Ni saja2 nak meng'update'kan blog aku.
Adalah satu rombongan teater musikal dari luar negara buat persembahan bertajuk..
"Merchant Of Bollywood".
Persembahan mereka sangat berprestij.Di adakan di Istana Budaya.
Tajuknya saja dah 'glam'.Memang sesuai sangat2 dengan selera separuh kalangan rakyat Malaysia.Terutama kaum yg berketurunan dari India dan..orang Melayu.Mungkin ada juga kaum Cina.Orang asing lain pun mungkin ada juga menonton teter ni.
Kalau rakyat dari kaum keturunan India, kita boleh maklum lah.Seni dan citarasa mereka.
Yang orang Melayu ni? Dok tergila2 sangat dengan "Bollywood' ni apa cerita?
Tak salah juga.Sebenarnya, dari pengamatan aku,sesetengah orang melayu ni bukan baru2 ni saja terkena taik 'Bollywood'.Sudah dari dulu lagi.Filem2 klasik melayu tahun 50an dulu pun pengarahnya kebanyakan dari India.Tu sebabnya filem melayu macam filem India.Pengaruh dah dari dulu.Tapi filem Bollywood hari ini maju.Setanding Hollywood.Ulu Klangwood dok kat situ jugak.
"Daey, yenna da?"
Macam tu juga pengaruh muzik.Lagu2 hindustan.Dangdut.Semuanya memang dah lama bertapak dalam kepala otak kita.Aku pun minat seni lengok muzik India ni tapi bukan lah yg macam dlm filem2 hindustan.Berlari dari atas gunung sampai ke bawah.Bergolek atas padang rumput.Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.Bukan jenis tu beb.
Muzik India aku dengar macam Shakti,Ravi Shankar,V.Mohan Bhatt,Tirlok Gurtu, George Harrison dgn puak2 Hare Krishnanya.Nak dengar George Harrison baca mantra hindu, sila cari dlm YouTube.Gelak jugak dengar,tapi best.Atau dengar album "All Things Must Pass".
Banyak musik dari India ni yg cukup bagus.Yang jenis ni tak de kena mengena dgn Bollywood.Jenis ni, ada soul.Ada jazz.Lain beb.
Balek ke tajuk cerita.
Rombongan teater "Merchant Of Bollywood" ni pun sebenarnya, orang putih punya kepala.Orang putih yg menguruskan rombongan ni.Nampak.Orang putih punya pandai.
Harga tiket dari RM70-RM500.Aku rasa tentu habis macam roti canai free.
Artis2 dan orang2 filim tempatan (yang gila glam) pun tentu tak miss.Aku gerenti.Muka dia orang ni pun ada yg macam ala hindustan.
Kalau tak macam hindustan pun dia orang cukup minat dengan muka yang macam tu.
Hindustan oh hindustan.'Stan' maknanya 'Tanah' atau 'negeri'.Jadinya Tanah Hindu.
Lepas ni kita cerita nasi kandar pulak.
Selamat menonton.
Selasa, 12 Mei 2009
Perak oh Perak...
Begini je la.
Teman syorkan, satu hari Zamry MB esoknya Nizar pulak,eteh esoknya Zamry pulak, esok laginya Nizar pulak.
Gilir2 le deme nye sampai ke PELIRAYA lagi satu.
Peliraya? binatang apa tu? .Singkatan untok PILIHAN RAYA da.
Pilihan raya ia lah dari sistem demokrasi untok kesejahteraan rakyat.Untok rakyat memilih kerajaan dan pemimpin.Tapi tengok lah apa sudah jadi? Udah macam jenaka.
Perak oh Perak.
Politik oh politik.
Teman syorkan, satu hari Zamry MB esoknya Nizar pulak,eteh esoknya Zamry pulak, esok laginya Nizar pulak.
Gilir2 le deme nye sampai ke PELIRAYA lagi satu.
Peliraya? binatang apa tu? .Singkatan untok PILIHAN RAYA da.
Pilihan raya ia lah dari sistem demokrasi untok kesejahteraan rakyat.Untok rakyat memilih kerajaan dan pemimpin.Tapi tengok lah apa sudah jadi? Udah macam jenaka.
Perak oh Perak.
Politik oh politik.
Kami Bukan Pengemis.
Begitu lah tajuk yg tertera di belakang buletin Keadilan.Bersertakan gambar.Rasanya gambar yang sama aku tengok dlm laman web Meor.
Aku di beritahu oleh Mi Ipoh melalui sms.Mi Ipoh ia lah kenalan aku yg tinggal di Ipoh.Lama juga aku tak berjumpa dgn Mi.
Pulang dari kerja, aku beli lah senaskah.Tujuan untok mengetahui apa yg di tulis selanjut nya tentang tajuk "Kami Bukan Pengemis" ni.Memang aku jarang sangat baca buletin Keadilan.Banyak suratkabar politik.Sejak dari dulu, aku hanya dapatkan HARAKAH.
Artikel yg agak ringkas.Tapi aku tentu bersetuju tentang apa yg di tulis.Memang itu pun aku selalu sentuh dalam blog aku ni.Akta lama yg di gubal sudah tidak relevan dgn kemajuan masyarkat hari ini,sepatutnya di simpan dlm muzium perundangan negara.Tambah pula kerajaan hari ini yg di pimpin oleh Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak mengwarwarkan untok mengkaji dan mansuh segala akta2 lama dan lapuk.Termasuk ISA.
Mari kita rakyat lihat sejauh mana kerajaan ini benar2 ikhlas mahu mengkaji dan tahu apa yg sesuai untok kemajuan rakyat hari ini.
Ya betul! Zaman kerajaan tahu segala2nya sudah berlalu! Ini juga selalu di perjelaskan oleh timbalan perdana menteri Tan Sri Mahyudin Yasin.
Tan Sri Mahyudin Yasin pun sudah melihat bagaimana dua orang 'anak jalanan' memberi persembahan di atas pentas di Malam Memperingati Gaza tak lama sebelum naik menjadi timbalan perdana menteri.
Anak2 jalanan itu adalah aku dan Meor.
Persembahan anak2 jalanan mendapat sambutan yg sama gemuruhnya dgn mereka yg bergelar 'artis' popular yang juga ada membuat persembahan.
Bagaimana kami berkarya di jalanan begitu juga kami persembahkan di pentas yg di hadiri oleh para pembesar negara.Memang kami berbangga.
Dari segi imbuhan yg kami dapat jauh bezanya dari artis popular.Tapi cara kami berkarya ada lah setanding.Ini kerana di jalanan, ianya mengajar kami menjadi insan yg lebih mulia dan ikhlas berkarya.Jadi adakah patut kami mendapat 'label' pengemis cuma kerana akta yg di gubal selepas perang dunia ke II itu?
Fikirkan lah wahai bapak2 menteri dan para pengubal undang undang yg bijaksana di atas sana.
Kami di jalanan yg panas ini berusaha untok hidup.Tidak ada antara kami yg datang berkereta yg berhawa dingin kemudian duduk menadah tangan dengan wajah murung penuh kepuraan meminta simpati.
Jadilah orang yg lebih mengenali erti kehidupan orang bawahan.Nescaya kamu mendapat kepercayaan di hormati dan di sayangi.Jika tidak, sia sia lah usaha turun padang untok mengenali nadi kehidupan rakyat.
Rakyat di jalanan inilah sebenarnya nadi kehidupan negara.
Aku di beritahu oleh Mi Ipoh melalui sms.Mi Ipoh ia lah kenalan aku yg tinggal di Ipoh.Lama juga aku tak berjumpa dgn Mi.
Pulang dari kerja, aku beli lah senaskah.Tujuan untok mengetahui apa yg di tulis selanjut nya tentang tajuk "Kami Bukan Pengemis" ni.Memang aku jarang sangat baca buletin Keadilan.Banyak suratkabar politik.Sejak dari dulu, aku hanya dapatkan HARAKAH.
Artikel yg agak ringkas.Tapi aku tentu bersetuju tentang apa yg di tulis.Memang itu pun aku selalu sentuh dalam blog aku ni.Akta lama yg di gubal sudah tidak relevan dgn kemajuan masyarkat hari ini,sepatutnya di simpan dlm muzium perundangan negara.Tambah pula kerajaan hari ini yg di pimpin oleh Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak mengwarwarkan untok mengkaji dan mansuh segala akta2 lama dan lapuk.Termasuk ISA.
Mari kita rakyat lihat sejauh mana kerajaan ini benar2 ikhlas mahu mengkaji dan tahu apa yg sesuai untok kemajuan rakyat hari ini.
Ya betul! Zaman kerajaan tahu segala2nya sudah berlalu! Ini juga selalu di perjelaskan oleh timbalan perdana menteri Tan Sri Mahyudin Yasin.
Tan Sri Mahyudin Yasin pun sudah melihat bagaimana dua orang 'anak jalanan' memberi persembahan di atas pentas di Malam Memperingati Gaza tak lama sebelum naik menjadi timbalan perdana menteri.
Anak2 jalanan itu adalah aku dan Meor.
Persembahan anak2 jalanan mendapat sambutan yg sama gemuruhnya dgn mereka yg bergelar 'artis' popular yang juga ada membuat persembahan.
Bagaimana kami berkarya di jalanan begitu juga kami persembahkan di pentas yg di hadiri oleh para pembesar negara.Memang kami berbangga.
Dari segi imbuhan yg kami dapat jauh bezanya dari artis popular.Tapi cara kami berkarya ada lah setanding.Ini kerana di jalanan, ianya mengajar kami menjadi insan yg lebih mulia dan ikhlas berkarya.Jadi adakah patut kami mendapat 'label' pengemis cuma kerana akta yg di gubal selepas perang dunia ke II itu?
Fikirkan lah wahai bapak2 menteri dan para pengubal undang undang yg bijaksana di atas sana.
Kami di jalanan yg panas ini berusaha untok hidup.Tidak ada antara kami yg datang berkereta yg berhawa dingin kemudian duduk menadah tangan dengan wajah murung penuh kepuraan meminta simpati.
Jadilah orang yg lebih mengenali erti kehidupan orang bawahan.Nescaya kamu mendapat kepercayaan di hormati dan di sayangi.Jika tidak, sia sia lah usaha turun padang untok mengenali nadi kehidupan rakyat.
Rakyat di jalanan inilah sebenarnya nadi kehidupan negara.
Rabu, 29 April 2009
Asyik asyik busking..!
Itu lah antara yang keluar dari mulut orang rumah aku bila dia ngomel.Ketawa aku.
Buat dia lagi bengang, aku saja buat tak berapa dengar campur terkejut ..
"Aa? busking?", bila aku di tanya tentang hal lain.
Mood baik kalu,dapat lah cubit sayang.Tak baik kalu...buat dek.
Dek? amende tu? Ntah..aku pun tak tau.Dah lama kita guna 'buat dek' ni.Pak Ungku Aziz dan kaum sekerabat macam dia je tak guna perkataan 'buat dek' ni kot.
Tapi kalau dorang pun guna,mana kita tau.
Aah! buat dek je lah.
Ok.Aku nak bercerita tentang hal busking.Pengalaman aku.Buskers lain ada cerita mereka sendiri.Kalau dia orang blog tentang pengalaman dia orang,tentu menarik juga ceritanya.
Ada yang ketawa kalau aku katakan aku mula busking seawal jam 11 pagi.Selalunya hari sabtu.
Kemudian aku boleh teruskan sehingga jam 6 petang.Member busker lain ada yg hairan macamana aku boleh bertahan busking begitu lama.
Aku cuma boleh kata,apa yg kita buat dgn 'enthusiast' atau penuh minat, sampai malam pun tak rasa masanya berlalu,tau tau dah senja.Leka,tapi bukan khayal.
Di jalanan, melihatkan akan aku banyak pengajaran tentang kehidupan.
Kehidupan yg aku senangi dan aku faham.Di situ tak ada glamer,tak ada keuntungan yg koparat.
Buat dia lagi bengang, aku saja buat tak berapa dengar campur terkejut ..
"Aa? busking?", bila aku di tanya tentang hal lain.
Mood baik kalu,dapat lah cubit sayang.Tak baik kalu...buat dek.
Dek? amende tu? Ntah..aku pun tak tau.Dah lama kita guna 'buat dek' ni.Pak Ungku Aziz dan kaum sekerabat macam dia je tak guna perkataan 'buat dek' ni kot.
Tapi kalau dorang pun guna,mana kita tau.
Aah! buat dek je lah.
Ok.Aku nak bercerita tentang hal busking.Pengalaman aku.Buskers lain ada cerita mereka sendiri.Kalau dia orang blog tentang pengalaman dia orang,tentu menarik juga ceritanya.
Ada yang ketawa kalau aku katakan aku mula busking seawal jam 11 pagi.Selalunya hari sabtu.
Kemudian aku boleh teruskan sehingga jam 6 petang.Member busker lain ada yg hairan macamana aku boleh bertahan busking begitu lama.
Aku cuma boleh kata,apa yg kita buat dgn 'enthusiast' atau penuh minat, sampai malam pun tak rasa masanya berlalu,tau tau dah senja.Leka,tapi bukan khayal.
Kalau solat boleh macam tu, kita boleh anggap solat tu martabat solat yg macamana.
Orang rumah aku pun bukan peduli sangat tentang benda busking yg aku ceburi ni.Dia tak kisah tentang minat musik aku.Support tak anti pun tak.Biasa saja pada dia.Aku senang begitu.Tak banyak soal.Don't ask me no question and I won't tell you no lies.Lagi pun dunia muzik jalanan aku ni tak melibatkan apa2 skandal.Habis busking, aku pack barang terus balek ke rumah.Duit busking aku bagi pada isteri jadi belanja poket anak2 ke sekolah.Sekali sekala kelibat aku muncul di tv atau akhbar, ianya hanya mengukir senyum manis isteri aku.Tapi tak pernah mengubah pandangannya.Tu saja.
Anak2 aku pun begitu.Tak satu orang pun yg cuba nak ikut jadi 'street wise'.Aku pun tak pernah galak.Tapi kalau mereka nak cuba, aku tak halang.Cuma buat lah dgn commitment dan tujuan yg betul.
Mungkin ada yg bertanya, "Ada apa dengan busking?"
Di jalanan, melihatkan akan aku banyak pengajaran tentang kehidupan.
Kehidupan yg aku senangi dan aku faham.Di situ tak ada glamer,tak ada keuntungan yg koparat.
Ahad, 26 April 2009
Busking Sabtu Yang Best!
25 April 2009.Hari Sabtu 8.30 pagi .Huuaahh.Nguap panjang aku .Masih ngantok .Balek dari busking kat Downtown Ceras jam 3.30 pagi.Bunyi tv kuat buat aku hilang rasa nak teruskan tidor.Lagi pun masa dah hampir pukol 9.00 pagi.Tidor apa lagi.Aku pulak pantang tidor sampai meninggi hari.Rezeki tak datang, kata orang tua2.Memang betul.Kalau dah membuta sepanjang hari,apa yg dapat!.Badan makin letih muka pun sembab.
Aku memang dah pasang niat untok busking all out hujung minggu ni.Ada kawan,Ubilepih nak datang .Aku terima sms Ubi sebut ada bawa tempoyak! Ha, tu dah kira sebahagian rezeki aku hari tu.Tempoyak dari Lipis .Memang favourite.Bagi orang dari daerah sana,tempoyak ni kira wajib ada.Teringat arwah makitam Som aku di kampong dulu.Ada stok sepanjang tahun.Berbotol2 disimpan dlm peti sejuk.Tempoyak blues.
Aku pun ride out to the city sarat dgn prop busking aku.Aku memang dah di kenali busking dgn 'prop'.Ada juga aku dengar kata2 dari mulut ke mulut para buskers ni .
"Alaah..apa nak beriya2 sangat..bukan nak buat konsert"
"Aah,orang bukan appreciate pun..."
Itu pandangan yg dia orang fikir positif.Tapi aku berpandangan positif cara aku.Aku suka begini.Bukan nak menunjuk2 .Cuma aku rasa lebih baik kalau ada set macam tu.Macamana pun,orang menonton yg menilai.Aku cuma buat apa yg aku suka.Ok lah.
Busking lah aku macam biasa.Panas pulak hari tu.Macam biasa aku selalu busking saorang.
Aku pun mainkan lagu Blues Gang yg berjudul "Panasnya Hari Ini" bila dua orang rakan buskers,Eddy dan Chot masok join bermain sekali.
Hari tu juga datang sekumpulan student jurusan multimedia dari Akademi TV3.Buat interview untok assignment dlm pengajian mereka.Aku biasanya oblige dgn student2 ni.Anak2 muda ni selalunya mereka positif terhadap aktiviti seni jalanan.Kalau tidak masakan mereka mahu mengambil gambar dan buat interview busker macam aku.Soalan2 mereka pun bernas.Mereka2 ini lah yg bakal membawa perubahan dlm dunia penyiaran kita.
Lagi yang menarik hari tu.Aku gusar dan juga kelakar bila lihat gelagat para penjual minuman dan buahan yg semakin hari semakin ramai berjualan di tempat kami busking.
Gusar aku adalah kerana kehadiran penjual2 ini mencacatkan pemandangan sepanjang jalan Hang Lekiu.Jalan itu adalah di bawah kuasa pihak DBKL.Bukan Central Market.Sepanjang jalan itu sepatutnya berstatus "pedestrian mall".Ianya ruang untok orang ramai berehat.Busking atau apa pun cara persembahan jalanan memang sesuai di situ.Tanyalah siapapun.Pelancong luar yg sering lalu di ruang itu selalunya akan berhenti seketika menonton persembahan jalanan.Ianya satu tarikan.Samada pelancong luar negara atau tempatan.
Oleh kerana dah ramai penjual yg datang ke situ,ruang biasa yg kami selalu buat persembahan
pun mula di ambil alih.Tahu tahu dah terpacak si penjual dgn troli penuh buahnya.Ini dah leceh beb! Aku terpaksa beritahu dia orang cara baik.Kami buskers dah hampir 30 tahun di situ.Walaupun kami buskers bukan ada apa hak di situ.Tolong hormat kerana sudah selama itu para seniman jalanan tempatan di ruang itu bagi tujuan berseni dan meraih pendapatan.
Mereka sepatutnya di tempatkan di satu kawasan yg ssuai untok berjual saperti itu.
Bekas2 minuman berceracak di tinggalkan oleh mereka yg memang tak ada kesedaran sivik menjaga kebersihan di situ.Pemandangan sedemikian sudah tentu beri impak negatif pada industri pelancongan.Aku yg sering busking di situ kadang2 buat pengumuman supaya mereka yg duduk menonton atau dudok saja2 supaya jaga kebersihan .Sampah, terutama bekas minuman tolong buang ke tong sampah berhampiran.
Paling tidak pun, aku ada menjalankan tanggungjawab aku sebagai wargakota yg perihatin pada persekitaran.Bukan setakat melalak di situ saja.
Macam lawak bila lihat penjual2 itu bila berhadapan dgn petugas DBKL.Bila petugas berjalan ke arah mereka,mereka pun lari menolak jualan mereka.Bila petugas berhenti,mereka ikut berhenti.Kadang2 mereka berhenti betul depan kami yg sedang busking.Memang para penjual ni tak ada perihatin pada orang lain.Yang penting mereka mesti jual dan mesti untung hari itu.Tapi tak lah semua begitu.
Kadang buat aku terfikir.Apa yg ada dlm pemikiran orang saperti ni semua.Adakah fikiran mereka hanya tertumpu pada apa yg mereka perlu saja? Macam si bodoh2 yg di panggil 'mat rempit' la contoh.Apa dlm fikiran mereka? Pernah ke mereka2 ni berfikir tentang kehidupan atau persekitaran orang lain? Ini baru 'low class' mentaliti.
Aku pun terus saja lah dgn busking bila keadaan ok.Orang ramai semakin bertumpu.Antara yg menarik lagi hari itu.Berhenti lah bebrapa anak2 muda mat saleh memberi sumbangan dan juga 'thump up' tanda sokongan.Mereka dgn gitar masing2 tersangkut di bahu.Mungkin baru habis gig berdekatan situ.Maksud aku menceritakan ini.Macamana bezanya attitude orang luar dgn orang tempatan.Orang Malaysia lah.Orang KL.
Kadang ada aku lihat budak2 band tempatan dgn gitar masing lalu di hadapan kami sedang busking.Gaya seolah olah kami tak ujud.Lalu tanpa toleh kiri kanan dgn 'ego' terpancar kat muka masing2.Bukan mengharapkan penghormatan pun.Tapi sebagai orang yg sama2 meminati seni dan muzik, apa salah berteguran atau angkat tangan pada orang lain yg sedang bermuzik.Tak begitu?.Atau mungkin budak2 band tu sedang begitu serious memikirkan tentang gig mereka? Apa apa saja lah.Yang tak ada penyakit ego ada juga dudok lepak berborak dgn kami buskers.Yang dari band terkenal lagi.
Rupanya hari tu,ramai kenalan 'blog' turun ke Pasar Seni.Selain Meor dan Nik.Semuanya tak pernah aku jumpa melainkan hanya bernota melalui 'blog'.Rakan blog.Abdullahjones.Pyanhabib.
Ramai lah hari tu.Pertama kali kami bertemu berkumpul,berbual2 sambil 'ngeteh'.
Tapi aku tak boleh lama dudok berbual dgn orang2 hebat ini.Sayang.Ubilepih antara mereka ada lah dari di Kuala Lipis.Kampong kami berdekatan.Aku selalu memang suka kalau bertemu kenalan senegeri.Orang Pahang demeh.Ubilepih betul pada janjinya.
Aku pulang ke rumah dgn hasil busking dan sebekas tempoyak dari Ubi.Penat tapi happy.
Malamnya, aku ke Downtown Ceras pula.Cerita yang lain.
Aku memang dah pasang niat untok busking all out hujung minggu ni.Ada kawan,Ubilepih nak datang .Aku terima sms Ubi sebut ada bawa tempoyak! Ha, tu dah kira sebahagian rezeki aku hari tu.Tempoyak dari Lipis .Memang favourite.Bagi orang dari daerah sana,tempoyak ni kira wajib ada.Teringat arwah makitam Som aku di kampong dulu.Ada stok sepanjang tahun.Berbotol2 disimpan dlm peti sejuk.Tempoyak blues.
Aku pun ride out to the city sarat dgn prop busking aku.Aku memang dah di kenali busking dgn 'prop'.Ada juga aku dengar kata2 dari mulut ke mulut para buskers ni .
"Alaah..apa nak beriya2 sangat..bukan nak buat konsert"
"Aah,orang bukan appreciate pun..."
Itu pandangan yg dia orang fikir positif.Tapi aku berpandangan positif cara aku.Aku suka begini.Bukan nak menunjuk2 .Cuma aku rasa lebih baik kalau ada set macam tu.Macamana pun,orang menonton yg menilai.Aku cuma buat apa yg aku suka.Ok lah.
Busking lah aku macam biasa.Panas pulak hari tu.Macam biasa aku selalu busking saorang.
Aku pun mainkan lagu Blues Gang yg berjudul "Panasnya Hari Ini" bila dua orang rakan buskers,Eddy dan Chot masok join bermain sekali.
Hari tu juga datang sekumpulan student jurusan multimedia dari Akademi TV3.Buat interview untok assignment dlm pengajian mereka.Aku biasanya oblige dgn student2 ni.Anak2 muda ni selalunya mereka positif terhadap aktiviti seni jalanan.Kalau tidak masakan mereka mahu mengambil gambar dan buat interview busker macam aku.Soalan2 mereka pun bernas.Mereka2 ini lah yg bakal membawa perubahan dlm dunia penyiaran kita.
Lagi yang menarik hari tu.Aku gusar dan juga kelakar bila lihat gelagat para penjual minuman dan buahan yg semakin hari semakin ramai berjualan di tempat kami busking.
Gusar aku adalah kerana kehadiran penjual2 ini mencacatkan pemandangan sepanjang jalan Hang Lekiu.Jalan itu adalah di bawah kuasa pihak DBKL.Bukan Central Market.Sepanjang jalan itu sepatutnya berstatus "pedestrian mall".Ianya ruang untok orang ramai berehat.Busking atau apa pun cara persembahan jalanan memang sesuai di situ.Tanyalah siapapun.Pelancong luar yg sering lalu di ruang itu selalunya akan berhenti seketika menonton persembahan jalanan.Ianya satu tarikan.Samada pelancong luar negara atau tempatan.
Oleh kerana dah ramai penjual yg datang ke situ,ruang biasa yg kami selalu buat persembahan
pun mula di ambil alih.Tahu tahu dah terpacak si penjual dgn troli penuh buahnya.Ini dah leceh beb! Aku terpaksa beritahu dia orang cara baik.Kami buskers dah hampir 30 tahun di situ.Walaupun kami buskers bukan ada apa hak di situ.Tolong hormat kerana sudah selama itu para seniman jalanan tempatan di ruang itu bagi tujuan berseni dan meraih pendapatan.
Mereka sepatutnya di tempatkan di satu kawasan yg ssuai untok berjual saperti itu.
Bekas2 minuman berceracak di tinggalkan oleh mereka yg memang tak ada kesedaran sivik menjaga kebersihan di situ.Pemandangan sedemikian sudah tentu beri impak negatif pada industri pelancongan.Aku yg sering busking di situ kadang2 buat pengumuman supaya mereka yg duduk menonton atau dudok saja2 supaya jaga kebersihan .Sampah, terutama bekas minuman tolong buang ke tong sampah berhampiran.
Paling tidak pun, aku ada menjalankan tanggungjawab aku sebagai wargakota yg perihatin pada persekitaran.Bukan setakat melalak di situ saja.
Macam lawak bila lihat penjual2 itu bila berhadapan dgn petugas DBKL.Bila petugas berjalan ke arah mereka,mereka pun lari menolak jualan mereka.Bila petugas berhenti,mereka ikut berhenti.Kadang2 mereka berhenti betul depan kami yg sedang busking.Memang para penjual ni tak ada perihatin pada orang lain.Yang penting mereka mesti jual dan mesti untung hari itu.Tapi tak lah semua begitu.
Kadang buat aku terfikir.Apa yg ada dlm pemikiran orang saperti ni semua.Adakah fikiran mereka hanya tertumpu pada apa yg mereka perlu saja? Macam si bodoh2 yg di panggil 'mat rempit' la contoh.Apa dlm fikiran mereka? Pernah ke mereka2 ni berfikir tentang kehidupan atau persekitaran orang lain? Ini baru 'low class' mentaliti.
Aku pun terus saja lah dgn busking bila keadaan ok.Orang ramai semakin bertumpu.Antara yg menarik lagi hari itu.Berhenti lah bebrapa anak2 muda mat saleh memberi sumbangan dan juga 'thump up' tanda sokongan.Mereka dgn gitar masing2 tersangkut di bahu.Mungkin baru habis gig berdekatan situ.Maksud aku menceritakan ini.Macamana bezanya attitude orang luar dgn orang tempatan.Orang Malaysia lah.Orang KL.
Kadang ada aku lihat budak2 band tempatan dgn gitar masing lalu di hadapan kami sedang busking.Gaya seolah olah kami tak ujud.Lalu tanpa toleh kiri kanan dgn 'ego' terpancar kat muka masing2.Bukan mengharapkan penghormatan pun.Tapi sebagai orang yg sama2 meminati seni dan muzik, apa salah berteguran atau angkat tangan pada orang lain yg sedang bermuzik.Tak begitu?.Atau mungkin budak2 band tu sedang begitu serious memikirkan tentang gig mereka? Apa apa saja lah.Yang tak ada penyakit ego ada juga dudok lepak berborak dgn kami buskers.Yang dari band terkenal lagi.
Rupanya hari tu,ramai kenalan 'blog' turun ke Pasar Seni.Selain Meor dan Nik.Semuanya tak pernah aku jumpa melainkan hanya bernota melalui 'blog'.Rakan blog.Abdullahjones.Pyanhabib.
Ramai lah hari tu.Pertama kali kami bertemu berkumpul,berbual2 sambil 'ngeteh'.
Tapi aku tak boleh lama dudok berbual dgn orang2 hebat ini.Sayang.Ubilepih antara mereka ada lah dari di Kuala Lipis.Kampong kami berdekatan.Aku selalu memang suka kalau bertemu kenalan senegeri.Orang Pahang demeh.Ubilepih betul pada janjinya.
Aku pulang ke rumah dgn hasil busking dan sebekas tempoyak dari Ubi.Penat tapi happy.
Malamnya, aku ke Downtown Ceras pula.Cerita yang lain.
Khamis, 23 April 2009
Muslim Roots of The Blues (artikel petikan)
Muslim roots of the blues
The music of famous American blues singers reaches back through the South to the culture of West Africa
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 15, 2004
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Islamic Culture In The U.S.
The influence of Muslim literature in the United States has grown stronger since the Sept. 11 attacks (2/6)
Most U.S. cities have echoes of Islamic design (11/28)
Muslim roots of the blues (8/15)
Sylviane Diouf knows her audience might be skeptical, so to demonstrate the connection between Islam and American blues music, she'll play two recordings: The Muslim call to prayer (the religious recitation that's heard from mosques around the world), and "Levee Camp Holler" an early type of blues song that first sprang up in the Mississippi Delta more than 100 years ago.
"Levee Camp Holler" is no ordinary song. It's the product of ex-slaves who worked moving earth all day in post-Civil War America. The version that Diouf uses in presentations has lyrics that, like the call to prayer, speak about a glorious God. ("Well, Lord, I woke up this mornin', man, I feelin' bad . . . Well, I was thinkin' 'bout the good times, Lord, I once have had.") But it's the song's melody and note changes that closely parallel one of Islam's best-known refrains. As in the call to prayer, "Levee Camp Holler" emphasizes words that seem to quiver and shake in the reciter's vocal chords. Dramatic changes in musical scales punctuate both "Levee Camp Holler" and the call to prayer. A nasal intonation is evident in both.
"I did a talk a few years ago at Harvard where I played those two things, and the room absolutely exploded in clapping, because (the connection) was obvious," says Diouf, an author and scholar who is also a researcher at New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. "People were saying, 'Wow. That's really audible. It's really there.' "
It's really there because of all the Muslim slaves from West Africa who were taken by force to the United States for three centuries, from the 1600s to the mid-1800s. Upward of 30 percent of the African slaves in the United States were Muslim, and an untold number of them spoke and wrote Arabic, historians say now. Despite being pressured by slave owners to adopt Christianity and give up their old ways, many of these slaves continued to practice their religion and customs, or otherwise melded traditions from Africa into their new environment in the antebellum South. Forced to do menial, back-breaking work on plantations, for example, they still managed, throughout their days, to voice a belief in the God of the Quran. These slaves' practices eventually evolved -- decades and decades later, parallel with different singing traditions from Africa -- into the shouts and hollers that begat blues music, historians believe.
Another way that Muslim slaves had an indirect influence on blues music: the instruments they played. Drumming (which was common among slaves from the Congo and other non-Muslim regions of Africa) was banned by white slave owners, who felt threatened by its ability to let slaves communicate with each other and by the way it inspired large gatherings of slaves. Stringed instruments (which were favored by slaves from Muslim regions of Africa, where there's a long tradition of musical storytelling) were generally allowed because slave owners considered them akin to European instruments like the violin. So slaves who managed to cobble together a banjo or other instrument (the American banjo originated with African slaves) could play more widely in public. This solo- oriented slave music featured elements of an Arabic-Islamic song style that had been imprinted by centuries of Islam's presence in West Africa, says Gerhard Kubik, an ethnomusicology professor at the University of Mainz in Germany who has written the most comprehensive book on Africa's connection to blues music ("Africa and the Blues").
An influence on the blues
Kubik believes that many of today's blues singers unconsciously echo these Arabic-Islamic patterns in their music. Using academic language to describe this habit, Kubik writes in "Africa and the Blues" that "the vocal style of many blues singers using melisma, wavy intonation, and so forth is a heritage of that large region of West Africa that had been in contact with the Arabic-Islamic world of the Maghreb since the seventh and eighth centuries." (Melisma is the use of many notes in one syllable; so, instead of a note that produces, say, a single sound of "ah," you'd get a note that produces something like, "ah-ahhhh-ahhh-ah-ah." Wavy intonation refers to a series of notes that veer from major to minor scale and back again, something that's very common in both blues music and in the Muslim call to prayer. The Maghreb is the Arab-Muslim region of North Africa.)
Kubik summarizes his thesis this way: "Many traits that have been considered unusual, strange and difficult to interpret by earlier blues researchers can now be better understood as a thoroughly processed and transformed Arabic-Islamic stylistic component."
The extent of this link between Islam and American blues music is still being debated. Some scholars continue to insist there is no connection, and many of today's best-known blues musicians would say their music has little to do with a religion whose most extreme clerics regularly deride the evils of Western pop music. Yet a growing body of evidence -- gathered by academics like Kubik, and by others like Cornelia Walker Bailey, a Georgia author whose great-great-great-great-grandfather was a Georgia slave who prayed toward Mecca -- suggest a deep relationship between slaves of Islamic descent and U. S. culture. To be sure, Muslim slaves from West Africa were just one factor in the formation of American blues music, but they were a factor, says Barry Danielian, a trumpeter who's performed with Paul Simon, Natalie Cole and Tower of Power.
Call to prayer
Danielian, who is Muslim, says non-Muslims find this connection hard to believe because they don't know enough about Arabic or Islamic music. The call to prayer and other Muslim recitations that were practiced by American slaves had a musicality to them, just as these recitations still do, even if they aren't thought of as music by Westerners, Danielian says.
"I'm part of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, which is based in West and North Africa," says Danielian, who lives in Jersey City, N.J. "And I know that when we get together, especially when the cheikhs (leaders) come and everybody gets together and there are hundreds of people and we do the litanies, they're very musical. You hear what we as Americans would call soulfulness or blues. That's definitely in there."
What Americans now think of as blues music developed in the 1890s and early 1900s, in Southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Blues music was an outgrowth of all the different music that was then being performed in the South, from minstrels to street shows. Early blues performers didn't recognize the music's African or Muslim roots because, by then, the songs had more fully merged with white, European music and had lost their obvious connections to a continent that was 4,000 miles away. Also, by the turn of the 20th century, the progeny of America's Muslim slaves had generally converted to Christianity, either by force or circumstance. Among Southern blacks in that period, there were few exponents of Islam. But as more scholars like Diouf and Kubik research that period in history, they see plenty of signs that weren't obvious 100 years ago.
Take the case of W.C. Handy, who earned the moniker "Father of the Blues" for the way he formalized the music over a 40-year career of writing songs and playing the cornet. In his autobiography, Handy (whose parents were slaves) writes about a life-changing moment that happened around 1903. Handy was sleeping at a train station in Tutwiler, Miss., when "a lean, loose-jointed Negro had commenced plucking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar. ... The effect was unforgettable. His song, too, struck me instantly. . .. The singer repeated the line ("Goin' where the Southern cross' the Dog") three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard."
Singing about everything
The song was about a nearby train station where different trains intersected. As Handy noted in the autobiography (which was published in 1941), "Southern Negroes sang about everything. Trains. Steamboats, steam whistles, sledgehammers, fast women, mean bosses, stubborn mules -- all became subjects for their songs. They accompany themselves on anything from which they can extract a musical sound or rhythmical effect, anything from a harmonica to a washboard. In this way, and from these materials, they set the mood for what we now call the blues."
While washboards, in fact, became popular among later blues musicians such as Robert Brown (known as "Washboard Sam"), the technique that Handy witnessed -- that of pressing a knife on guitar strings -- can be traced to Central and West Africa, where, as Kubik points out in "Africa and the Blues," people play one-string zithers that way. Handy assumed the technique (which is now called "slide guitar") was borrowed from Hawaiian guitar playing, but it's more likely that the itinerant guitar player that Handy met in Tutwiler was manifesting his African roots. Kubik has traveled to Africa many times for his research and has lived there.
Bailey, who visited West Africa in 1989, says the African and Muslim roots of Southern U.S. traditions are often mistaken for something else.
Churches face east
Bailey lives on Georgia's Sapelo Island, where a small community of blacks can trace their ancestry to Bilali Mohammed, a Muslim slave who was born and raised in what is now the country of Guinea. Visitors to Sapelo Island are always struck by the fact that churches there face east. In fact, as a child, Bailey learned to say her prayers facing east -- the same direction that her great-great-great-great-grandfather faced when he prayed toward Mecca.
Bilali was an educated man. He spoke and wrote Arabic, carried a Quran and a prayer rug, and wore a fez that likely signified his religious devotion. (Bilali had been trained in Africa to be a Muslim leader; on Sapelo Island, he was appointed by his slave master to be an overseer of other slaves). Although Bilali's descendents adopted Christianity, they incorporated Muslim traditions that are still evident today.
The name Bailey, in fact, is a reworking of the name Bilali, which became a popular Muslim name in Africa because one of Islam's first converts -- and the religion's first muezzin -- was a former Abyssinian slave named Bilal. (Muezzins are those who recite the call to prayer from the minarets of mosques. ) One historian believes that abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who changed his name from Frederick Bailey, may have had Muslim roots.
"History changes things," says Bailey, 59, who chronicled the history of Sapelo Island in her memoir, "God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man." "Things become something different from what they started out as."
A good example is the song "Little Sally Walker." It's been recorded by many blues artists, but it's also been recorded as "Little Sally Saucer" (the lyrics describe a girl "sittin' in a saucer"). Frankie Quimby, a relative of Bailey's who also traces her roots to Bilali Mohammed, says the song originated during slavery on the Georgia coast, written by songwriting slaves who took the last name (Walker) of their slave owners.
"I've seen (people) take the song and use different words," says Quimby, who sings slave songs with her husband in a group called the Georgia Sea Island Singers, which recently performed for President Bush and his Cabinet. "We're educating people about this."
Guitar derived from Arab oud
Because there is little documentation about these slave-time origins, it's easy to argue about what can be unequivocally linked to Africa and Islam. Islam and Arab culture have certainly been influences on other music around the world, including flamenco, which is rooted in seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain.
The modern guitar is a direct descendant of the oud, an Arabic lute that was introduced to Europe during Spain's Muslim reign. In fact, there's a connection between Renaissance music and Arab-Islamic culture, a connection that academics have studied with more precision than the connection between black Muslim slaves in America and this country's blues music.
So far, knowledge of Islam's association with blues music seems limited to a select group of academics and musicians. Books like Kubik's "Africa and the Blues" (published in 1999 by the University Press of Mississippi) and Diouf's "Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas" (published in 1998 by New York University Press) are more geared toward university audiences. Kubik's book, for example, is weighed down with chapters of dense writing and obscure references.
In terms of popular culture, it's hard to find a single work -- whether it's a novel, movie, song or other art form -- that covers the topic of Islam, music and African slaves. "Daughters of the Dust," Julie Dash's 1991 film about life on the Sea Islands of Georgia, features a Muslim man who portrays Bilali Mohammed, but a scene that shows him in prayer lasts just a few moments, and the movie received limited release.
"Roots," Alex Haley's novel that was made into a historic TV series in the 1970s, featured a main character (Kunte Kinte) who is Muslim, although novelist James Michener and others doubted the authenticity of Haley's work.
As more people become aware of the connection between Islam and the blues, there will be an inevitable shift in perception of how the Muslim religion has spread across continents and influenced other cultures. The difference between Spain, which once was conquered by Muslims, and the United States is that African slaves were brought to this country in chains, against their will, to do hard labor. The slave trade led to a diaspora unlike any other in human history, with at least 10 million Africans bought and sold into bondage in the Americas. Those slaves' pain is evident in American blues music -- a music that's often about cruel treatment, sad times and a yearning to break free. Blues music is a unique American art form that went around the world and, in turn, influenced history. Without the blues, there wouldn't be jazz, wouldn't be the bluesy music of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
Bending of notes
In his book "Black Music of Two Worlds," author John Storm Roberts says he can hear patterns of Islamic African music in the songs of Billie Holiday. Roberts refers to the "bending of notes" that is evident in Holiday's sad, soulful ballads as well as the call to prayer. This same note-bending can be heard in the music of B.B. King and John Lee Hooker. Blues music, with its thriving tempos and many lyrical references to relationships, has often been described as "the devil's music" by those on the outside looking in. Even many devout Muslims think of blues music as decadent and indicative of permissive Western morals.
People like Diouf, Kubik and Moustafa Bayoumi, an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, who has researched Islam's connection to American music, are trying to correct the public record. Bayoumi wrote a paper two years ago that examined African Muslim history in the United States in which he argues that John Coltrane's best-known album, "A Love Supreme," features Coltrane saying, "Allah Supreme" in addition to the many refrains of "A Love Supreme."
"It's about uncovering a hidden past," says Bayoumi, asked about the spate of new scholarship on the subject of Islam and African Americans. "You can hear (influences of Islam) in even the earliest days of American blues music. What you've gotten lately is an ethnomusicology that's trying to reconstruct that. These are deliberate attempts to rebuild a bridge, as it were."
E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com.
Artikel ni aku cut and paste saja.Di ambil dari internet untok di kongsi bersama buat pengetahuan.Terima kasih.
Aznan Aziz
The music of famous American blues singers reaches back through the South to the culture of West Africa
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Printable Version
Email This Article
del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiReddit
SlashdotFarkNewsvineGoogle Bookmarks
Islamic Culture In The U.S.
The influence of Muslim literature in the United States has grown stronger since the Sept. 11 attacks (2/6)
Most U.S. cities have echoes of Islamic design (11/28)
Muslim roots of the blues (8/15)
Sylviane Diouf knows her audience might be skeptical, so to demonstrate the connection between Islam and American blues music, she'll play two recordings: The Muslim call to prayer (the religious recitation that's heard from mosques around the world), and "Levee Camp Holler" an early type of blues song that first sprang up in the Mississippi Delta more than 100 years ago.
"Levee Camp Holler" is no ordinary song. It's the product of ex-slaves who worked moving earth all day in post-Civil War America. The version that Diouf uses in presentations has lyrics that, like the call to prayer, speak about a glorious God. ("Well, Lord, I woke up this mornin', man, I feelin' bad . . . Well, I was thinkin' 'bout the good times, Lord, I once have had.") But it's the song's melody and note changes that closely parallel one of Islam's best-known refrains. As in the call to prayer, "Levee Camp Holler" emphasizes words that seem to quiver and shake in the reciter's vocal chords. Dramatic changes in musical scales punctuate both "Levee Camp Holler" and the call to prayer. A nasal intonation is evident in both.
"I did a talk a few years ago at Harvard where I played those two things, and the room absolutely exploded in clapping, because (the connection) was obvious," says Diouf, an author and scholar who is also a researcher at New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. "People were saying, 'Wow. That's really audible. It's really there.' "
It's really there because of all the Muslim slaves from West Africa who were taken by force to the United States for three centuries, from the 1600s to the mid-1800s. Upward of 30 percent of the African slaves in the United States were Muslim, and an untold number of them spoke and wrote Arabic, historians say now. Despite being pressured by slave owners to adopt Christianity and give up their old ways, many of these slaves continued to practice their religion and customs, or otherwise melded traditions from Africa into their new environment in the antebellum South. Forced to do menial, back-breaking work on plantations, for example, they still managed, throughout their days, to voice a belief in the God of the Quran. These slaves' practices eventually evolved -- decades and decades later, parallel with different singing traditions from Africa -- into the shouts and hollers that begat blues music, historians believe.
Another way that Muslim slaves had an indirect influence on blues music: the instruments they played. Drumming (which was common among slaves from the Congo and other non-Muslim regions of Africa) was banned by white slave owners, who felt threatened by its ability to let slaves communicate with each other and by the way it inspired large gatherings of slaves. Stringed instruments (which were favored by slaves from Muslim regions of Africa, where there's a long tradition of musical storytelling) were generally allowed because slave owners considered them akin to European instruments like the violin. So slaves who managed to cobble together a banjo or other instrument (the American banjo originated with African slaves) could play more widely in public. This solo- oriented slave music featured elements of an Arabic-Islamic song style that had been imprinted by centuries of Islam's presence in West Africa, says Gerhard Kubik, an ethnomusicology professor at the University of Mainz in Germany who has written the most comprehensive book on Africa's connection to blues music ("Africa and the Blues").
An influence on the blues
Kubik believes that many of today's blues singers unconsciously echo these Arabic-Islamic patterns in their music. Using academic language to describe this habit, Kubik writes in "Africa and the Blues" that "the vocal style of many blues singers using melisma, wavy intonation, and so forth is a heritage of that large region of West Africa that had been in contact with the Arabic-Islamic world of the Maghreb since the seventh and eighth centuries." (Melisma is the use of many notes in one syllable; so, instead of a note that produces, say, a single sound of "ah," you'd get a note that produces something like, "ah-ahhhh-ahhh-ah-ah." Wavy intonation refers to a series of notes that veer from major to minor scale and back again, something that's very common in both blues music and in the Muslim call to prayer. The Maghreb is the Arab-Muslim region of North Africa.)
Kubik summarizes his thesis this way: "Many traits that have been considered unusual, strange and difficult to interpret by earlier blues researchers can now be better understood as a thoroughly processed and transformed Arabic-Islamic stylistic component."
The extent of this link between Islam and American blues music is still being debated. Some scholars continue to insist there is no connection, and many of today's best-known blues musicians would say their music has little to do with a religion whose most extreme clerics regularly deride the evils of Western pop music. Yet a growing body of evidence -- gathered by academics like Kubik, and by others like Cornelia Walker Bailey, a Georgia author whose great-great-great-great-grandfather was a Georgia slave who prayed toward Mecca -- suggest a deep relationship between slaves of Islamic descent and U. S. culture. To be sure, Muslim slaves from West Africa were just one factor in the formation of American blues music, but they were a factor, says Barry Danielian, a trumpeter who's performed with Paul Simon, Natalie Cole and Tower of Power.
Call to prayer
Danielian, who is Muslim, says non-Muslims find this connection hard to believe because they don't know enough about Arabic or Islamic music. The call to prayer and other Muslim recitations that were practiced by American slaves had a musicality to them, just as these recitations still do, even if they aren't thought of as music by Westerners, Danielian says.
"I'm part of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, which is based in West and North Africa," says Danielian, who lives in Jersey City, N.J. "And I know that when we get together, especially when the cheikhs (leaders) come and everybody gets together and there are hundreds of people and we do the litanies, they're very musical. You hear what we as Americans would call soulfulness or blues. That's definitely in there."
What Americans now think of as blues music developed in the 1890s and early 1900s, in Southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Blues music was an outgrowth of all the different music that was then being performed in the South, from minstrels to street shows. Early blues performers didn't recognize the music's African or Muslim roots because, by then, the songs had more fully merged with white, European music and had lost their obvious connections to a continent that was 4,000 miles away. Also, by the turn of the 20th century, the progeny of America's Muslim slaves had generally converted to Christianity, either by force or circumstance. Among Southern blacks in that period, there were few exponents of Islam. But as more scholars like Diouf and Kubik research that period in history, they see plenty of signs that weren't obvious 100 years ago.
Take the case of W.C. Handy, who earned the moniker "Father of the Blues" for the way he formalized the music over a 40-year career of writing songs and playing the cornet. In his autobiography, Handy (whose parents were slaves) writes about a life-changing moment that happened around 1903. Handy was sleeping at a train station in Tutwiler, Miss., when "a lean, loose-jointed Negro had commenced plucking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar. ... The effect was unforgettable. His song, too, struck me instantly. . .. The singer repeated the line ("Goin' where the Southern cross' the Dog") three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard."
Singing about everything
The song was about a nearby train station where different trains intersected. As Handy noted in the autobiography (which was published in 1941), "Southern Negroes sang about everything. Trains. Steamboats, steam whistles, sledgehammers, fast women, mean bosses, stubborn mules -- all became subjects for their songs. They accompany themselves on anything from which they can extract a musical sound or rhythmical effect, anything from a harmonica to a washboard. In this way, and from these materials, they set the mood for what we now call the blues."
While washboards, in fact, became popular among later blues musicians such as Robert Brown (known as "Washboard Sam"), the technique that Handy witnessed -- that of pressing a knife on guitar strings -- can be traced to Central and West Africa, where, as Kubik points out in "Africa and the Blues," people play one-string zithers that way. Handy assumed the technique (which is now called "slide guitar") was borrowed from Hawaiian guitar playing, but it's more likely that the itinerant guitar player that Handy met in Tutwiler was manifesting his African roots. Kubik has traveled to Africa many times for his research and has lived there.
Bailey, who visited West Africa in 1989, says the African and Muslim roots of Southern U.S. traditions are often mistaken for something else.
Churches face east
Bailey lives on Georgia's Sapelo Island, where a small community of blacks can trace their ancestry to Bilali Mohammed, a Muslim slave who was born and raised in what is now the country of Guinea. Visitors to Sapelo Island are always struck by the fact that churches there face east. In fact, as a child, Bailey learned to say her prayers facing east -- the same direction that her great-great-great-great-grandfather faced when he prayed toward Mecca.
Bilali was an educated man. He spoke and wrote Arabic, carried a Quran and a prayer rug, and wore a fez that likely signified his religious devotion. (Bilali had been trained in Africa to be a Muslim leader; on Sapelo Island, he was appointed by his slave master to be an overseer of other slaves). Although Bilali's descendents adopted Christianity, they incorporated Muslim traditions that are still evident today.
The name Bailey, in fact, is a reworking of the name Bilali, which became a popular Muslim name in Africa because one of Islam's first converts -- and the religion's first muezzin -- was a former Abyssinian slave named Bilal. (Muezzins are those who recite the call to prayer from the minarets of mosques. ) One historian believes that abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who changed his name from Frederick Bailey, may have had Muslim roots.
"History changes things," says Bailey, 59, who chronicled the history of Sapelo Island in her memoir, "God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man." "Things become something different from what they started out as."
A good example is the song "Little Sally Walker." It's been recorded by many blues artists, but it's also been recorded as "Little Sally Saucer" (the lyrics describe a girl "sittin' in a saucer"). Frankie Quimby, a relative of Bailey's who also traces her roots to Bilali Mohammed, says the song originated during slavery on the Georgia coast, written by songwriting slaves who took the last name (Walker) of their slave owners.
"I've seen (people) take the song and use different words," says Quimby, who sings slave songs with her husband in a group called the Georgia Sea Island Singers, which recently performed for President Bush and his Cabinet. "We're educating people about this."
Guitar derived from Arab oud
Because there is little documentation about these slave-time origins, it's easy to argue about what can be unequivocally linked to Africa and Islam. Islam and Arab culture have certainly been influences on other music around the world, including flamenco, which is rooted in seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain.
The modern guitar is a direct descendant of the oud, an Arabic lute that was introduced to Europe during Spain's Muslim reign. In fact, there's a connection between Renaissance music and Arab-Islamic culture, a connection that academics have studied with more precision than the connection between black Muslim slaves in America and this country's blues music.
So far, knowledge of Islam's association with blues music seems limited to a select group of academics and musicians. Books like Kubik's "Africa and the Blues" (published in 1999 by the University Press of Mississippi) and Diouf's "Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas" (published in 1998 by New York University Press) are more geared toward university audiences. Kubik's book, for example, is weighed down with chapters of dense writing and obscure references.
In terms of popular culture, it's hard to find a single work -- whether it's a novel, movie, song or other art form -- that covers the topic of Islam, music and African slaves. "Daughters of the Dust," Julie Dash's 1991 film about life on the Sea Islands of Georgia, features a Muslim man who portrays Bilali Mohammed, but a scene that shows him in prayer lasts just a few moments, and the movie received limited release.
"Roots," Alex Haley's novel that was made into a historic TV series in the 1970s, featured a main character (Kunte Kinte) who is Muslim, although novelist James Michener and others doubted the authenticity of Haley's work.
As more people become aware of the connection between Islam and the blues, there will be an inevitable shift in perception of how the Muslim religion has spread across continents and influenced other cultures. The difference between Spain, which once was conquered by Muslims, and the United States is that African slaves were brought to this country in chains, against their will, to do hard labor. The slave trade led to a diaspora unlike any other in human history, with at least 10 million Africans bought and sold into bondage in the Americas. Those slaves' pain is evident in American blues music -- a music that's often about cruel treatment, sad times and a yearning to break free. Blues music is a unique American art form that went around the world and, in turn, influenced history. Without the blues, there wouldn't be jazz, wouldn't be the bluesy music of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
Bending of notes
In his book "Black Music of Two Worlds," author John Storm Roberts says he can hear patterns of Islamic African music in the songs of Billie Holiday. Roberts refers to the "bending of notes" that is evident in Holiday's sad, soulful ballads as well as the call to prayer. This same note-bending can be heard in the music of B.B. King and John Lee Hooker. Blues music, with its thriving tempos and many lyrical references to relationships, has often been described as "the devil's music" by those on the outside looking in. Even many devout Muslims think of blues music as decadent and indicative of permissive Western morals.
People like Diouf, Kubik and Moustafa Bayoumi, an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, who has researched Islam's connection to American music, are trying to correct the public record. Bayoumi wrote a paper two years ago that examined African Muslim history in the United States in which he argues that John Coltrane's best-known album, "A Love Supreme," features Coltrane saying, "Allah Supreme" in addition to the many refrains of "A Love Supreme."
"It's about uncovering a hidden past," says Bayoumi, asked about the spate of new scholarship on the subject of Islam and African Americans. "You can hear (influences of Islam) in even the earliest days of American blues music. What you've gotten lately is an ethnomusicology that's trying to reconstruct that. These are deliberate attempts to rebuild a bridge, as it were."
E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com.
Artikel ni aku cut and paste saja.Di ambil dari internet untok di kongsi bersama buat pengetahuan.Terima kasih.
Aznan Aziz
Isnin, 16 Mac 2009
Musik jalan terus..(The Final Journey)
Dalam salah satu bulan tahun 2009 ni, umor aku genap 50 tahun.Hmm.Ada yg kita sebut Jubilee.Meraikan jarak masa tertentu.Jubilee apa tu? Emas,perak ke intan ke apa? Aku tak peduli jubilee apa tu semua.Dlam hayat aku,aku tak pernah meraikan harijadi,birthday party ke .Yang aku tahu masuk tarikh tertentu tiap2 tahun,kita meningkat usia.itu saja.Selain dari tu,hanya lah mengada ngada saja.Mengada adakan.
Umor 50 ni agak berbeza sikit.Antara yg buat aku rasa bezanya ialah,lepas tarikh itu,aku dah layak ambil duit EPF dari akaun ke 2.Gelak.Wei..kaya la sekejap.Tapi tak leh enjoy beb.Ada la untok projek hari tua .
50 tahun.Tuhan telah memberi izin ruang hayatNya pada aku selama itu.Cepat betul aku rasa.Tau tau aku dah tua . Hampir pada satu perhentian.Tapi aku rasa tak ada apa pun yg aku berikan kembali kepadaNya.
Layak ke aku bergelar hambaNya?
Layak ke aku ke Syorga abadi yg di janjikan ?
Apa adakah redhaNya dalam hidup aku?.
Dalam nota yg sebelum ini, 'The Loner Pt.2', aku ada sebut bahawa aku jemu dgn musik.Aku di selimut bosan.Masa tu dlm pertengahan tahun 80an.Usia aku dlm pertengahan 20an.Aku masih lagi berkerja di syarikat perladangan. Boss2 mat salleh banyak pulang ke England.Ada yg pergi ke Papua New Guinea dan Indonesia .Mengurus ladang2 di sana pula.Pengurusan syarikat perladangan terbesar di negara ini di ambilalih oleh perbadanan kerajaan.PNB.Pengurusan orang melayu.
Masa tu Dr.Mahathir Mohamad sebagai perdana menteri.Terkenal dia dgn dasarnya yg anti inggeris.Dr.Mahathir introduce dasar 'Buy British Last'.Makna jgn pandang bangsa Eropah lagi.Di canang pula dasar Pandang Ke Timur.Contohi dayamaju orang Jepun.
Orang putih terpaksa angkat kaki.Hasil bumi tidak boleh lagi di hantar balek ke Britain.Ianya hak anak bangsa tanah ini.Begitulah semangat yg ditiup bagi meng'iya'kan tindak tanduk orang bijakpandai dari kalangan pemimpin melayu .
Dasar anti inggeris ni, aku rasa bukan atas dasar benci penjajah British pun.Mungkin ada lah sebab2 lain .Ekonomi ke apa.Jangan temberang lah kalau kata benci orang putih.Masih ramai orang kita bangga betul kalau dapat pergi ke Britain atau negara2 yg sejenisnya.Bila cuti, mesti nak ke sana.Anakcucu pun kalau boleh, kawin dgn Mat Saleh juga.Benci apa?.
Aku yg pernah berkerja dgn pengurusan orang putih dapat melihat dan merasakan bagaimana perbezaan antara orang putih dgn bangsa sendiri.Bangsa Melayu ni.
Terang cakap.Orang putih ni walau mereka ada lah penjajah tapi dari segi cara berkebajikan, mereka bagus. Pengurusan mereka cekap.Datuk dan bapak aku dulu pun berkerja dgn orang putih.Di sebuah ladang kepunyaan Tuan Marsh.Orang England. Berhampiran kampung kami bernama Padang Tengku.Mereka selalu bercerita tentang kebaikan orang putih tu.
Ramai pemimpin orang melayu ,kata benci penjajah.Tapi cara mereka lain cerita.Lagak gaya mereka macam orang putih.Tapi mereka kengkang.Ada juga yg mahu di panggil 'tuan'.Cara pengurusan kucar kacir.Politik dalaman banyak.Banyak bersebab kalau untok kebajikan pekerja.Peluang untok kaya hanya menjurus kepada kaum kerabat dan kroni .Bila bercakap,semua untok rakyat.Ini lah bangsa kita.Bangsa yg benci penjajah tapi menjajah bangsa sendiri.Pemikiran terus terjajah cara lain pulak.
Memang di peringkat awal pejuangan memerdekakan Tanah Melayu di pelopori oleh mereka yg cintakan bangsa dan tanah ini.Tapi adat naluri manusia di mana saja,bila sudah di buai kebendaan yg di jana oleh kemajuan.Pejuangan hanya alat bagi tujuan yg kita sedia maklum.
Ok lah.Ini bukan nak cerita politik.Nanti ada yg terbakar hati kalau teruskan. Blog aku bukan nak bincang politik pun. Bacalah blog politik oleh yg pakar2.Aku sekadar mengikuti perkembangan saja.
Oleh kerana jemu dan bosan.Musik pun perlahan2 susut dari otak aku.Tambahan pula musik era 80an juga begitu membosankan.Techno ape ke jadah.Rock pun ntah apa2.Majalah2 gitar yg aku minat, macm Guitar Player pun takde highlight article yg menarik.Majalah rock CREEM yg sangat aku minati pun dah tak ada lagi di pasaran tempatan.Band favourite aku dan ramai peminat muzik blues rock di dunia pada masa tu, Lynyrd Skynyrd hancur berkecai dlm tragedi kapalterbang.Album2 Allman Brothers Band yg keluar zaman tu pun tak menarik.Bob Marley pun pulang ke alam barzakh masa tu.Muzik aku macam ikut mati.
Muncul pula masa tu satu trend muzik dari Britian yg di panggil 'punk rock'.Macam biasa, ramai lah juga budak2 melayu jadi pengikut paling ramai genre punk.Di tempat aku,budak2 yg dulu aku lihat hingusan pun dah jadi 'punk'.Dia orang berani cukur kepala tinggal rambut yg di tengah saja.Mereka pakai t-shirt yg ada grafik macam2 yg orang ramai kira negatif dgn selamba.
Balek pada cerita aku.
Waktu rehat tengahari di tempat kerja sekali sekala di adakan ceramah agama.Aku saperti terpanggil, duduk lah dlm majlis ceramah.Seronok juga.Ada antara ustaz2 yg ada humour bila berceramah.Aku mula membeli dan baca buku2 bertopik agama.Antara buku yg menarik,"Kisah Dari Al Quran" oleh Bey Ariffin.Ada juga buku2 lain yg menarik.Semuanya keagamaan.Mengantikan koleksi majalah2 rock.Keset2 ceramah agama oleh Ust.Ghazali Hasbullah mengantikan koleksi2 blues dan rock aku.Solat pun rapi .Sebelum, memang tak solat. Ikut mudah saja.Sembahyang taik lembu, kata arwah Makngah Jah aku.Aku berasa tenang bila beragama semula.Tapi dalam beragama ni,ada berpuak2 juga rupanya.Ada PAS.Ada Al Arqam.Ada Tabligh.Ada juga jemaah2 kecil yg berkisar hal2 sufi,mistik.Semua kata cara mereka paling baik.Mereka paling betul.
Bagi aku yg baru mula mendekati diri dgn agama berfikir, sepatutnya tidak begitu.
Pernah aku hampir terlibat dgn jemaah Tabligh.Sekali sekala ke masjid India dgn kenalan baru yg jumpa di masjid.Dengar taklimat yg aku sendiri pun tak faham.Kemudian di anjur keluar beberapa hari pulak.Seru orang ke masjid.Bermusafir.Alamak.Aku tak boleh.Tapi inilah cara para Anbiya kata mereka.Takpe.Korang pergi dulu.Aku doakan kamu bahagia.Macam kaum Munafiqin pulak aku rasa.
Umor 50 ni agak berbeza sikit.Antara yg buat aku rasa bezanya ialah,lepas tarikh itu,aku dah layak ambil duit EPF dari akaun ke 2.Gelak.Wei..kaya la sekejap.Tapi tak leh enjoy beb.Ada la untok projek hari tua .
50 tahun.Tuhan telah memberi izin ruang hayatNya pada aku selama itu.Cepat betul aku rasa.Tau tau aku dah tua . Hampir pada satu perhentian.Tapi aku rasa tak ada apa pun yg aku berikan kembali kepadaNya.
Layak ke aku bergelar hambaNya?
Layak ke aku ke Syorga abadi yg di janjikan ?
Apa adakah redhaNya dalam hidup aku?.
Dalam nota yg sebelum ini, 'The Loner Pt.2', aku ada sebut bahawa aku jemu dgn musik.Aku di selimut bosan.Masa tu dlm pertengahan tahun 80an.Usia aku dlm pertengahan 20an.Aku masih lagi berkerja di syarikat perladangan. Boss2 mat salleh banyak pulang ke England.Ada yg pergi ke Papua New Guinea dan Indonesia .Mengurus ladang2 di sana pula.Pengurusan syarikat perladangan terbesar di negara ini di ambilalih oleh perbadanan kerajaan.PNB.Pengurusan orang melayu.
Masa tu Dr.Mahathir Mohamad sebagai perdana menteri.Terkenal dia dgn dasarnya yg anti inggeris.Dr.Mahathir introduce dasar 'Buy British Last'.Makna jgn pandang bangsa Eropah lagi.Di canang pula dasar Pandang Ke Timur.Contohi dayamaju orang Jepun.
Orang putih terpaksa angkat kaki.Hasil bumi tidak boleh lagi di hantar balek ke Britain.Ianya hak anak bangsa tanah ini.Begitulah semangat yg ditiup bagi meng'iya'kan tindak tanduk orang bijakpandai dari kalangan pemimpin melayu .
Dasar anti inggeris ni, aku rasa bukan atas dasar benci penjajah British pun.Mungkin ada lah sebab2 lain .Ekonomi ke apa.Jangan temberang lah kalau kata benci orang putih.Masih ramai orang kita bangga betul kalau dapat pergi ke Britain atau negara2 yg sejenisnya.Bila cuti, mesti nak ke sana.Anakcucu pun kalau boleh, kawin dgn Mat Saleh juga.Benci apa?.
Aku yg pernah berkerja dgn pengurusan orang putih dapat melihat dan merasakan bagaimana perbezaan antara orang putih dgn bangsa sendiri.Bangsa Melayu ni.
Terang cakap.Orang putih ni walau mereka ada lah penjajah tapi dari segi cara berkebajikan, mereka bagus. Pengurusan mereka cekap.Datuk dan bapak aku dulu pun berkerja dgn orang putih.Di sebuah ladang kepunyaan Tuan Marsh.Orang England. Berhampiran kampung kami bernama Padang Tengku.Mereka selalu bercerita tentang kebaikan orang putih tu.
Ramai pemimpin orang melayu ,kata benci penjajah.Tapi cara mereka lain cerita.Lagak gaya mereka macam orang putih.Tapi mereka kengkang.Ada juga yg mahu di panggil 'tuan'.Cara pengurusan kucar kacir.Politik dalaman banyak.Banyak bersebab kalau untok kebajikan pekerja.Peluang untok kaya hanya menjurus kepada kaum kerabat dan kroni .Bila bercakap,semua untok rakyat.Ini lah bangsa kita.Bangsa yg benci penjajah tapi menjajah bangsa sendiri.Pemikiran terus terjajah cara lain pulak.
Memang di peringkat awal pejuangan memerdekakan Tanah Melayu di pelopori oleh mereka yg cintakan bangsa dan tanah ini.Tapi adat naluri manusia di mana saja,bila sudah di buai kebendaan yg di jana oleh kemajuan.Pejuangan hanya alat bagi tujuan yg kita sedia maklum.
Ok lah.Ini bukan nak cerita politik.Nanti ada yg terbakar hati kalau teruskan. Blog aku bukan nak bincang politik pun. Bacalah blog politik oleh yg pakar2.Aku sekadar mengikuti perkembangan saja.
Oleh kerana jemu dan bosan.Musik pun perlahan2 susut dari otak aku.Tambahan pula musik era 80an juga begitu membosankan.Techno ape ke jadah.Rock pun ntah apa2.Majalah2 gitar yg aku minat, macm Guitar Player pun takde highlight article yg menarik.Majalah rock CREEM yg sangat aku minati pun dah tak ada lagi di pasaran tempatan.Band favourite aku dan ramai peminat muzik blues rock di dunia pada masa tu, Lynyrd Skynyrd hancur berkecai dlm tragedi kapalterbang.Album2 Allman Brothers Band yg keluar zaman tu pun tak menarik.Bob Marley pun pulang ke alam barzakh masa tu.Muzik aku macam ikut mati.
Muncul pula masa tu satu trend muzik dari Britian yg di panggil 'punk rock'.Macam biasa, ramai lah juga budak2 melayu jadi pengikut paling ramai genre punk.Di tempat aku,budak2 yg dulu aku lihat hingusan pun dah jadi 'punk'.Dia orang berani cukur kepala tinggal rambut yg di tengah saja.Mereka pakai t-shirt yg ada grafik macam2 yg orang ramai kira negatif dgn selamba.
Balek pada cerita aku.
Waktu rehat tengahari di tempat kerja sekali sekala di adakan ceramah agama.Aku saperti terpanggil, duduk lah dlm majlis ceramah.Seronok juga.Ada antara ustaz2 yg ada humour bila berceramah.Aku mula membeli dan baca buku2 bertopik agama.Antara buku yg menarik,"Kisah Dari Al Quran" oleh Bey Ariffin.Ada juga buku2 lain yg menarik.Semuanya keagamaan.Mengantikan koleksi majalah2 rock.Keset2 ceramah agama oleh Ust.Ghazali Hasbullah mengantikan koleksi2 blues dan rock aku.Solat pun rapi .Sebelum, memang tak solat. Ikut mudah saja.Sembahyang taik lembu, kata arwah Makngah Jah aku.Aku berasa tenang bila beragama semula.Tapi dalam beragama ni,ada berpuak2 juga rupanya.Ada PAS.Ada Al Arqam.Ada Tabligh.Ada juga jemaah2 kecil yg berkisar hal2 sufi,mistik.Semua kata cara mereka paling baik.Mereka paling betul.
Bagi aku yg baru mula mendekati diri dgn agama berfikir, sepatutnya tidak begitu.
Pernah aku hampir terlibat dgn jemaah Tabligh.Sekali sekala ke masjid India dgn kenalan baru yg jumpa di masjid.Dengar taklimat yg aku sendiri pun tak faham.Kemudian di anjur keluar beberapa hari pulak.Seru orang ke masjid.Bermusafir.Alamak.Aku tak boleh.Tapi inilah cara para Anbiya kata mereka.Takpe.Korang pergi dulu.Aku doakan kamu bahagia.Macam kaum Munafiqin pulak aku rasa.
Selama aku selalu dgn program2 agama,aku kelamaan banyak berkawan dgn kawan2 yg sehaluan dan bersetuju dgn dasar Parti Islam SeMalaysia.PAS.Aku lebih senang dgn kawan2 dlm Parti Islam ni.Member2 Pas ni,mereka banyak berkisar hal politik sambil mengaji agama.Ikut ke ceramah2 yg kerap di anjurkan masa tu.Aku pun dulu suka ikut perkembangan politik Malaysia.Isu debat UMNO-PAS.UMNO lama,UMNO baru.Isu Mahadir Mohd bertelagah dgn raja2 melayu.Peristiwa Memali.Macam2.
Aku memang dari dulu tak berkenan dengan UMNO ni.Tak tahu kenapa.Tok dan wan aku dulu memang penyokong UMNO.Tapi mereka hanya penyokong buta saja.Tak aktif pun.Orang tua dulu2.Tahu saja lah.
Semasa membesar di Selayang dulu, ada juga aku saja2 pergi tengok mesyuarat UMNO di dewan orang ramai.Mesti ada bergaduh.Kecoh UMNO ni.Memang style mereka sejak dulu.Berebut kuasa,dengki mendengki ni memang dlm agenda politik UMNO.Maklum lah parti memerintah.Kepentingan dan peluang buat harta di situ lah.Nak buat harta,sila masok UMNO.Harta haram.Jangan ingat duit haram beli nombor ekor saja.Ish! melalut dah aku ni.
Masa aku berkawan dgn orang2 Pas,aku pun bertukar cara.Pakai jubah berserban.Ada janggut.Ikut program usrah.Ini buat tok Dolah tak senang tengok aku.Aku selalu di marahi.Aku ni asyek buat orang tu bengang saja.Entah lah.Cara aku mendekatkan diri dgn agama tak begitu di senangi.Berserban jubah.Ada gambar Ayatollah Khomeini.Hahaha.Masa tu gambar pemimpin agung revolusi Iran tu memang terdapat di mana2 bagi mereka yg kagum dgn ideologi revolusi Islam menentang Amerika.Kebanyakan ahli memang ada gambar Khomeini di rumah mereka.Tapi aku di tuduh oleh Tok Dollah menyembah gambar Ayatollah Khomeini.Aku berterusan menjadi perkara yg tak disenangi oleh orang tua yg telah membela aku sejak dari kecil.Nasib aku.
Pendekkan cerita,bila umor aku mencecah 26, aku pun miang nak kawin.Tapi sebelum aku berkawin dgn isteri aku yg sekarang ni, aku pernah bercinta ala bollywood dgn seorang gadis keturunan bengali Pakistan.Setahun lebih kami sebagai kekasih.Memang bercadang untok berkawin tapi atas banyak sebab, jodoh kami tak jadi kenyataan.Kami broke up.Itu cinta aku yg pertama.Serious juga aku bercinta dgn awek benggali tu.
Aku bukan jenis senang dapat perempuan atau awek keliling pinggang.Walaupun ada orang bagi credit muka aku hensem bin macho.Kata orang,kebanyakkan perempuan suka jantan yg pandai buat ayat.Bukan muka macho.Maksudnya,kata2 yg indah berpuisi,meliut lentok .Ayat mau power beb!.Entah lah,tak reti aku.Tak pandai aku semua tu.Tak ada ayat2 'power'.Baca saja cara aku menulis ni pun dah berserabut ntah kemana.Nak ayat apa?
Macamana pun, aku tetap ada jodoh.Tuhan dah tentukan.
Tak lama lepas berpisah dgn gadis pakistan tu, aku bertemu dgn gadis bakal jadi isteri aku.Aku mengurat dia masa majlis kawin mak saudara aku di kampong.Isteri aku berasal dari kg Merapoh,dlm daerah Kuala Lipis juga.
Jodoh. Ini kerja Tuhan.Aku yang selama ini membesar dan berkerja di kota Kuala Lumpur,dpat isteri orang Kuala Lipis juga.Tak dapat bini Pakistan.Mungkin kalau kawin dgn gadis Pakistan tu, minum susu kerbau basi agaknya aku.Gelak.Tapi bekas makwe aku tu bukan lah dari negara Pakistan.Keturunannya saja.Dia orang Malaysia.Di rumah,mereka lebeh cara melayu.
Oo pergi ke rumah ye?
Ye.. pergi jugak.Dah di ajak, pergi lah.
Keluarganya baik.Bekas makwe aku tu pun memang baik.Hari ni pun,kami sesekali terserempak.Aku cuma senyum saja pada dia.Tapi bukan senyum nak goda.Dia pun dah bersuami.Suaminya orang melayu juga.Kebetulan kawasan perumahan kami berdekatan.
Beberapa bulan sebelum aku nikah,aku di beri peluang berkerja sebagai Pelukis Pelan Aperantis di jabatan kejuruteraan di syarikat yg sama.Rezeki aku bertambah sedikit.Ini pun kerja Tuhan.
Janji Tuhan, kalau kita yakin dgn Nya nescaya kita di restui.Berkerja lah aku sebagai pelukis pelan bersama saorang lagi kawan,Azmi.Dari jawatan ofis boy kami jadi pelukis pelan.
Awal tahun 1986,aku pun berkahwin di Merapoh.Hidup aku masok ke fasa baru.Aku dah ada isteri! Memang best hidup ada isteri.Tapi tangungjawab bertambah lah.Isteri aku orang kampong saja.Aku bernikah umor isteri baru 17 tahun.Tak berkerja.Aku memang tak pernah fikir hal ni semua.Sebab aku memang berfikiran konservatif.Bini di rumah.Laki keluar berkerja.Masa tu memang aku dlm suasana beragama.Jiwa memang terlatih berkeyakinan pada Tuhan.Tuhan yg memberi rezeki.Manusia cuma mesti berusaha untok hidup.Memang sejak dari zaman manusia mula bertamddun.Ini lah cara.Lelaki yang mesti ke hadapan.
Tapi hari ni ada juga yg laki di rumah jaga anak.Bini pulak keluar pergi kerja.Amacam tu? Tak mahu komen.Ok komen la sikit.Ini hasil dari proses yg di panggil 'modernisation'.Keadaan hidup manusia sekarang hampir jadi songsang.Macam matahari akan terbit dari barat.Panjang cerita.
Setahun lepas kawin.Aku jadi bapa pula.Kami dpat anak perempuan.Tanggungjawab semakin bertambah.Selepas 2 tahun.Anak laki pulak muncul.Bertambah lagi.Anak bertambah,begitu juga tanggungjawab.
Alhmdulillah.Kehidupan tak lah begitu susah.Ada kerja tetap.Anak isteri tak pernah tak makan.Pakaian elok.Ada rumah.Walaupun menyewa.Memang ada kala,ada kesempitan.Biasalah.Takkan hidup ni senang memanjang saja.Tak ada turun naiknya.Itu dah bukan kehidupan namanya.Hari ni kita berhadapan dgn krisis ekonomi global.Biasa.Ini semua proses kehidupan.Krisis bermula di Amerika tu cuma punca saja.
Masuk ke tahun 90an.Anak2 aku semakin bertambah.Aku jadi saorang yg lebeh matang dlm hidup.Masa ini pula,aku sudah kurang dgn keagamaan pulak.Setelah aku berpindah ketempat lain.Aku kurang berkawan dgn kawan2 Pas.Ke majlis2 agama pun mula susut.
Ada masa terluang aku sekali sekali masok ke kedai muzik juga.Teringat pulak akan pepatah orang dulu2.Anjing kalau tak makan taik,baunya ada juga.Ish! ada ke cerita taik anjing pulak!
Rupanya, muzik tak boleh di pisahkan dari jiwa aku.
Masa ni zaman CD mula dlm pasaran.Aku dapati banyak album band lama2 yg aku minat berada di pasaran.Mengembalikan nostalgia aku.Tambahan banyak band2 lama yg 'revive'.Mereka keluar album baru.Lagu baru, tapi style dan sound lama.Menarik!.Aku teruja kembali.
Allman Brothers keluar dgn album berjudul "Seven Turns".Best album tu.Begitu juga album selepasnya yg berjudul "Shades Of Two Worlds".Eric Clapton keluar dgn 'unplugged'.Malahan banyak band2 baru dan muda pun buat album dgn bunyi lama antaranya Nirvana,Pearl Jam.Sound mereka di gelar 'grunge'.Band2 grungy ni kebanyakkan 'quote' Neil Young sebagai pengaruh mereka.Neil Young pula memang banyak pengaruh dlm muzik aku sebelum keluar band2 grunge.Tapi aku tak pulak grunge.Aku masih 'blues/folk',dan sedikit country.
Era 90an aku lihat sebagai revival pada muzik zaman aku dulu.Teringat aku pada satu lagu lama Allman Brothers Band berjudul "Revival".
"People, can you feel it, love is in the air..people can you feel it,love is everywhere".
Seolah olah lah mereka tahu satu masa nanti, populariti mereka tenggelam kemudian bangkit kembali.Revival.
Lynyrd Skynyrd yg hancur dulu pun kembali dgn album baru "1990",tapi bunyi mereka sama saperti dulu.Penyanyi baru Lynyrd menyanyi saling tak tumpah saperti penyanyi mereka yg terkorban ia itu Ronnie Van Zandt.Adiknya Johnnie menggantikan abangnya yg sudah mati.Lil' ol band from Texas,ZZ Top juga kembali bunyi 'raw' dgn album "Recycler".
Ada juga band2 favourite yg terus tenggelam dan hilang saperti The Marshall Tucker Band,The Outlaws,Black Oak Arkansas.Tapi album2 mereka terus keluar dlm bentuk CD.Ada 'rare track' mereka di rakam semula.Menarik.
Zaman revival pun banyak juga muncul band yg bermacam style.Metal.Grindcore.Speed.Bermacam2.Band2 ni banyak berpaksikan kumpulan Black Sabbath.Bunyi mereka gelap.Seram.Cerita mereka selalunya mitos dan mystic.Yang mempertikaikan agama pun ada.Mereka ambil si Iblis sebagai hero pujaan mereka.Kuasa yg mencipta si Iblis tu mereka hamun dlm lirik2 lagu mereka.Mereka lebih 'dark' dari Black Sabbath.Aku dengar juga Black Sabbath, tapi BS dari dulu bukan dalam list aku.Begitu juga Led Zepellin.Tapi kalau bagi aku pilihan antara BS atau Led.Led Zeppelin lah sepatutnya masuk list aku.Led Zeppelin sebenarnya ada lah band yg asasnya blues.Cuma Led Zep banyak cerita mitos , mystic & magik.Begitu juga band seangkatan mereka bernama Uriah Heep.
Uriah Heep di kira agak lembut juga.Album2 mereka saperti "Very 'eavy very 'umble","Salisbury" antara yg aku minati.
Bagi aku,muzik yg aku dengar,aku jiwai.Bukan ikut orang.Orang rock, kita rock.Orang rap, kita rap.Orang jazz kita pun jazz.Orang kata folk,kita folk.Orang kata blues,kita blues.Apa tu? tak tentu arah. Muzik yg kita dengar di hasilkan oleh orang lain.Orang lain tu ada jiwa.Orang lain tu manusia macam kita.Tak kira dia bangsa apa.
Macam kita lihat lukisan.Bukan semua orang boleh faham apa yg di lakar oleh sa orang pelukis.
Lebih lagi kalau lukisan tu jenis 'abstract'.Begitu juga muzik.Bukan semua orang boleh faham jenis2 muzik.Kalau jiwa tak faham,buat2 faham,buat2 suka.Maka muzik tanpa soul .Kefahaman tentang muzik,sifar.Kena tahu susur galornya.
Muzik ada susur galornya.Seni lukis pun begitu.Akidah pun begitu.Malahan semua benda hidup begitu.Ada susur galornya.Kecuali Tuhan.Tuhan yg memberi kehidupan.Alamak..ni dah ber falsampah lah pulak.He he.. tak juga.Ini bercakap tentang muzik yg serious.Kalau dengar muzik cara suka2 saja,pasang radio aje lah.Hot FM ke apa ntah.
Setelah aku kembali teruja dengan 'revival' muzik .Aku saperti terpanggil.Gitar aku beli dari kedai muzik terkenal di Kuala Lumpur .Woh Fatt.Harga RM500.Walaupun lama tak bergitar, jari jemari aku masih boleh bermain.Kord2 asas masih ingat.Hampir 10 tahun aku berhenti bermain, aku kembali bergitar .
Kembali bermain ada baiknya juga pada aku.Pada hari2 Sabtu atau Ahad, ada kelapangan aku cuba 'busking' di CM.Itu lah mulanya aku dgn aktiviti busking.Membantu juga aku dapat duit lebih.Maklumlah dah berkeluarga.
Masa tu 'buskers' yg sangat popular di CM ialah Sidek dan Adi Jagat.Gandingan mereka sangat mantap.Tapi masa tu aku jarang juga di CM.Yang kerap bermain di CM selalunya Sidek,Adi Jagat dan Shari.Ada juga buskers lain yg tak aku kenal.
Shari aku kenal semasa dia jadi anggota band yg di ketuai oleh Din Country dan Ajin Blockrose.
Tapi kami sekadar berteguran saja.Tak rapat.Din saja yg selalu dgn aku.Sebab kami dah lama kenal.Ketika itu Din menjalankan print t-shirt di CM bersama abangnya Mi Katun.Bila di CM aku singgah berbual2 di situ sambil mendengar lagu.Meor pun aku kenal di sekitar masa tu.Meor selalu aku lihat berada di salah satu stall t-shirt kepunyaan kawannya Wan.Kami menjadi kenalan oleh kerana sama2 meminati karya Iwan Fals.Dari masa ke masa kami jadi lebih rapat dan lebih mengenali minat yg sama dlm musik.Tapi Meor belum giat bermuzik di jalanan waktu tu.
Sidek aku kenal semasa di Selayang lagi.Dia senior aku.Baik orangnya.Sidek dulunya berniaga burger di batu 3 jln Ipoh.Dengan duit jualan itu dia ke London.Tak tahu berapa lama dia di sana.Pulang semula ke Malaysia,Sidek bermain di pub sekitar Kuala Lumpur.Paling terkenal dgn muzik blues dan rock iaitu Red Rooster di Medan Tuanku.Bermain dgn kumpulan rock yg di anggotai juga oleh Sam Rasputin.Juga terkenal sebagai dr Sam.Mereka di kenali sebagai dr Sam and The Clinic.Mereka ini lah juga yg mulakan aktiviti 'busking' di Kuala Lumpur.Aku gelar sebagai 'buskers handsome'.
'Busker handsome' ini maksud aku ialah pemuzik jalanan yg tampil dgn imej rock dan rugged.Bukan orang cacat atau buta.Alat muzik selalunya gitar tong dan harmonika.Imej folk.Lagu2 yg di persembahkan selalunya 'rock' dlm versi akustik.Lagu2 Bob Dylan,Rolling Stones,Led Zep dan yg sewaktu dengannya.Ini 'buskers handsome'.
Adi Jagat aku kenali semasa baru cuba2 busking di CM.Suara Adi Jagat juga sering ke dengaran di radio masa tu dgn lagu promosi "Visit Malaysia".Adi Jagat,Shari dan aku pernah busking bersama seketika di CM.Atas sebab2 tertentu, aku kemudian kurang busking dgn mereka.Aku dapati dlm profession busking ni rupanya ada politik dan irihati.Aku punya kerja dan bergaji tetap.Perlu apa aku terjebak dgn politik dan irihati berbusking ni.Aku fikir.Aku pun jarang ke CM cuma kalau untok busking dan berhadapan dengan kerenah remeh itu.
Lumrah kehidupan.Apa perkara pun tak akan kekal .Kumpulan rock datang dan pergi.Mereka timbul dan kemudian tenggelam.Lebih2 lagi persekitaran saperti di Malaysia ni.Di tambah lagi dengan satu penyakit yg kerap melanda jiwa muda.Dadah.Pemuzik dan penyanyi memang ramai yg terlibat.Ramai yg tersungkur kerana dadah.Kebanyakan mereka pengguna yg guna suntikan.Sidek antara pemuzik yg sangat berbakat menjadi korban atas kesilapan dlm perjalanan hidupnya.Semoga Tuhan mengampuni dia.
Bagi kita,kehidupan terus berjalan.Buskers ketika itu ramai yg sebenarnya penagih dadah.Segelentir saja yg tak terlibat.Bagi yg tak terlibat bagaimanapun tetap di pandang serong oleh masyarakat.Bagi yang penagih,busking jadi sumber untok menampong keperluan membeli dadah.Samada mereka busking untuk dadah atau dadah yg buat mereka busking.Satu persoalan yg boleh di hurai oleh penilaian kita sendiri.
Bagi aku, busking banyak positif dari negatif.Bukan busking yg menjadikan kita terlibat dan benda2 ni.Semua benda2 negatif ,dadah ke,apa ke berpunca dari tak berupaya nya mengawal nafsu.Kawal nafsu.Bukan perkara mudah.
Selama aku kembali bermain muzik aku banyak bertemu dgn orang yg terkenal dlm industri ini.
Aku pernah duduk dalam satu sesi bersantai, berbual dan bersoal jawab dgn pemain dram kumpulan Jazz/Rock Mahavishnu Orchestra ia itu Billy Cobham.Dia sangat humble.Kedatangannya di taja oleh Yamaha Music.Tandatangan Billy Cobham ada di CD Mahavishnu Orchestra kepunyaan aku.
Kumpulan Blues Gang yg dulu nya aku cuma melihat mereka di konsert kini setiap mereka adalah kenalan.Dua orang member Blues Gang yg rapat dgn aku.Julian Mokhtar dan Abdul Ghani atau Tok Ghani.Dgn Julian,kami sering bermain muzik blues di pub dan kelab2 sekitar Kuala Lumpur.Kadang hingga ke Langkawi.Dgn Tok Ghani,aku bermain gitar dan harmonika juga menyanyi dgn blues band yg di asasnya,"Howlin' Band".Kami selalu jam session di pusat rekrasi Alang Sedayu di Ulu Gombak setiap hujung minggu.
Wan Ahmad,pemain gitar kumpulan Sweet Charity, juga kenalan baik.Wan Ahmad tidak segan silu menjadi partner busking aku setiap hujung minggu di Downtown Ceras.
Mereka semua humble.Merendah diri.Aku menghormati mereka bukan kerana mereka 'artis' atau selebriti.Aku menghormati mereka kerana mereka menghormati aku sebagai kawan mereka.Kita mesti saling menghormati.
Ali Bakar.Dlm industri muzik Malaysia siapa tak kenal dia.Aku panggil dia 'abang Ali' atas dasar menghormati dia yg lebih tua.Abang Ali selalu memberi sokongan semangat dan nasihat pada aku.Walau dia tahu aku cuma pemuzik jalanan.
Hussein Ismail.Penyanyi veteran yg seangkatan seniman Ahmad Jais.Satu hari kebetulan dia berada di CM menonton persembahan jalanan .Pak Hussein datang bersalaman,mengalakkan aku buat rakaman.Dia sedia membantu selaku dia saorang 'talent scout' untok Life Record.Aku hargai pandangan dan nasihatnya.Tapi lebih aku hormati dia kerana sifat rendah dirinya.Orang lama saperti Pak Hussein tahu. Ada yg 'berharga' walau di jalanan yg panas lekit dan penuh debu2 kehidupan.Semoga Tuhan terus memberi dia kesihatan yg baik.
Dr.Wan Zawawi Ibrahim.Terkenal kerana lagu2nya banyak dinyanyikan oleh penyanyi2 terkenal tanahair, antaranya "perjalanan Hidup" oleh Ramli Sarip.Pertama kali aku di jemput oleh Dr.Wan untok bermain harmonica untok lagunya yg berjudul "Dengarlah Cerita Ku" di Balai Senilukis Negara satelah aku di perkenalkan oleh kawan aku,Ariff Akhir.Selepas itu Dr.Wan sering mengajak aku dlm persembahan di kelab2 sekitar Kuala Lumpur.Walaupun aku hanya pemuzik jalanan,Dr.Wan tidak mengambil kira.Baginya muzik mengatasi ke'ego'an manusia.
Peter Hassan Brown & Markiza.Juga saperti Dr.Wan.Mereka semua kenalan yg aku hormati kerana sifat rendah diri.
Peluang berkenalan dgn orang2 seni yg sudah terkenal memberi ruang yg baik buat aku.Aku gunakan peluang ini dlm menambah pengalaman dalam hidup.Bukan untok aku bermegah atau ber'ego'an.
Ada juga aku bertemu dgn banyak budak2 penyanyi dan band2 yg baru nak meningkat tapi mereka ni kadang aku lihat ego semacam.Gaya mereka macamlah mereka tu setanding Rolling Stones ke apa.Geli aku tengok karektor macam tu.
Pada usia ini, apa pentingnya glamour atau ego pada aku.Memang ada kepentingannya.Tapi aku tak mahu mengejar perkara yg di panggil glamour itu.Ada alasan untok aku.Biar aku saja yg tahu.
Aku tak peduli siapa.Artis ke,selebriti ke,seniman negara ke,seniman jalanan ke,menteri besar ke,iblis setan jembalang ke.Menghormati yang penting bagi aku.Macam yg di anjurkan oleh Muhammad (SAW).Sayangi yang muda (dgn ihsan).Hormatilah yg tua dari kamu.
Hari ini,suasana busking masih berterusan dgn kemunculan buskers yg lain pula.Antara mereka ialah Meor,Nik,Syed,Eddie,Ijam,Zam Flamenco, sekadar sebut beberapa nama.Kebanyakkan mereka busking penuh masa.Menyara hidup dan keluarga.Aku antaranya.Masih dan kerap pula di CM.Terutama di hujung minggu.Aku masih lagi berkerja.Di firma lain pula.Busking menjadi sumber pendapatan ke dua bagi aku.Tapi aku serious melakukan.Walaupun di jalanan,tapi aku beri persembahan sebagaimana di pub atau kelab.
Dimana aku bermain,aku lakukan sebaik mungkin.Tak kira jalanan atau pentas mahu pun sekiranya di siaran tv.Memang aku pernah muncul di tv.Buat persembahan secara 'live'.
Di usia begini aku dapati tanggungan aku terus berat.Ianya macam satu perjuangan.Berjuang untuk hidup di kota Kuala Lumpur.Aku besar di sini.Aku tiada pilihan.Yang pasti apa yg aku buat ini tidak mendatangkan susah pada jiwa lain.Orang lain mungkin melihat aku saperti enjoy .
Ya, memang aku enjoy tapi aku berkerja sebenarnya.Anak2 membesar dan bersekolah.
Aku akan terus dgn seni di jalanan.Aku sudah biasa.Tiada perkataan segan atau malu bagi aku.Selagi Tuhan memberi aku keupayaan berbuat demikian.Aku akan teruskan.
Di hadapan, masih ada hari2 yg tak ada ketentuannya.Tuhan beri aku petunjuk.
"The road goes on forever......."
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