There were many newspaper
articles and posts remembering Atwell Jansen who passed away after a tragic
bicycle accident. Some particularly lovely ones on Facebook posted by Jeremy
Monteiro, some that raised my eyebrows like the one today in the Straits Times,
(that “some club in Tanjong Pagar” is called JJ Atlante and it is on Duxton Rd).
For me there is not much to add but a little observation. It was, for a large part,
Atwell who got me into photographing musicians on stage. On my first visit to
JJ’s, I noticed how expressive his face was during his performance and thought
it would be nice to capture that on camera. To me that was the true beauty and
distinction of Atwell as the front man of Heritage. Atwell’s voice sang the
words, his instruments played the tunes and the awesome solos, but his face
told the whole story.
In Memoriam.
Thanks for this affectionate study of a truly talented & always humble musician - the great ones usually are.
ReplyDeleteHe was a storyteller...makes the rest of the singer/frontmen in Singapore feel like charlatans because none of us can hold a candle to his wholehearted commitment to telling the story instead of just mouthing lyrics and hitting perfect pitch and copying the original artiste. I remember being 17 and watching him in Crazy Elephant, no money for booze sitting right in front and thinking to myself, My god....i want to do that someday.
ReplyDeleteLove it! Thanks man!
ReplyDeleteGreat guy. Great band. Lovely family. Worked at ceejays KL and they were the resident band there in the late 80s I believe. RIP.
ReplyDelete