If I Were a Bell' swings so hard." • Blue Kelly, Wynton Kelly – "Wynton Kelly and Red Garland are two of my favorite piano players because they swing." • Greatest Hits, James Taylor – "I love his lyrics and melodies. The songs are very catchy and soothing. Good for midday or lunch time." • 20th Century Piano Genius, Art Tatum – "Two CDs of him playing solo piano. Mostly standards. Tatum didn't play many of his own compositions. I don't know why. He's considered the Father of jazz piano." • Charlie Parker with Strings, Charlie Parker – "On this album he only played standards. He just sounds so good! Even though he played a lot of fast passages, I can hear that he has a lot of soul. I like to listen to this at night time for some reason. Maybe because it's quieter?"

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