Saturday, October 24, 2015

Michelle and the Soft Toys: Passion with a smile



It has been long overdue that I posted some photos of Michelle. I often promised and we even discussed doing some posed stuff. It never happened. I even have a set of pictures from a gig on a Sentosa beach earlier this year but never got around to posting those. 


I don’t know what happened. It’s nothing personal. I like Michelle. Always good humored when I see her with a generous smile and personality. Michelle is also one of the “oldies”. When I talk about oldies I talk about the days that Bar Stop was still around. Like us, Michelle and her Soft Toys were a regular. Strange that you can be nostalgic about a time so short back. It is probably because life in this city goes so fast and things change so rapidly. 

 
At closure "Bar Stop the building" was to be sacrificed to new building development. It is still there, unlike some of the shop houses adjacent to it. Those have been replaced by a small apartment complex. On the left side facing Bar Stop, I will call it that until it is flat, also a new little condo. Otherwise, the old residence of a Japanese restaurant and music bar is still standing strong on its foundation, unused. 


But back to Michelle. Still surrounded by soft toys, but maybe different ones than we used to see, she was performing at Blu Jaz a week or so ago. Though Blu Jaz does not have the ideal lighting, I can have three different exposures in three rapid following clicks, the good thing is it is up close and personal and really informal. 

 

Because of more- or less-ideal lighting you also tend to pick your favorite subjects, in this case that allowed me to got some shots of William Gathright III in the groove.







Michelle is a teacher and mentor probably to several students but for one she is taking mentoring very seriously. She has been taking Sophia Joe along on many gigs to sing a few tunes. I saw the young lady sing earlier this year on that beach. I noticed this time that she had grown leaps and bounds in confidence and is getting to be a real good entertainer. Watch out for her.











Regretfully due to my original seating I did not catch much of Aaron. He was stuck behind a music stand from where I was positioned. 

 
As far as Benson Kong is concerned, standing a bit away from the podium he moved in and out of that low frequency spot light and was sometimes even too close for a good angle. 




Don’t get me wrong I am just describing the situation and have no complaints what so ever. For me the priority is the vibe, which always seems to be good at my second living room Blu Jaz. Secondly the music, which Michelle and the band took care of very nicely, and then only comes the taking picture part and this blogging thing.

 
Today I read an article by David Brooks in the New York Times, on passion, as in, the drive to accomplish something. One line stuck with me a bit more than the rest of the message. I am not a particularly passionate person where activities is concerned.


But they (passionate people) often have a fervent curiosity about their inner natures and an unquenchable thirst to find some activity that they can pursue wholeheartedly, without reservation.”


As noted you can drop the superlatives in my case but otherwise it’s true. Vibe + music + photos + blog and of course the beers quench my inner nature's thirst.



Monday, October 12, 2015

ETHNI-CITY II: 2 + 3square in a circle


I am still struggling with this one. I am having problems doing it justice. Superlatives like amazing, awesome, etc, seem inadequate and definitely unfitting. 

 
Whatever superlative I would use will sound like a cliché in comparison to what we experienced last Saturday. I am just going to try to leave them out.

  
There are several reasons for my state of mind on this. The unusual setup provided the option for me to see things from different angles. In fact there was no back, front or side to the stage. It was planted in the middle of the room. You could have, in my opinion should have, walked around. 

 
I came to the conclusion walking around would be a good thing when I also observed that the instruments were set up in a circle, “oddly” enough configured as such that the musicians would all face the center of the stage and with that, each other. Nothing appeared to be “normal” but somehow to me it made selfish sense. 
 

Firstly with the freedom to walk around I could face any musician I wanted at relatively equal distance, but I could also get multiple side angles and what for me is highly unusual a back angle. 

 
It was almost like they set up the stage with taking pictures in mind.


That dream was “shattered” quickly though when the lights came on. In some angles, the bright light of a projector made it impossible to see beyond. Also most people perched themselves on the concrete floor as soon as they had entered. 

 
In my opinion their loss, they all missed out on this round-about feature, but it did also not allow me to just take any position in the room, that would be too intrusive.

Certain angles were however “protected” by the various pillars in the dark space, and to prevent people from wondering who that crazy guy was that kept going round and round the podium, I found myself a “base” pillar, from where I could wander occasionally to others. This pillar happened to be right behind an always animated Riduan 


and between Cheryl 

 

and Natalie. 

 I was practically standing on stage. 


Apart from a visual advantage at this point I also had an ideal position to catch the sound. I am not sure what the sound was like all over, but I am sure providing good sound in all corners of the room was a challenge with this configuration.

 
After the concert had ended many people, still intrigued, lingered around to hear the troupe explain some of the concepts. The setup of the stage, how it stimulated “conversation”, 
 

that the ability to have eye contact made a director redundant and of course the fact that the troupe was built on three bands that used traditional concepts and instruments of the three main ethnic groups of Singapore, and that the objective was to provide a homogeneous composition using each others' original work.

I have seen several of the performers at work as individuals and in their respective bands. I have commented earlier on how much I appreciate the work of SA trio and must definitely have said something positive about Riduan and his attitude towards music and music mentorship. 

 
Last Saturday I saw that the fundamentals are there for each individual to grow and with that for the concept to develop further, except for one maybe, money. 

In my view this is an opportunity, an export product from a cultural as well as diplomatic perspective. This is evidence of what innovation multiculturalism can offer in addition to their individual perspectives.

The line-up for the evening
 
Orkestar trio: 

Riduan on drums and percussion



Ismahairie on oud and violin 


Alhafiz on accordion, keyboards and serunai


  
Tamarind sound project 

Ragha Indian flutes



Akilesh mridangam 
Vignesh voice



SA Trio
Andy
 Cheryl
Natalie


"Independent" participants
Nizar Fauzi on percussion and vocals
Ramu Thiruyanam on malletkat

Follow the eyes!