my Bak d musician; my siblings d artistes; n me d great pretender

Bak, in d middle, in this 1950s police band picture

 Bak once played the accordian, so he told me. us, his children, actually. that was way before he married Mak in 1954. after being married he still continued playing at functions across Johore. but later in the late 1960s i guess commitment towards the family made him put aside his love for music. he listened to mostly malay traditional songs; asli, keroncong, ghazal; artiste like r. azmi, p. ramlee, jasni, momo latif, nona aisha and many others, though he did follow d western artistes such as nat king cole, bing crosby n elvis. later in his life he enjoyed listening to sharifah aini, and to an extent siti norhaliza too, as long as the songs sung have the traditional flavors.

so it's not surprising that his talent n liking in music rub off upon his children. abang, my eldest sibling, is a great singer, akak too can sing n actually won contests when she was younger, ajib n al can play d guitar n sing too, n my youngest sibling, ida, has a wonderful voice as well actually. but nazam stands out from the rest because he made a living playing music: he could play d piano, blow instruments but d guitar is where he found his fame. he could play it as if his fingers had eyes of their own. i went to see him performing when i could when he was plying his trade around the country. not forgetting my beautiful Mak, who had such a lovely soft voice, n i swear i could hear her singing d lullaby just by mentioning about it.

Actually some of my siblings are multi talented because al is a script writer n film director n he plays d ukelele too n ida writes very well n i love to read her writings. 

as for me, i just sing n play d guitar to layan kepala aje though once in d 1980s i had dreamed of being a singer in a band. it didn't work out but i still enjoy d moments in my 'own bands' here n there, now n then. i play solo normally, coz i always customize d songs to suit my singing. thus it's easier being a lone ranger. 

i learn to play d guitar from my brothers obviously. al with his john denver's songs, ajib with his malay songs n we had a song book which consisted thousands of english songs, from d 50s to d 70's. then when i was fifteen, my time with d cherry boys widen my varieties, n i played reggae n rock n roll a lot back then, interlace with malay songs from d 60s, 70s, :alleycat, carefree, flybait, black dog bone, kembara n many others.

in d early 80s, i n muzaimie, an old friend during my disco days, wanted to form a band. and we even had kudin, the headwind keyboardist, on our wing. but thing didn't turn out. after i went to d maktab ilmu khas, there i found my first real band. it was d flexible, consisting of jon boo on d keyboard as well as d band leader, lan rock on d bass, mastor on d drum, mat spark on d guitar n yours truly d singer. we played at many functions during my time time at d college because we were flexible: we could belt out any songs to suit d occasions. it was a gratifying moment to be with my band mates. but we separated ways when we received our postings. so, i continued being a solo performer once again.

then, in 1995, when i continued my studies at usm, i had a new band, d kgm. it was an unplugged trio actually: cha'om played d bongo @ percussion, abg zam played d maracas n i played d guitar n sang as well. nasir chipped in with d back-up vocal n sometimes he would sing a song too. d band lasted a year because all my band members were in d final year, except me being in first year. sabo je la, knn.

now that i've been teaching in lumut for more than twenty years, i occasionally would groom my students to perform d nasyid or choir with a progressive approach, n those who have d penchant in playing musical instruments, i would have them practise with me especially when there were functions for me to perform. it's a good experience for them, n a fulfilling activity for me.

nowadays, once a month sort of, i would have a jammin session with d cincirak, my kampung band. well, it's not really a band because there are only two instuments. i play d guitar, n gaban plays d drum. pe'oih would sometimes be d vocalist n we would jam for a couple of hours till we exhausted all d songs in our heads. d location would always b gaban's office. memang mantul, gua cakap lu hahaa

honestly, it's a marvelous feeling n a form of escapism to get d stress out of d system everytime i have my jammin session. but i don't do it much often as i would love to. yelah, dh tua, knnn, hahaa, n i try to minimise my poya2 activities. nanti orang cakap tak sedo diri pulak dhh hahaa

but i still look forward to it, coz i guess it runs in d blood.

layan.. 

Guala! - d great pretender