Time for something Musical - from Speedy.
I am very fond of the Shadows as a musical group. I am sure colleagues recall the Jetliners who fashioned themselves on the Shadows. The lead singer Ishan Bahar was a classmate of mine at Royal.
The Shadows and Cliff Richard are inseparable as you all know. Talking of the Jetliners, Remember the Coconut Grove!
My Yamaha Genos has and continues to give me, hours of sheer pleasure. Its potential is only limited by your imagination.
This is "Sea Breeze", composed with the Shadows in mind in their style and where else but the splendid seashores of Sri Lanka to play the song! Click on the image below and I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did producing it!.
it was wonderful music to hear this morning, melodious and calm you brought beautiful memories of the sea side for those of us living in the hills. Thank you Speedy.
ReplyDeleteManel (Owli)
Mahendra
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! What talent, to compose and play this wonderful soothing music.You are multitalented Musician,Artist and Poet. Aren't we batchmates proud of you. In addition Blog administrator doing a great job keeping the Blog alive. Well done!
Chira
SriLanka has lost a genius. Well done Speedy for keeping us alive to the sound of music.
ReplyDeleteHi Mahen
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the music, a brilliant effort.Another aspect of your versatility,passion and commitment.I do fondly remember Jetliners at the Cocoanut Grove,brought back happy memories.Please Release Me,Delilah,Ten Guitars and CT's Sihina Lowe were my favourites.
Sea Breeze had a Latin beat, was it a Cha Cha?
Thanks, Manel, Chora, Sumathi and Bora. I enjoy doing this type of thing and while I have the time and opportunity, why not make use of it?! Bora, the beat is classified as Oldies Pop 4 beat at 126 bpm in my Yamaha. It suits music such as Apache, Magnificent Seven and other "driving" beats. I am sure you do a Rumba or a Cha Cha or just "shake it all about"!
ReplyDeleteCOMMENT ON BEHALFOF LUCKY (sent to me within an email)
ReplyDeleteI always admire your music, especially your own compositions. So, I had to give you some feedback.
The piece is one of the best you have produced. Of course I remember the Jetliners, Ishan Bahar, Shadows, Coconut Grove etc. - all familiar names. Your kit goes with the music!
Long live your faithful Yamaha Genos!
How wonderful So much hidden talent!! Really enjoyed your performance. Keep going. love to hear more from you .Will you do an item for us at our reunion on the 20th February?
ReplyDeleteWould be super
Many thanks again
It was so lovely to read your comment Pram. I still remember the opportunity you gave me to sing at one of your Hyde Park extravaganzas with Key Board accompaniment by one of your friends. Much as I would love to, I don't think I could do a "performance" at our much awaited London Mini Reunion
DeleteMahen
ReplyDelete"Music is the universal language of mankind. Where words fail, music speaks".
Thank you for that splendid piece you named “Sea Breeze” which brings back so many wonderful memories of my youth. It is a very fine creation. As you have rightly mentioned its style has a connection to the famous “Shadows” the group that mesmerised us in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. What I recall most is their bespectacled lead guitarist Hank Marvin and their brilliant piece “Apache”.
You have the wonderful ability capture the serenity and also at times the unbridled power of the sea. The video montage is simple but superb bringing back lovely memories of the time from 1962-63 I spent with my parents in Weligama. Every evening I sat on a rock on the beach by the Rest House watching the crabs frolicking in the sand. There were also polythene bags and Coca Cola cans rolling in the breeze showing are uncaring ways.
Mahen you have mastered the Yamaha Genos making use of its vast potential. I know that you don’t want to hog the blog. But we would like very much to listen to more of your music. Be it your own compositions and those of others they certainly would bring us joy in these difficult times. Bora has even suggested a few pieces.
Thank you and well done. You have entertained us and indeed kept the blog alive.
Many thanks for your appreciation Nihal. As you know. music is very close to my heart (the Left Ventricle to be precise!) and I am very fortunate in that my taste is quite wide. I love improvisation and experimentation too. Your recollections of life near the beach resonates with mine. We spent many happy days at Hikkaduwa where my grand mother and a lot of family members lived. I cannot describe in words what a fantastic musical instrument the Genos is. I am still not using its full potential and I am learning all the time. I shall accede to your request and post more although as you noticed, I didn't want to misuse my access rights.
DeleteToday is our Independence Day. Ceylon got its freedom after nearly 500 years of subjugation. At times the country's journey has been a rollercoaster ride. Democracy has survived. My hope is for peace, tolerance and equality for all. We wish Sri Lanka well in these difficult times.
ReplyDeleteMahendra, I really enjoyed your wonderful music. The sea shore filled me with a lot of nostalgia because our residence at 42nd Lane, Wellawatte was located very close to the sea with only a narrow road and the rail track in between. I lived in that house from the time I was born until I moved to Karapitiya in 1980.In the mid 1990s it was acquired by the State for the construction of the Marine Drive and I was left with about 6 perches of land. A building with three floors and a roof top was constructed with frontage to the Marine Drive and presently it has been leased to a Waffle Restaurant, with a Russian franchise and it serves 80 different varieties of waffles.
ReplyDeleteHow nice of you to comment Sanath! Thanks a lot and I am so glad that you enjoyed it.
DeleteThere are many things I miss being here and one big one are the beaches in Sri Lanka (another one, among so many, is the Hill Country). When I need consolation if my mind is troubled, I sit quietly with a glass of passion fruit, seated on a deck chair, shaded by a canopy just staring at the continually changing music of the waves splashing on rocks in the beach, with explosions of surf and bubbles. All is quiet again as the waves recede only to make its way gathering speed and volume all the time in majestic waves ceaselessly "attacking" the sea shore. As the day passed, darkness sets in quietly and the sky glows pink and the sun sinks in the horizon and finally, there is only a faint glow and possibly the silhouettes of passing boats and ships. All this is in my "internal wide screen video with surround sound! When I "release" myself, I feel so much calmer. I don't feel sad as I know only too well about impermanent and the futility of attachment but it never stops me from appreciating things. Knowing you Sanath, I am sure you understand. All the best and keep serving our Motherland so well.
Dear Mahen, Thank you for sharing your prodigious talents with us.Your music gave me a lot of pleasure. Doubly so on account of my attachment to the seashore. Both schools that I attended to were by the beach. In times of teenage stress, like Nihal I sat on a granite boulder and listened to the breaking of the rollers and the seagulls.It was so soothing. This was immediately prior to Bana preaching by an eminent monk at the International Buddhist Centre at Wellawatte which my mother insisted I attend. Sanath would know this place. Much later while holidaying at my in laws home in Wellawtte, I walked the delightful beach at Kinross in the early daylight hours. Thus I could empathize with Pablo Neruda's sojourn in Ceylon.
ReplyDeleteYour music and the background scenery, brought all these memories back.
I hope your next endeavour will feature the hill country of SriLanka which too is very close to my soul.
kumar
Good to see you with all the problems you have experienced posting comments. Hope all that is in the past.
DeleteAs I said in my reply to Sanath, the Hill country has a very special place in my heart (and soul if there is one!). y love affair with the Hill country began when I was but a child going to Diyatalawa in a circuit bungalow as it was called. My father being a Govt servant, was given railway warrants which we made use of. We also stayed in Haputale.
MY next encounter was my posting at Matale as SHO and finally as Neurophysician at Kandy, which was my last post in Sri Lanka. The temperature, climate, scenic beauty and even the smell, are unbeatable. In dreams, I live in a house overlooking Kandy lake with annexe occupied by a faithful manservant and his wife. They are part of the family and look after me and in turn, I take good care of them. What is missing of course...is a good sweetheart!
My problems with the iPad remain. My comments are made from an android tab which takes me twice as long.!!
DeleteAgree that the hill country or upcountry as we called it is idyllic.
kumar
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDear Friends, in the l950s and early 1960s, I used to run to Kinross on the beach and return, together with few friends, Rabi Visvalingam ,his brother Surendra et al. Prof E O E Pereira (former Prof of Electrical Engineering, VC) and father of Lorenz, Brian and Allan, used to angle on the breakwater at Kinross, with a pipe in his mouth.
ReplyDeleteHi Speedy ! Thank you
ReplyDeletefor your exquisite composition. It blends the tranquility of the gentle sea breeze with the rhythm of the pounding waves so beautifully. Brings back so many memories of building sand castles, writing love letters
( yes we actually did that ! ) . I remember scaling over the boundary wall at STC to get to the beach when my BIL Duleep de Chickera was the Sub Warden during JVP times.
Music has always been a source of immense pleasure ...so please do keep delighting us with your playing. Can you remember Nimal Mendis and his composition Kandian Express ... with it's mood changes... Your composition too captures the contrasting feeling so well. Congratulations!
Thank you very much Suri. I am glad I did the music to scenery from Sri Lanka as it struck a chord with many.
ReplyDeleteI do remember Kadyan express with as you say the change in tempo to according to the speed of the train. Nimal Mendis was a musical genius who passed away only in 2015 at the age of 81.
I couldn't help but laugh when I tried to imagine you scaling over the boundary wall! Were you a bit of a tomboy!
All the best.
Mahen, your musical interlude was long overdue-Thank you
ReplyDeleteWondered about the Genos on a Sri Lankan seashore with you in winter attire !!
Have fun !
Thanks, Rohini. Keeps me busy! I must wear a tee shirt net time!
DeleteMahen, I am so sorry for my delay in listening and commenting about your splendid musical contribution (I have been a bit distracted!) I closed my eyes while listening to this and really felt the ebb and flow of the waves! It is beautiful! I agree nothing can beat the beaches of Sri Lanka. Do you know that I avoid going to the beach in the summer months in the US, because the beaches are packed with bodies laying around? (They are alive and beef-red!) I much prefer to walk on the beaches when the crowds have left, in the fall and winter, and I can gaze into the horizon and enjoy the beauty of the waves and the sea birds. Of course, then I have to dress the way you did, Mahen, and don my hat and scarf! I was going to tease you about your attire, but Rohini beat me to it!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, as Nihal wrote, we don't mind if you "Hog the Blog" and give us the pleasure of listening to a few more of your musical contributions. Keep them coming! Thank you for this treat.
Many thanks Srianee, I hope your preoccupations have been the entertaining type! Believe it or not, it was very cold the day I recorded my piece! Shall certainly oblige with more music if that is the wish of my friends. Hope you are having a great time wearing your bikini and mingling with the small crowds on the beaches.
ReplyDeleteSpeedy, it is too cold in US for Srianee to be in her bikini.She will certainly enjoy the sunny and sandy beaches in SriLanka during her intended holidays. We will see her in her bikini.
ReplyDeleteHaha, Mahen and Sumathi, those bikini days are over, if ever they existed! I am in Colombo at the moment and the only mingling I have done so far is with my immediate family and a few close friends. I have had the pleasure of catching up with several batch mates on the phone without having to worry about the 10 and 1/2 hour time difference. Being in the same time-zone makes a huge difference! The only breeze I am enjoying is the one coming through the windows from Ward Place and going out onto the Carey College (and Bloem) side of the apartment. I am not complaining even though my brothers were feeling a bit sorry for me. It is a comfort to know that there are family members living just a flight of stairs away from me. I am making the best of the situation.
ReplyDeleteSrianne, you reminds me of the days of the Bloem days. I used to see and hear the sounds emanating from Carey College.I am sure you are in good health and needs medical attentions. I heard that Government hospital doctors are on strike,but the private sector is thriving.
ReplyDeleteSrianne, I meant that you need no medical assistance in view of good health.
ReplyDelete