{"id":283,"date":"2003-02-16T10:24:05","date_gmt":"2003-02-16T17:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/?p=283"},"modified":"2006-11-15T12:27:52","modified_gmt":"2006-11-15T19:27:52","slug":"hindi-star-kidnaps-producer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/hindi-star-kidnaps-producer\/","title":{"rendered":"HINDI WALKABOUT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 11 of 18 serialised by Nuance<\/u>, New Straits Times<\/a><\/p>\n

26th October 2002<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day off today. I took the opportunity to return a bass cabinet we borrowed from Nishino Toro. Nish is a promoter for Japanese acts in KL. In fact, it was through him that I first got to know Hayakawa<\/a> and the renown free-jazz Japanese saxophonist Umezu Kazutoki<\/a> (both are principal members of the incredible ‘Kiki Band’). Umezu agreed to work on my record too, but I couldn’t afford to fly in two musicians from Japan, and so only Hayakawa came. <\/p>\n

Anyway, the bass cabinet was to be returned to Lewis’s studio. When I arrived, Nish came out to help carry the thing. Then, to my surprise, Umezu Kazutoki popped out too – all five foot two of him. Nish had told me a few weeks ago that Umezu-san was going to be in town, but had also said he would be very busy -, so I hadn’t bothered to contact him. Still, Umezu and I had a short chat. He said he’d still love to play on my record – could I arrange a session for today? I stopped myself from falling over and told him this was our day off.<\/p>\n

‘What about tomorrow?’ I suggested. <\/p>\n

‘No, Peto-san, I flying back to Tokyo tonight at 8.30.’ <\/p>\n

It was then I saw the clarinet he was holding in his hands. Oh dear. To be honest, I don’t need a saxophone on the record, but a clarinet is something else again. A thin reedy sound would be brilliant on ‘Hush Marianne’, where there is space for an extended instrumental solo at the end. Hm. I saw the possibility straight away. I began to salivate. It’s time to work the phone.<\/p>\n

After a frantic round of phone calls and more groveling, I managed to secure the studio for a few hours tonight. Plenty enough time. Umezu said he only needed half an hour. Good oh. <\/p>\n

Next, I tried to get hold of Ronan<\/a>. The Yankee had gone walk-about around KL doing the touristy bit. I called his hotel. No good. So I left a message. As I hung up, I reflected upon my good fortune. This was a chance to get a Japanese maestro to play clarinet on the record. Brilliant! If only I could get hold of Ronan.<\/p>\n

I waited 15 minutes then called Ronan’s hotel room again. Still nothing.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m a pretty determined guy. So I proceeded to call his room every 15 minutes for the next 4 hours. The hotel operator got quite annoyed with me after two hours. But what does he know? I mean – it’s not everyday you get to work with a world-renowned musician, let alone having one play on your record. <\/p>\n

BUT WHERE IS RONAN?<\/p>\n

RONAN!!!!<\/p>\n

Argh. He was probably bopping around Mesjid India buying Hindi music CDs. God help me. Anyway, I thought I’d change my feng shui and call from home instead. So I arranged to meet Umezu later and left. When I arrived home, I felt better vibrations straight away and dialed with renewed energy. One ring. Two ring. Three ring. Please leave a message. Beep. Click. Damn. I changed the position of my sofa to face east and tried again. Sigh. No good either.<\/p>\n

And so it was I kept trying desperately for another hour. <\/p>\n

RONAN!!!<\/p>\n

I was getting frantic now and shortened the frequency of my calls to once every 5 minutes. The operator must have thought I was mad.<\/p>\n

By 8pm, and hundreds of blasphemous endearments later, even I had to admit defeat. But in case the hotel operator was already missing me, I made one last call. Buzz. Click. No good. Umezu had to leave for the airport by 8.30pm and there was still no sign of Ronan. Deflated, I bowed my head and thought terrible thoughts. It seems we had blown the chance to feature a Japanese institution on the record. All I got by way of compensation was a quick drink at the Green Man with the said institution. <\/p>\n

And so it was I sobbed as I downed another pint of nectar. Umezu patted me on the shoulder as Nish looked on, ‘There, there, don’t choke. I’ll play on your next record. Promise.’<\/p>\n

But I may not have a next record. <\/p>\n

When Umezu and Nish left for the airport, I stayed on at the Green Man and played pool against the owner. I tried to alleviate my disappointment by impersonating a pool shark. I was really good and must have played 20 games without losing once. But in the end, it was no consolation at all – I still can’t believe we missed having Umezu on the record by such a thin margin. He would have played for nothing too. <\/p>\n

Ronan finally returned my call at 10pm. I told him the story. He felt really bad. He’d apparently been walking around all over town for 10 hours. A what-could-have-been walk, as it were. Phoeey. I told him he’d blown his chance to win the Grammy’s next year. He took it badly, promised to burn his collection of Hindi film music and wanted to throw himself in front of a bus. I stopped him with a well-timed tackle and bought him some beer. We cried into our beers for 3 hours until our eyes were puffy like puffs. <\/p>\n

I felt better when I got home. I told myself that it was definitely a lost opportunity, though not a fatal one. It would have been really nice to feature Umezu on the record, but it wasn’t to be. May be next time. Shrug. Anyway, you must go see him when he comes to play in KL next. One of the most powerful sax player I’ve ever heard and a great live performer. He and Hayakawa are a brilliant combination. Anyway, I thought I’d tell you this because I want you to know how close we came to adding more Japanese kudos to the record. <\/p>\n

Hm. Wait. I am feeling terrible again just thinking about it. It’s like narrowly missing having Jim Jarmusch play a supporting role in your Indie film and for free. So I’m brooding in front of the television. My favourite football team is playing. We’re losing. <\/p>\n

Ronan had better be buying the beers tomorrow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 11 of 18 serialised by Nuance, New Straits Times 26th October 2002 Day off today. I took the opportunity to return a bass cabinet we borrowed from Nishino Toro. Nish is a promoter for Japanese acts in KL. In fact, it was through him that I first got to know Hayakawa and the renown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peteteo.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}