a Tribute to Millennia Institude Anglung/ Kulintang Ensemble (MIAKE)

Most of you know I love all sort of music which ranges from Cool Jazz to Thrash Metal. This month I have the most delightful of shoot involving the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) and four of the seven episodes involves music: Concert Band, Anglung/ Kulintang Ensemble, Chorale and String Ensemble. I was involved in all except the last one. In this entry, I would like to pay tribute to MIAKE for making my first experience listening to a live AKE a truly wonderful and memorable experience.

MIAKE got silver despite a spirited performance, which I strongly feel they do not deserve. It was more than a "Gold with honors" performance, it was a life changing performance to me and a whole lot of young people in the hall. I believe that those (for me at least) who heard the Ensemble today realized that AKE doesn't need to be boring by staying in the traditional style (which must be a mainstay to keep the art alive). I must admit that I thought it was going to be some boring "Chan Mali Chan" or "Singapura, Oh Sigapura" kind of music. The first piece was a surprisingly delightful tango, but the piece that slays was the second piece. Kudos to the Conductor's for a passionate display and motivation to her orchestra and that second piece was so intense, emotional and captivating. I was sitting at the edge of my sit during that piece. It took me on a roller coster ride like a Neal Morse or Dream Theatre song. I call it "Progressive AKE"!

During the judges' / expert giving their views about the day's performance and about the standard of AKE in the school scene, the more conservative judges were in favour of at least a traditional piece followed by a contemporary one. I love the American judge's assessment of the situation best when he said that a lot more exploration can be done to advance the art of AKE. I guess MIAKE were pushing the boundaries too much for some of the judge's liking. In every style of music, the advan garde or the visionary or the rebel who thinks out of the box that get kicked "out of the box", but only time will tell what great legacy these mavericks left behind to future torch-bearers. But for now, THANK YOU! As a homie in the Bt Batok area, I'll be supporting and looking out for ya!

New Church, New Beginnings

It has been one year since I decided to make ARPC our home church. I miss my friends, but I so love the new experience in a new environment. The fellowship with my new found team mates in the worship team was great. I was totally fooled into thinking that they only had great piano, but when I sat with the band, I was totally shocked by the standards of all the players! Now I have new favourite songwriters: Keith & Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.

I was so hyped up about playing last weekend because Jessy chose "Mighty to save". A Hillsong song!! It is the second time I heard one in ARPC. The first time was actually almost 4 years ago during PS' baptism. The song that day was Geoff Bullock's "This Kingdom". Back to the point now. So I felt hyped up with the new drum shield and all, I still need to control my dynamics. It's really hard to control in such a small hall, but I played my best. Urgh, but my tempo was horrendous! Ah, but that is nothing new, but the long time way from the drums caused me to adopt a very bad posture on the drums. The upper back pain that started when I was in Beijing two weeks ago just made it hard to sit up straight. Here are a few things I think I need to do for some immediate remedies about my posture: 1) Sit about an inch or two higher 2) Raise the while kit higher so that I do not need to bend over to hit any thing. 3) Stop using Steve Gadd's reason for moving the way he does to justify my bad posture 4) See a chiropractor.

Now, the sucky thing is I would be busy on shoot from April u til mid July the latest. The only thing I can do is to hit the drum pad again. And because of my schedule my band's recording have to be put on hold as well.