a journey home (part 2)

We went for my mom's medical check out last friday. Apparently she hated the disinfectantish smell and reluctant to be hospitalised, so the nurse put on an ECG suit for her to monitor the heart beats for a day. It's equipped with a tiny recorder at the size of a walkman, and all the patient need to do is to press the "record" button once they sensed irregular heart beats. So we went to returned the hi-tech apparatus the following day, and waited for the reports. Thanks to my father who's taking good care of her. She was diagnosed to be very healthy. So now she was recommended to return for lateral healthy monitoring once a week.
After fetching my folks home, i drove back into town for vince's favourite tam boon pia. Since the time was early, i popped by to Sommerz to have a look at the workshop by Steve White. After spending more than half an hour to look for the exact place, i don't think i should give up finding. Luckily the workshop hadn't finished when i arrived. Steve plays the guitar, harmonica, shaker, and sings... all at the same time! The style is pretty much folk with some rhythm and blues. Normally he starts a tune with a rhythm riffs and talks a little bit before progressing to sing. Quite a humorous guy though the audience was very polite. I left early after finding myself the only one laughing at his story telling. And reached Him Heang to buy the last couple packs of the freshly baked tam boon pia, while other delicacy like the sweet tau sa pia was sold out hours ago!
It's my mistake to assume there's no traffic jam. So i was stuck in a jam for almost an hour nearby the race course all the way to the tanjung tokong. Hence missed the first performance! The second performance was Shannon and himself on the ivory. Sound kinda like broadway singing. Followed by Sufiah and friends.

These friends included Julian on sax, Eric on Keyboard, Fly on bass, and John on drums. And the best is yet to come.

More people entered after eight. Some actually were well equipped with mat, plastic or leisure chairs. There's also few attap huts, booths selling light snack & drinks and a lot of heineken banners which compliments the green-color atmosphere. After Sufiah, Mr. Zailan went on stage in clutches due to slip disc. Danial, his six year old prodigy son surprised the audience with his virtouso playing and great ability in tackling the complex rhythms. After about five to ten minutes break, Steve White went on stage to amuse everyone with his funny story of playing in a one-man-band.

Next, we have Greg's Nonet enthralling the people with their lush horn voicings. Few of the tunes were newly adapted for the nonet, which i heard in his quartet before. And i noticed an example of smaller people likes bigger instruments! The smallest people in the horn section was the baritonist!

Whereas on rhythm section, greg had the all star made up of mac on keyboard, andy on electric bass and lewis on drums.

The finale act? Saharadja from Indonesia. Everyone was astounded by Australian Sally Jo's beauty. When i say everyone, that includes quite a numbers of the musicians i was visiting as well. The band made up of Rio on vocal and trumpet, Sally on electric violin, edy on drums, Badut on fretless bass, Barok on banjo, sitar and tabla, Gede on vocal and guitar, Ajat on didgeridoo and zambre. Few of us there were very impressed by Gede's pitch-perfect super high falsetto singing and Ajat's superb groovy expressions by the steel didgeridoo. While i was standing by Charles, watching Gede playing the guitar with precise technique and great consistency, the gang of Julian, Eddie and a japanese kawaii were dancing and attempting the high kicks... as those you could imagine... as in the cabaret! And i should keep my mouth shut on this matter before revealing too much!