Kuala Lumpur - THIS will surely awaken your aural senses. We‘re talking about Gambus Goes Latin, a two-night showcase featuring gambus exponent Farid Ali at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP) on Monday.
Farid possesses a knack for creating compositions that steer clear of traditional gambus sounds and his brand of music is thus imbued with great colour.
Born in Singapore, he spent his childhood years watching exquisite ghazal performances in Muar, Johor. Farid‘s music is steeped in traditional Malay sounds as well as jazz. He is striving to revive the near-extinct musical instrument and laboriously compiling an academic syllabus on the age-old gambus, “to be passed on to the young generation of the future”.
“If I can obtain sufficient funding, I would come up with a two-year curriculum solely on the gambus. That‘s my dream. The instrument is becoming extinct and I‘m formulating a teaching programme, a shortcut of sorts for amateur as well as professional guitarists,” said Farid, when met recently.
“With it, I hope to tap into local guitarists and inspire them to learn the instrument.
“If you can play the guitar, you only need to add 20 per cent more to your skills to master the instrument.”
Farid explained that the old way of teaching the gambus has yet to be documented and no one has ever formulated a curriculum on the instrument or constructed a definitive infrastructure for scholarly consumption.
“I hope to be able to do so. My heart is telling me that anything is possible and it is my mission to educated the young about our heritage.”
Farid has released three albums up till now, Turning Point (in 2005) and No Strings Attached, which feature finger-style guitarist Roger Wang.
Farid released Back To Basics in 2006, a mini project with a “less is more” approach using minimal supporting instrumentation and the gambus as the main instrument.
All the albums are an exquisite blend of gambus-infused jazz with a tinge of psychedelic soul.
“The albums are my personal journey in life that poignantly reflect the layers of experiences and dreams. The process has been nothing but eventful,” said Farid How has response to his music been?
“To be honest, my music is very niche but I‘ve been getting a lot of support from expatriates who feel that what I‘m doing is brilliant because I‘m reinventing a ancient instrument which is integral to our culture,” he said.
Also a talented jazz singer, Farid first laid his fingers on a guitar at age 11 and began performing in talent contests and at small gigs.
At 19, he left for the United States to pursue formal music training at the Guitar Institute of Technology in California. Armed with a Diploma in Performance, he attained a music degree at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
In the nine years there, he gathered valuable music experience, extensively performing in arts, music and jazz festivals all over the United States, Johannesburg, Canada and Korea.
He bagged the Best Arranger Award at the Curacao International Song Festival in 1998.
Farid continued adding prestigious awards to his string of accolades, such as the Distant Accord Award at Wiltern Theatre conferred by the World Festival Organisation. He was awarded the World Peace Movement Award in Los Angeles in 1992.
He has also wowed the audience at Unesco‘s 60th anniversary celebrations in Paris in 2005, which included Prince Albert II of Monaco as guest. Farid has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Ernie Watts, Bobby McFerrin, Randy Bernsen and Eric Marienthal.
For the performances at DFP, Farid is going Latin.
“I chose Latin as the central theme for this showcase because I‘m experimenting with the genre. In the past, I‘ve fused jazz and gambus, and the results have been awesome,” said Farid.
He is backed by pianist/keyboardist Mac Chew, drummer John Thomas, bassist Andy Peterson and percussionist Kamrul Hussin.
Farid will perform Latin hits including Spain, Girl From Ipanema, Mambo Inn, One Note Samba along with popular songs such as Wave, Night In Tunisia and How Insensitive.
For local flavour, Farid, who will be playing gambustar (the pear-shaped, short-necked gambus), will render the evergreen Getaran Jiwa, and Zapin Blues, Joget Gambus and a few others.
Source: www.nst.com.my (16 April 2008)
