BENNY LIKUMAHUWA – Benny was introduced to music by his mother. Since his early teenage live he studied music and side reading informally. Initially his choice of instrument was the bongo; then changed to the bass as his main instrument. However, when Benny became so into Jazz music, he changed his instrument to the clarinet, further to saxophone and also he learned to play the trombone.

In 1966 Benny joined a band called Cresendo in Bandung. That is when he started his professional carrier in music. Two years after he joined the group called Rollies (1968), and had the opportunity to record some tunes for Polygram Singapore. They even did tour around Indonesia. Benny had the opportunity to play tin several clubs in Bangkok – Thailand and he formed a group called Augersindo and they toured around Asia.

Some of groups that Benny had played with/in are:

• The Jazz Raiders
• Jack Lesmana Combo
• Trio ABC (Abadi Soesman, Benny Likumahuwa, dan Chandra Darusman)
• Ireng Maulana All Star

Jazz events that he has participated in are:

• The Singapore Jazz Festival – 1986
• The Jakarta Jazz Festival – 1988
• The North Sea Jazz Festival – 1990/2002
• The Asean Jazz Festival in Kuala Lumpur – 1992
• Malaysia Jazz Festival – 1994.
• International Dixie Land Festival in Dresden, Germany – 1997

In 1985, together with Jack Lesmana and Indra Lesmana they formed a music school named Farabi. In 2006 with Todung Panjaitan, Gilang Ramadhan, Donny Suhendra, Krisna Prameswara and Mrs Annet Frambach they formed a school called Gladiresik Music Lab, an up to present time Benny is the Academic Consultant for the school.