Happy Father's Day to me...

I celebrated Father's Day, being a father too and all, with my daughter by going to a jazz performance. My daughter claimed that there was no point for her to organise any form of celebration for me on Father's Day, as I would end up paying for the whole occasion anyway. So it was better to not celebrate, it will ease the burden on my pocket. Hmm....sometimes children have more common sense than us, adults. Needless to say,I paid for the tickets. I guess I treated myself to Father's Day.

It was Michael Verappan performing live along with his three piece band. For those of you who have not heard of Michael Verapan, he happens to be one of our significant musicians here in Malaysia. Ever heard of Chick Chorea? Shame on you if you don't know Michael Verappan then, as he is nearly in the same class as Chick Chorea, and he is local, we should celebrate him even more so. I said almost because Chick Chorea can do that thing on the suprano part of the piano that makes one wonder whether his fingers are made of soft flexible rubber. I caught his (Chick Chorea's) performance sometime in March at the MPO ( Malaysian Philharmonic lah...) and it was "fantabulous" as my daughter would term something fantastic and fabulous. They all played contemporary jazz, more of fusion. Imagine Tudung Periuk played in chaotic arrangement that made beautiful sense to the ears. I can't help you if you are tone deaf, sorry.

He was accompanied by 2 others, Fly on the base (chelo) and Zahid Ahmad(he use to be the drummer for Shiela Majid). Michael, played the piano. They reminded me of the old jazz musicians, Oscar Petterson,same combo of instruments although these guys played the good old pure jazz, before the fusion. You know, the era of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald,Nat King Cole and many more. If you are a fan of the conservative jazz, try to catch David Gomez, our very own local jazz pianist who happens to sing as good as play the piano.

Fly, as the name implies, looked very fly indeed. He has that cute face that makes any teenager suffer from dysfunctional uterine bleeding (irregular menses in lay men term ) secondary to hormone imbalance. I was glad,for at least my daughter was very much occupied with him caressing the chelo with a "syok sendiri" expression on his face, (actually at some point he looked like he was having problems emptying his bowel, of which he still manage to look fly) and not doze off halfway through the performance.

Zahid Ahmad was good on drums. I can't really tell how he looked like as 99.9% of his time on stage was spent with his face looking over the right side of his shoulder, away from audiences' gaze, and his eyes were completely shut. It was as effective as wearing a mask.

But you know what I like about jazz performances? As with Chick Chorea, they all wore simple short sleeve shirts, sometimes floral, like they just landed from Hawaii, but without the tan. So easy going. Simple jeans/pants, simple shoes. The only branded stuff that they flared were their talents. Absolutely remarkable.



Unlike our Dewan Philharmonic Malaysia,where there are strict dress code to adhere to, jazz concerts are more enjoyable to attend partly because of the less stringent dress code. That is the only thing I hate about going to MPO performances, the fact that I have to dress up and look like actual human being. The crowd could get so up market, maintaining the well mannered ambiance, so much so, I have problems releasing gas whitout being detected,( I normally could get away with it in a crowded elevator) or let a tear of joy escape without smearing the mascara that was non water resistance ( the water resistance takes ages to wipe off) or even scratch myself (funny how I almost always feel itchy at embarassing places to scratch, when in public). Oh well!! You know what they say, "to itch is human, to scratch is devine".

Thanks to Fly, my daughter did not fall asleep during the whole 1 and a half hour performance. Her snore may not blend into any melody. Me, I have this long term love relationship going on with jazz. People in love do not fall asleep during a hot date(some just do after sex though....so most my depressed patients told me)

I may have to fork out money to pay for my own celebration of Father's Day, but the lovely experiece I gained, priceless....