Ikon ASEAN 2007

I just came back from playing for the LIVE TV Broadcast of Astro Ria's Ikon ASEAN singing competition.

First of all I have to say I was really really happy with the result. The 4 judges were each from Malaysia (Mac Chew), Indonesia, Phillipines, and Singapore ---- doesn't seem to have much room for shouting "Malaysia Boleh" does it?

Yeah at first I thought this would be just another "Malaysia Boleh" kinda competition --- held in Malaysia, get most of the attendance from Malaysian fans, Malaysian contenstants get cheered at the most, and all awards won by Malaysians (or at least one).

It turned out that it didn't happen that way, which is a good slap in the face for the local contestants.

Let's first talk about the local contestants.

Jaclyn Victor (solo category). She has the technique of singing R&B-ish twist-and-turn lines and ad libs, but she doesn't have the voice and doesn't know how to sing properly either. Also, her choice of repertoire was quite weak, especially the P. Ramlee Medley, nothing could be shown much. With this adding up with her singing that was lacking of emotional depth, it was a failure.

OAG (band category). Bunch of monkeys jumping and stomping on the stage, rolling on the floor, spinning round and round, pitches perfectly out-of-tune, and expect people to buy that this is rock music ... or worse, music. These guys should really go home and revalue their lives living in a dream, thinking that they're the shit and they're already there. A bunch of try-too-hard wannabes, sorry to say.

Indonesia had two representatives too. Can't say they're very good, but the solo singer, Judika, did a pretty good job. The band, Tahta, was just another Malay-rock kinda band. They have the potential, but they should stretch out more.

Finally, the Pinoys! Yes the Phillipinos are awesome. During the rehearsal, I could already sort of tell that they're the winners --- provided that there are no Malaysia-Boleh fetish involved.

The band, KJWAN, kicked off the competition with their song, "Invitation". That was some crazy ass tight shit man! Once I heard the sound, I KNEW this will be the ones who are winning if I were the judges. They really look like great performers, the singer was cool, everybody seemed to be serious about making the music work. Unlike the stupid monkeys jumping around, acting rebellious and shit, thinking that they're inheriting Kurt Cobain's bottle of piss. Tight ensemble, powerful sound, refined technique (the drummer has the kinda touch that I love!), great stage presentation (doesn't mean you have to be like monkey). They're great.

Then it was Vina Morales, the beautiful actress/singer. Damn, was she good! She captured my attention from the first note to the last (despite of her smiling at me during rehearsals, haha!). She has that depth in her voice and phrasing that Jac really didn't have. Yes, maybe her ability to sing like a black mama was not as good as Jac, but technique is not everything. Jac's singing, though flashy at times, didn't touch my heart. But Vina's did. She conquered the judges with music, not technique, that is just so much more important. But of course, she's born with a beautiful voice too.

All in all, I was very happy with the result of the competition, and I thought that the judges made justice to the Pinoys. And I do hope that the Malaysian contestants would get a lesson from this: Being famous in Malaysia is just a beginning, only seriously making music --- with your hard work and heart work --- will make you the real deal, not by posing and syok sendiri on the stage. The four judges taught us a lesson without saying a word, bravo!

End of ranting, my dear Malaysians, 好自为之吧!

2nd Night with the ExperiMENTAL Quartet

The set list was basically the same as the first night.

We kicked off with Manda's Mood, my tune for Amanda. Then "14th Street, St. Nicholas", a tune inspired by my walk with Nicholas in his last night in New York. Then Herbie's Watermelon Man, which we didn't rehearse but came out well. Then it's "In Case A Goodbye" I wrote for Wendy, Julian did a great job on the soprano saxophone!! Finally, we ended the first set with Bored of Bb by Justin, which was the last song in the second set on the first night.

Eugene and his gang came in half way while we were playing Watermelon Man. They said they liked the gig a lot! Li Tinh said she likes "In Case a Goodbye", wahaha! Yeah I like it a lot too, maybe that's my best ballad yet. :P

2nd set started off with "Take The A Train", which we didn't play the originally melody from beginning till the end, only hinting the song by having Justin playing the piano intro somewhere in the middle. The whole song was just improvised over the changes. And when we asked if the audience know what song it is, we didn't accept the answer "Take the A Train", we said "Take the KTM"!

Then we played Justin's Consequently, and his untitled new tune (which we temporarily called it "Justin's New Shit"). After that we played Not 3 Not 4, also by Justin, which sounded so different from our duo and trio version. It's fuller and Eddie added some 1920's humour with his wawa mute.

We closed up with "Days of Guns n' Roses". People were shouting and cheering like mad in that one, haha! Just like a rock concert.

3rd set started of with "A Few Words with JaC", which documented one of my most idiotic moments in my life. It was a duo with Justin, and I think we both played our hearts out in that one. Then Julian and Eddie came back and we played "One Flight Back to Bolehland", my hymn to my beloved country, the "Bolehland" Malaysia. The phasing part was better than the night before.

Then we did "It's... It's Not Funny", our tribute to Ornette Coleman, title inspired by Ken's super funny story. We were stretching wayyyyy wayyyy out tonight, and it was more animated and funny this time. Could it be because we found a title for it? ;)

Finally, we did "Days of Guns n' Roses" once again, because David finally showed up and we wanted him to hear it, also wanted to record it. It sounded better than the one we did in 2nd set.

Quite a night, I have to say!

I surely hope we can do more shit like this, seeing that the audiences actually liked it!!

The ExperiMENTAL Quartet

Had my first show with the ExperiMENTAL Quartet last night in The Top Room, KL.

That was a fun gig, never seen such a great reaction from the crowd doing THIS kinda music.

What kinda music?

You see... we played everything from standards to originals to rock to free jazz to experimental...

I don't suppose KL has ever seen something like this from local musicians.

Our line-up is totally weird too. We do not have drums and bass, only a piano, a violin, a sax and a trumpet.

We were a little worried about the instrumentation at first, but we later sorted it out without thinking too much. The bass is already in the piano, so why worry?

So we focused more on collective improvisation and harmonising and complementing on each other's parts. It worked out perfectly.

Our saxophonist Julian's motto is "I don't give a shit".

We held on to that and did as we feel like on the stage, mixing spontaneity with pre-rehearsed arrangements. We did some funny stuff like playing Take The A Train without playing the head at all --- they know what it is anyway! We also played "The Days of Guns n' Roses".

Yes, you read me right, "The Days of GUNS N' ROSES".

We fused "Sweet Child O' Mine" with Mancini's Days of Wine and Roses. We ended our first set with that. I could see people's faces changing every time we twist the music into another one. That was fun.

We also did free jazz, based on a 3-phrased melody. We stretched out really far and I felt that our souls were transported to somewhere else.

That was a great night! I hope tonight till be a great one too.

My sudden KLIA trip

No, I didn't do no one-night-stand.

No, I didn't even drink.

But I went to KLIA. That's a fact.

I met Julian in Top Room and he said he was going to pick up Chee Meng and his colleagues from LCC Terminal. But then all of a sudden, he said, "Oh shit! I didn't realise that I can't fit 4 people in my little Satria!" So I thought I had a car, why not, I'll go help out!

then we 2 motherfuckers, at 11pm, went to Kajang to have a drink and met up with Ken for a short while, and went straight to KLIA!

Seldom in my life that I do such an impromptu trip --- to a place THAT far away.

I spent some money though. The bloody tolls, dammit! And I used up half a tank of petrol!

I got back home at 4am... and god damn... my mom woke up at the same time...

"Why come home so late?"

"Why spend unnecessary money?!"

"No, don't want you to buy the petrol, you've got enough spending to take care of!"

Well... but I felt happy that I did something fun though... :P

The Price of Having Balls

Sometimes you have to pay the price to have balls to say the truth. I truly respect this guy's balls, and if he gets into jail for this shit, man I'm tellin' you it's worth it because he caused some impact in the society.

Stupid laws about rearranging the national anthem should not stop a man's love to his own country and pointing out the real problem of the society. Furthermore, they SHOULDN'T call that an "arrangement with bad intention", because all I see in the video is the man's concern about his own society and the determination to let people see the problem ---- people who REALLY should know their own problems.

If the government tries to distract the public by focusing on the arrangement of national anthem, then they're trying to avoid the real problem and rotting direction we are heading.

A few years back, a local composer composed a beautiful piece that contains the national anthem in it for the grand opening of the Malaysian Philharmonic. His piece got banned right after the first performance. A beautiful symphonic piece with our national anthem resonating within. It's a piece that expresses the composer's love to his own country, and what's wrong with that? Do you call that "arrangement with bad intention" too? Why do you ban it?

There is NO clear guideline in this law and the authorities is simply using it as they like to stabilise their own political power. Dirty!

http://www.sinchew-i.com/article.phtml?artid=200707183196&data=scnews&spid=38359

New CDs...

One funny thing about local pirated audio CDs (local as in Malaysia) is that they like to put in some "bonus tracks" after all the "real" tracks of that particular album.

The other night I went to the pasar malam near my house all 3 for 10 ringgit.

I got Linkin Park's newest album, "Minutes to Midnight". It's a new sound for this band, no more DJ-ing and less rapping. They focus on live sound this time. The band is tight, but the overall effect isn't too exciting. Good try, can be better though.

Next is the new album by Audioslave, "Revelation". Very typical Audioslave sound, always enjoying the special guitar solo sound in the band. It's interesting to listen to this ex-Rage Against the Machine band making a whole different sound that still works at its own rights.

Finally a Chinese album from Taiwan by A-Yue (張震嶽), "OK". Yeah, very typical sound by him, but not as naughty as before. His way of writing lyrics is really unrefined, but I guess that's already become his style --- so that it sounds like improvising. Guess he's one of the few people in the Chinese scene that's really "playing" music and having "fun" with it.

Don't you hipocrites scold me for buying pirated! I just wanna test the music out before I want to buy the real shit. If it's not good, why the fuck do I need to buy the real thing?

And to you people who release the albums, if you want people to buy your shit, you better convince people to buy the real thing by making great music so that people feel worth it!

DONE!!!!!!!!

So, yes, it's over, the show in KLPac is over...

It was a full house, plus 30 extra seats...

People applauded and yelled like crazy...

Uncle and aunty Teoh was here... :)

Aunty Teoh said she was touched by "One for Wendy, In Case a Goodbye" --- both by the title and the song.

Sherwin was moved by "A Few Words with JaC"...

All of them are my chick songs...haha...

But I'm really glad that KLPac invited me for this shit, really appreciate it!

And Justin, Joseph, both of you motherfuckers, thanks for making my show happening! You're the best!!

The Much Awaited Day...

July 12... today...

I remember I was first approached by Marge earlier this year, asking me to do a concerto appearance with KLPac Sinfonietta in KLPac's HSBC String Festival.

I agreed without thinking twice, as it has always been my dream to be invited back home someday and be recognised by my own people. And so the time has come.

The programme was later changed because, after knowing that I play other music too, they want more variety added into the festival. They asked me to do a jazz show.

I told them I will have Justin on the piano and Joseph on the bass --- the two most amazing musicians I've ever known in KL. And I'm very glad that both of them agreed without hesitation.

So I figured that since this is something new, we should play something new too! So Justin and me started to write some new music, preparing to play an all-original programme.

Show's tonight, let's see what damage we can do!

Ponty

I suddenly realised that I've never documented my Ponty experience, which I should.

This guy is like 60+ but he still plays so perfectly, gosh, I don't believe it!

His playing is not as explosive as when he was younger, but nevertheless, he still sounds fantastic.

Not really into the kind of music he is playing now though, too much funk stuff. I mean I'm cool with funk, but I can't stand a whole night of it. But I kinda expected that he wasn't going to play shit that I'm really into, but I felt that I should be that because he's one my heroes, and I want to see how he uses his bow --- he told me that he is still practising Sevcik and Paganini every day now.

Now THAT'S impressive.

I could totally see the influence of those exercises when he plays. He's got an almost perfect bowstroke on everything he wants to play, the left hand and right hand coordination was completely flawless. Also, when he did all the alternating bowings, he never seem to have lost his time feel ---- everything was still in the pocket.

Fuck yeah...

Tried to meet him at the end of the concert, but of course, couldn't.

I wanted to thank him in person, for accepting my e-mail interviews when I was doing my undergraduate final paper.

Just in case you're reading this Jean-Luc, thank you!

My visa shit...

I dunno why would this happen.

I told her that I am supposed to get the visa before July 5. She just didn't get it.

Now I dunno what is going to happen to me.

Hope I'm not fucked.

...

Damn...

.38

"You better stop," he told himself, "this is totally not worth it! Not at all!"

Maybe she meant a lot to him, more than himself, but he doesn't worth anything to her.

Plus, she already had someone.

He logged on to his Friendster, he's not among her top friends, same thing happened in Facebook -- after all these that he had done to her.

He began to wonder why.

Girls are hard to understand, he told himself.

Is that really so?

Night. He was scratching his head, sipping his beer, getting dizzier and dizzier. He looked at himself in the mirror. All of a sudden, he thought he was the ugliest and weakest motherfucker on earth.

There went the bottle.

The mirror smashed, but his hands just got started to punched the remaining pieces on the frame. Blood splattering. Fists painted in crimson.

He panted like a beasts, twisted open another bottle cover, kissed the bottle for a sip.

* * * * * *

She gave Frank a deep stamp on the lips.

"Don't worry baby," she told him, "however well he treated me, you're still the only one for me."

* * * * * *

His fists stopped bleeding, his eyes closed, his chests still rising and falling for more oxygen.

"You better stop man," he told himself, "you don't mean shit to her. You better stop NOW..."

Tears flowing.

Last drops of beer dripping.

All he wished is he had a .38. Yes, .38 is enough. Enough to finish himself.

A Tribute to Leroy Jenkins

The death of a legend is a loss.

But in the same time, it indicates the starting of a test --- a test that would ultimately show how persistent is one's work through time, how long does it sustain.

For Leroy Jenkins' case, his test just started.

However, nobody can deny his influence towards all of us improvising string players. As I wrote in the Leroy Jenkins guestbook: Thanks for bringing us OUT of the box ----- WAYYYY out of the box!

The piece was "New York" by Jenkins.

The size of the ensemble, approximately 40 string players. (50 is not true if you look at it in a glance)

I was lucky enough to be invited to play in this event and play with great musicians like Reggie Workman, Ken Filiano, Mark Feldman, Jason Kao Hwang, Ron Lawrence, Mark Chung, etc.

Billy Bang was the director.

During the rehearsal, a guy came over to my stand and asked me, "Can I share with you?"

I looked up, it was Mark Feldman.

Crazy shit, haha! (Jules, u know what I mean...)

Yeah so we stood together and play, even in the concert too.

Jing Wen came, I was really happy, made my day.

Also met some other people I know, very very random... Guess Leroy Jenkins will pass his test after all. :P

Blue In Green

Back to NY...

Was listening to Miles Davis' Blue in Green, got me emo... whenever I hear it, I get emo...

It's a whole different life now, I feel.

My lil sister moved in, have a little feeling of responsibility to look after, which I think is a good thing. I've been all by myself a little too long, like a leaf that floats on water, drifing everywhere without a direction.

At least now I have someone to relate to, and someone who would share her thoughts and talk to me...

Met Kee Yong and his family today, he's got a cute and lively daughter, his wife is very nice too. Beautiful little family.

Also met Nicholas again just now, brought lil sis and Kee Yong together.

I will say bye bye to this place again in two weeks... strange feeling...

Someone say I'm a "flying man", well, for these two months, maybe I am...

Night time now... ready to get a beer and sleep...

Madison, Wisconsin -- La Salle-Peru, IIlinois

It's almost the end of my trip, so I think I should write down bits and pieces of experience I had here.

It's been a wonderful trip, I have to say, mainly because of the superb hospitality that Chien and Jenny provided for me in Madison. The host family in Illinois, Jim and Chris Coughlin were also great hosts that gave us a lot of convenience.

I had so much fun in Madison, not because there were much to do here, simply because it's so relaxing here. Had so much time spent with Ka Ming, one of the nicest chaps and budding violin virtuoso.

Chien brought me to his favourite acitivity: Fishing.

That the first time in my life fishing for real, it was fun! And Chien told me that I learned very fast.

So I went to shore fishing, fly fishing, and boat fishing. We might go to cat fishing, because he wants me to take a picture with a big fish before I go home.

If Madison is relaxing, then La Salle-Peru, Illinois, would totally stop human evolution.

It's almos an all-white town, u hardly see one Asian there. People are very nice and also conservative and religious.

The Maud Powell Music Festival was alright. My job was basically playing in the pit orchestra and also playing in the institute orchestra, helping the kids to play in an ensemble.

I found good food in Peru: Grilled chicken with Bourbon sauce from Mike's Place!

I'm not exaggerating, that was one of the best chicken I ever. Anybody that tried it would be hooked by it!

In the festival, my improvisational skill came to use, when Dr David Becker, our conductor found out that I can improvise and asked me to improvise in the encore piece, Hoedown. It's a country song, and I had to play bluegrass style!! Oh my fuckin' God, I failed an audition in New York before because I couldn't really play bluegrass,and now I'm asked to play it IN FRONT of a bunch of MIDWESTERNERS?!!

I took it anyway, and it turned out well.

Also, the man-in-charge of Powell Festival, Dr Kevin McMahon, also asked me to fill in for a group that cancelled their performance in the final day outdoor performance. I wrote two very simple tunes to play with bassist Dave. I used all the gimmicks I know, like bow chops and electric guitar sound, because I know people here have never even heard of jazz violin.

It was effective! They loved it and wondered how the hell can I do all those sound.

Funny thing was I played right after the great violinist, Rachel Barton. Later she asked me how did I learn all those things... I didn't know how to answer her, hehe...

Chien's Quote of the Day

"You must learn to fake, my son."

--- Goh Chia-Chien


*Chien made this comment after he found out that his student couldn't play with the ensemble and looked dumb. So he told him he used to get paid 50,000 bucks a year to fake professionally.

Cliche

It is true

It is the end of the story

And also a continuation of mine

Or rather

A repitition

It is nothing but a joke

So are my stories

Done at last!!

At last...this is the last words I will type inside the bathroom studio. No more...

First thing in the morning after I woke up (except brushing my teeth) was recording the "A natural" version of the "Road to Fang Fang" cue.

Fuck you Ken. Fuck you very much.

But I'm glad that it's done!!!

48K 16-bit... bullshit...

I'm going back to real music-making.

48K 16-Bit

Why the fuck do you movie people use this sample format anyway? Pisses me off!!

Luckily I figured a (very mafan/troublesome) way to do it!!

Otherwise your movie is fucked!!

My ultra-simple home studio

No, it's not in my home.

It's in my friend's place in Madison, Wisconsin. Oh yeah, that's where I am right now.

Nope, it's not in a garage or anything like that.

It's in a bathroom in the basement.

Don't laugh, it's true. It's the only most quiet place in the house.

The equipment:

My stupid DELL laptop that has a flashing screen
A pair of Creative speakers that I got from Chien
An MD mic
A pair of headphones/earphones (at first it was headphones, but I later found a pair of earphones from Jenny, Chien's wife)

That's it?! Yes. That's it.

So now what? Record of course!

So my buddy Ka Ming and me started to get stuck in the room for a looooooong time.

It's much harder than recording in a studio. It's fucking frustrating because we're under equipped! Not like some big equipments but we're just under equipped of a headphone splitters.

So Ka Ming had to listen to the headphones while I follow his cues. You know how frustrating it is and how many times we fucked up?!!!

Gosh...

We have to play every part by our own, overdubbing and overdubbing until we could remember every single part!!

We don't have a cellist yet, she's coming in on Tuesday.

Wish me luck...

Oh by the way, what's the project?

Giovanni Chen's 30-minute short "The Wait"
Music by Ken Hor (aka Ken Whore)
The cue is "Closing Theme", calling for a string orchestra without doublebass
Cues to come: Road to Fang Fang, scored for solo violin and piano
Fang Fang Opening, scored for string orchestra without doublebass

Dammit... I wish this will be over soon...

The Use of Midi Strings

Seriously, I never liked the sound of Midi strings in recordings. It's so fake, artificial, plastic, emotionless...

I would go all the way to oppose the usage of it in any recordings!

One exception though: If you are in a place where you can't find string players that play in tune.

Sometimes when you talk about the genuine sound of live strings, you tend to forget to consider the realistic problem. Do you want the real sound but out of tune, or a fake sound, but in tune?

Personally I would go for the one in tune. Fake strings, though fake as it is, intonation will still be there; as for out-of-tune real strings,what for we need them if it bugs our ears?

So, if it's in Hollywood, yeah, fuck Midi! We go for the real shit.

But if it's not in a very musically inclined part of the world, hm...think again.