I love Java

#5 Degung - Bulan Dagoan - Gendtra Pasundan Degung Group

About four years ago, I decided to become more familiar with world music. I was teaching preschool music at the time and was supposed to do a "music around the world" summer program. Although I checked out several books of multicultural kids songs, I wanted samples for the children to hear. This is when I discovered the Putumayo label.

Out of necessity, I began with World Playground. Over the next few years, I picked up a few Putumayo CD's for grownups as well. One of them was Music from the Tea Lands. The last track on this CD, Kang Mandor, was unlike anything I'd ever heard. The artist, Ujang Suryana, is a blind bamboo flute player from Indonesia. He is accompanied by a traditional gamelan group. This song helped me relax during pregnancy. I put it on repeat to fall asleep by almost every night.

Papa, of course, noticed my infatuation with the song. He, being a music sleuth, found this Degung Group album featuring Suryana and gifted it to me. Now, instead of one song, I have an entire album to put on repeat. It is only fitting that it was playing in the hospital room at the exact moment Efrim was born.