I first heard 'Hujan ditengah hari' when PRamlee sang it god knows how long ago. When I heard it again, it was last September at KLPAC right after the second staging of Dramalab's first play,"Gold Rain and Hailstones" held after thirteen years. We were also there at the first staging of the play with the same original players- Jit Murad and Lin Jaafar. This song came on just after curtains at the last performance of the season .
The richness of voice and appropriateness of the lyrics to the play was a fitting finale to round off a most enjoyable evening and it overwhelmed me. I had wondered if they had remastered the P Ramlee song. I never got to find out who the singer was, that night. But I had an inkling that Sean Ghazi could be involved. So Christmas came and on my wish list was Sean Ghazi's new album, Semalam. Ann & Hanim's Xmas present to me was the album, who quite appropriately was also our host at the play.
From the first track onwards, the album is pure 24K gold. Throughout hi-tea on Christmas day with our closest and dearest, everyone had no choice but to listen to my favourite Christmas present. And they agreed it was sheer delight. I especially liked it because it rekindled my love for the beauty of the Malay language, especially when it comes to love songs. And Sean, is a Malaysian a long time coming, to take up the slack left for too long by the late great PRamlee who doesn't even sing in English. Sean comes with very accomplished credentials having played Broadway and West End theatres. He appeared in Miss Saigon, stage and screen appearances for The King and I.
Zane's especially obsessed with the album being the romantic that he is, Summer's ok but Mum's getting overdosed on his songs. And I? I just like the big band, jazz treatment he has given to some of the best Malay classics available. Semalam is sheer pleasure.
Go take a listen here Semalam
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Uh huh uh huh!
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Seeing how fast Zane got caught up with Sean makes me see how our son wants to emulate you in just this one way. It touches me. Perhaps it's his way of reaching out to you and i am glad. It used to be like that with Jon - just you know that you were Jon's role model. From one of our last sharing, Jon wanted to do MassComm or Media Studies, specialising in writing, to be in the same business as you. i think he was trying to tell me he would like to take over the business one day. My dear, what you must be doing is right to have both your sons wanting to be 'on track' with you, not necessarily, be like you. i like that. thank you my dear husband, thank you for giving them, including Summer so much of you. It fills my heart and gives me tremendous joy to see you with them. Namaste.
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