A Wonderful Night To Treasure

Saturday, 19th October 2008,  Jam Session at Frenz Fun Pub, Penang.

I struggle to describe this one. This night was more, much more than a jam session…..it was a wonderful moment in time that just happened to happen the way it happened….. it would take a much better scribe than me to put it to words, but I’ll still log this in my own inadequate way.

Jam sessions are always a bit of a hit-or-miss thing, since so many factors influence the outcome of events, but this night everything just fell into place.

A good crowd had filled Frenz pub, and the night got off to a good start when a bunch of young guys  started  rocking and rolling : Ming had brought along his friends, a drummer and a singer, and they had everyone tapping their feet with their infectious music.

Panic Disorder

I have been chasing Penang island’s reclusive guitar guru, Sivam, for many weeks, and tonight he turned up with his band, Panic Disorder, and they hit the house with some top class Rock…from classics like Led Zep’s “Rock & Roll” to virtuoso stuff like Eric Johnson’s “Cliffs of Dover”, these guys were fantastic, and you could see a lot of jaw-dropping from the other guitarists around when Sivam started doing some fancy double-handed tapping runs and all….pure genius, the guy, and a wonderful, humble personality too.

It was then the turn to invite Sam Ponnudurai to entertain us all.  Ahhhh, Sam P. The great Sam Ponnudurai. The undisputed King Of The Blues in the region, he is a master craftsman of the art of solo acoustic blues: his trusty acoustic guitar in hand, Sam will mesmerize the most critial of audiences with his fantastic guitaring and his rich, versatile vocals…..delivered with a generous spread of good humor and spontaneous improvisations.

They don’t make them like Sam anymore. He doesn’t just play the Blues,though. Many years spent on the road with his guitar, including some years spent busking in Europe, Sam sings you songs and tells you stories using music as a medium, and he’ll do it with the Blues as well as Folk and other styles if need be.

Sam Ponnudurai, the King Of The Blues

And this night, Sam was in fine form and itching to share some music with us all. And what a performance! He had the crowd spellbound as he weaved his way through a series of songs, from a totally-improvised off-the-cuff tongue-in-cheek bluesy piece to some stunning displays of vocals and guitar prowess.

Enjoy the hour, folks, you’re not likely to see such a  craftsman again. As with Elvira’s performance  2 weeks ago, the mobile phones and cameras were going crazy as everyone was trying to record moments for posterity.

Sam Tells You A Bluesy Story!

Sam Ponnudurai. The King Of The Blues. And the Emperor of the solo-artist genre.

After Sam’s act, timeout had to be called, and the night could have been over, but I bravely gathered the boys for one last set, and we played some light, relaxed Blues to just allow folks to chat and mix around and of course share a drink with Sam.

Yek came up and joined us with his Blues harp, another bit of jamming started and we must have triggered some itch in Sam, for he came up and with Ming’s Gibson he led the band in a fantastic jam session. Trading guitar licks with Sam, I was in Heaven (who says sinners like me don’t go to heaven?).

2.00 am and mandatory closing time, the house lights came on, but Sam insisted we do one more song and he played Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend” and asked me to sing it as a duet with him….ha! what a joke, Sam and his rich, fantastically expressive voice and me with my gutter vocals, but Sam has enough heart to make anyone feel great, and sing with him I did, in a wonderful, wonderful goospimples-erupting bluesy version of the song.

Big hugs from Sam at the end of the song, euphoric faces from everyone in the house……

and how was YOUR weekend?

Oct 11 Jam Session, Guitars Galore!!!

Well! Another magical Jam Session!!!

Jam Session in Progress at Frenz, Oct 11 2008

This would be the night of the Guitars, really, though Idris did steal some of the thunder with his Hammond keyboards too.

Durvan was noticeable by his abscence, and good old Lan came in to help, and ended up playing the drums for everybody the whole night! Thanks a million, buddy, we owe you big-time for this.

We had a number of guitarists this night, and some fantastic guitars on display. Rizal brought along his Gretsch, a Brian Setzer signature Nashville model worth about a kidney or two…. Ming brought his Les Paul Custom, the sweetest tone imaginable. Made my 70’s strat seriously jealous!

There was also Kamarul who brought along his 5-string bass, Nain with his beefed-up Stratocaster, Joel who hid his guitar (!!!explain that, Joel!) .

Great jam session. Great crowd. Great night

Rocking away!

Elvira Brings Down The House!!!

Our first weekend with Melvin on bass, (we’re back at Frenz Fun Pub), the 1st Jam session night in our planned jam-every-Sat-nite series, and really,it’s pointless talking about anything else but Elvira from Kuala Lumpur.

The lady who brought the house down at Frenz

We were just fortunate that Elvira was at Frenz that night, she sings in KL but was in town for a wedding (not hers!), with this large group of Melvin’s relatives/family who dropped into Frenz to party.

It would be totally understating things to say that it was a magical and momentous occasion when Elvira came up to sing. We got her to sing “Proud Mary” as a warm-up number, and it was obvious that we had a SERIOUSly good singer there, so I persuaded/pleaded/begged her to do “Summertime”, a song which holds special meaning to me for reasons I’d rather not go into here, and so……

Folks, if you could imagine sharing the stage with the likes of Randy Crawford, Tina Turner, Ella Fitzgerald…… Elvira is all of them and more. Superb, commanding vocals, beautiful voice singing the Blues with passion……ahhh, it was the greatest vocal performance I have ever witnessed! It was only way after the song had finished that I realized I was playing the guitar too, but I can’t remember anything about what I played, all I know is that I’d played for a Superstar.

When the last notes of the song had died, there was this totally electric atmosphere in the pub. Almost everyone who had a mobile phone had turned it on to record the audio/video, it was like everyone knew they had just witnessed something totally remarkable and rare.

It was pointless trying to play anything after that so I called for a break. It would be a long 30 minutes before we dared step up onstage again, and the night continued in party mode till way past 2.00am.

Biggest reward for me was seeing Elvira’s happy and smiling face throughout the rest of the night, she looked like she had enjoyed herself too.

Elvira, thanks!!!