Stuart de Silva

Sunday Observer Aug 23, 2009

A legendary pianist

by Mahes PERERA

Pianist Stuart de Silva never dreamt that the day will dawn for his return to his roots. But it did. After a long, long stay in Sydney, now his second home, Stuart decided that he was going to make it - much to his delight and to the happiness of his family in Sri Lanka plus his friends, including his musician friends who missed his piano artistry and his sense of humour which funnily is and has always been an asset of musicians.

Stuart de Silva at the piano at the Galadari Hotel.The Hotel celebrates its 25th anniversary in October this year. - Pic: Sudath Nishantha.

Seated at the piano at the Galadari Hotel, the piano that he played when the Galadari Meridien first opened to the public in 1984 memories flashed by swiftly in Stuart's mind. "It's the same piano I played on when the hotel first opened. I played at the lobby with my trio, Farook Miskin on drums and Nihal Jayawardena played bass. I thought may be the Hotel would have changed the piano but I'm glad they haven't done it. Alston Joachim too played bass for me. It's sheer nostalgia now - the many friends I made who came to hear me and who enjoyed my music. 

The General Manager of the Galadari Meridien then was Steffan Pfeiffer while the Food and Beverage Manager was Roland Caroot. I played at the lobby for ten months before I was requested to play at the Rooftop Restaurant and I had Jean van Heer as my vocalist. At the restaurant I played the organ. The restaurant's interior decor has changed since I was last there - many moons ago! Quite naturally!

Stuart de Silve's piano artistry has always been individualistic. He never looked towards other pianists for fashioning of ideals. You can with confidence say that he never copied or attempted to flirt with new theories. His solos sparkled with a freshness that displayed his imagination, technique and elaborate variations. He has had his classical musical foundation from Hugo Wagen and the three Hungarian brothers who started the Colombo Symphony Orchestra.

But his goal was jazz. He enjoyed the music of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holliday, Carmen Mc Rae, Sarah Vaughn and 'greats' in that category. In his early years here in Sri Lanka he performed with his own trios and was involved in shows on concert stages and radio. According to him the most popular radio show was 'Airwaves' sponsored bu Gillette broadcast on the Commercial Service.

"The programme was a half hour one and featured a group with Gazzali Amit - guitar, Cass Ziard - drums, Jimmy van Sanden - bass and myself on piano. It was here that singer Yolande Wolff now Yolande Bavan was launched. Over the months the personnel changed. Mervyn Sherrinton replaced Gazzali and later Percy Barthholomuez stepped in. The bassist Jimmy van Sanden moved out and Tony Blake took over."

Stuart had a long stint with impressario Donovan Andree's many night club music presentations. Greenhouse and The Orchid Room at the Victoria Park (now Vihara Maha Devi Park) brought luck for Stuart. The famous pianist Dave Brubeck and his Quartet performed at the Orchid Room and Brubeck having heard Stuart offered him a scholarship to Berklee College in the States for further studies, in Jazz compositions.

You were out of Sri Lanka for quite some time what happened after Berklee?
"I worked at many jazz clubs in England including the Flamingo Jazz Club, got an opportunity to go to Paris and play at the Mars Club, toured Europe in solo performances or with trios. I made a short visit to Sri Lanka in '83 and then moved over to Singapore and Hong Kong to perform at gigs before I decided to leave for Sydney in '86".

In Sydney did you continue with music?

"Yes I did free lance work at the Soup Plus, the oldest jazz club in Sydney, the Basement, played with other trios and quartets. While all this was happening I switched for a change to play the role of a Manager of a restaurant, studied Travel Management at Quantas and worked at a Publishing Company doing editorial work for a magazine. I retired from the Company and now I'm concentrating on writing short stories and a thesis on the Mathematics of Ancient Egypt. It's a far cry from music you'll say, but I continue my music on a free lance basis."

You've heard our musicians during your stay here could you comment?

"I was highly impressed on the quality of the keyboardists I heard - like Dilukshi Sirimane and Kumar de Silva. Unfortunately I couldn't hear Harsha Makalande. I wish I could have. Alston Joachim bassist is in good form, so is Revel Crake guitarist. It was a pleasure to meet up with Dylan Lye and Hassen Musafer after so many years and play along with them."
A legendary pianist it was inspiring to meet up with Stuart and have a pow wow with him after more than two decades. Most of the music he played was his own and what stood out was despite a complex style of phrasing, which is characteristic of him, he never lost the spontaneous desire to swing. Hope you'll be back in Sri Lanka soon!

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Stuart de Silva – Jazz pianist in London & Paris

© Stuart de Silva Inc. Sydney Australia 

In  1959, arrived in London. Worked with my Trio/Quartet/Quintet.

- 3 month stint with the Johnny Dankworth Big Band on tour of UK (the Band included Danny Moss, Kenny Wheeler, Kenny Napper, Alan Ganley.The singer was Cleo Laine. Johnny approached me at Jackie Sharpes’s Downbeat Club (a Private Club open only to Jazz Musicians, so not subject to the Licensing hours that prevailed at the time. Jackie’s was open from 2pm onwards till late at night), offered me the gig, explaining that Dave Lee (his pianist) had gone back to S. Africa and that he was waiting for Dudley Moore to join the Band after his Doctorate from Oxford, which is why the 3 month “stop gap” gig.

 - 6 week gig (Friday & Saturday, midnite to 4am) with my Quartet at Jeff Kruger’s Flamingo Club featuring US Air Force alto sax player Lenny Harris (sounded like Lou Donaldson). The 7pm to 11pm sessions had the Ike & Tina Turner Band during this stint.

My drummer was Rudy Bernardo, (Phillipines born, but came to Ceylon in 1949, finally got Citizenship and worked with my Trio there) and Ricky Fernandez (born in Singapore) on bass. They were working with session guitarist/trombone Cedric West (born in Burma, a fine Bebop musician who had worked with the famed Teddy Weatherford Band in India and Ceylon in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s) at the Embassy Club in New Bond Street ( their gig ended at 11pm because of the Licensing Hours).

I subbed for awhile, till I left to do my own thing, with that Band, “Cedric West & His Eastern Five”, which had Cedric playing both guitar and trombone, Olaf Vaz (Goanese , but born in Kenya) or Pablo “Paul” Gonzalez (from Singapore)-saxes, Rudy Bernardo and Ricky Fernandez. Prior to this with the Band had been a fine two handed modern pianist from Hong Kong, David Ng, who had decided to go settle in Denmark.

 - 2 weeks at “100”Oxford Street, with my Quintet (Jimmy Deuchar (trpt) Joe Harriott (alto sax) Bobby Orr (drums) Tony Archer(bass). We featured a lot of Horace Silver charts (Horace had sent me 25 charts to work on), including Sister Sadie, Cooking at the Continental, Juicy Lucy, Senor Blues, Peace – I think it was the first time Horace’s tunes were played in London. I went back for a further 2 week stint, this time using Stuart & Ian Hamer (trpts) and Derek Humble (alto), same rhythm section. I did the arrangements from the piano charts Horace sent me.

 -1 week at New Orleans Club in Park Lane in duo with Joseph Reinhardt (Django’s brother, who played rhythm guitar with the Quintet). We did a one hour set per night. Joseph had never taken a solo, only playing Rhythm guitar with his brother Django’s Hot Club of France Quintet. What was amazing to me was that his solos were more reminiscent of Miles Davis’ phrasing of the mid ‘50’s.

-Did some gigs with Joe Harriott’s Experience, a Band that included Indian Tabla & Sitar and *Shake Keane(trpt), Joe (Plastic alto) Coleridge Goode (bass) Phil Seaman(drums). I never got to record with this Band because by that time I was doing my own thing. Pat Smythe took over on piano.

*Shake Keane lived in the apartment below me in Kentish Town and we spent a great deal of time discussing not only music, but, Philosophy and other personal disciplines. He had a Doctorate in English from Oxford and was erudite and articulate in a wide range of subjects.

I was living at Rudy Bernardo’s at the time. In the flat next door, Ricky Fernandez and our own Frosty Van Langenberg were sharing, so we, Rudy & I, would go over and rehearse with them from the Jazz Fake Book charts every day. Frosty was working with Edmundo Ros at the time, until his untimely and sad death. What a Great bass player he was!

-Did the occasional gig with my Trio, with Tony Archer (bass) and a young Ginger Baker, who was very heavily influenced by the Great Phil Seamen, at the Ronnie Scott Club in Gerard Street (the original Ronnie Scott Club, before Norman Granz bought in and they moved into the very up-market premises in Frith Street). I also led a Trio with Spike Heatley or Jeff Klein on bass, on various gigs around London and the suburban Jazz venues.

In the meantime, I had met Bobby Wellins and Duncan Lamont, who had just arrived from Scotland, in Archer Street, (how well I remember Archer Street on Mondays, where musicians used to meet) and we decided to do something about bringing some of the younger talents onto the London Jazz Scene, which had been a closed shop for too long.

To this end, we found the Strip Club, “Spider’s Web”, off Berwick Street in Soho, where the owner was a keen jazz fan and agreed to let us use his premises for the younger generation of Jazz, after his Club closed at 11pm. We met 6 nites a week, going non-stop till literally day-break. Some of the younger musos who were there: Bobby Wellins, Duncan Lamont, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Olaf Vaz, Dick Morrisey (tnr sax) Gus Galbraith, Harry Becket, Ian & Stuart Hamer, Tony Carr, (trpts), young Peter King (fantastic alto), Gordon Beck (piano), Tony Archer, Spike Heatley, Rick Laird, Jeff Klein and “Jinx” Jenkins (Trinidad born) (bass), Herman Wilson (Jamaican born trombonist, with whose Jamaican All Stars I toured Germany in late ‘59 and early ‘60 ), drummers Ginger Baker, Bobby Orr, Dicky Devere, and Dave Smallman, and a host of aspiring young cats. Word got around and Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott, Phil Seamen, Tony Crombie, and others would turn up to jam.

We started to get some well-earned publicity in the Musical Press. Bob Dawbarn from Melody Maker did regular front page articles on my gigs, and Tony Hall wrote an article in MM,”Stuart de Silva- the Leader of the Beat Generation in Jazz”. Max Jones did some interviews on my movements for MM; likewise, so did Valerie Kilmer for Jazz Journal.

In the meantime, I was also hunting around the record shops for any new music. I was at Doug Dobell’s in Charing Cross Road, when I spotted Ornette Coleman’s Something Else album. Listened to it, bought it and took it to Ronnie’s in Gerard Street. Naturally, I got shouted and ranted at from all and sundry. This led to a very heated exchange in Jazz Journal between Harry Klein and myself, which carried on through 3 issues, where he accused me of having a “plastic head”, because of Ornette playing a Plastic Selmer alto. What he hadn’t realised was that in the May 16^th ,1953 recording of Jazz At Massey Hall, Charlie Parker had hocked his horn and the only instrument they could get was this same Plastic Selmer alto. Turned out to be one of the Greatest recordings of Bird, Diz, Bud, Max and Mingus ever! And that Joe Harriot was also playing the same instrument on the London Jazz scene.

However, because of the Ornette’s recording and the heated publicity in the British music press and in Downbeat where Quincy Jones, John Lewis, Charlie Mingus and Gunther Schuller came out in his favour, I met Daniel Halperin, Canadian-born editor of the Guardian newspaper, who was at Ronnie Scott’s almost every night, and, together we started a campaign to get Vogue records, which released the US Contemporary records in the UK, to release three more albums by Ornette. Amazingly, to us and Vogue, their initial issues of 1000 copies were sold out within 48 hours. Then, Vogue went into high gear!

I also recall the day I took Miles’ Kind of Blue and Coltrane’s Giant Steps albums to Ronnie’s in Gerard Street and got shouted down again. The irony was that, when Miles did arrive with his Great Quintet, Benny Green* reviewed the Concert for the Sunday Times, where he bombastically stated: “the only good thing about John Coltrane was the burnished gold of his saxophone!” Ah Benny! Blinkers-on arrogance has no peers!

*Benny Green played tenor sax and was in the Tubby Hayes Big Band with Ronnie Scott and Tubby.

In 1959, Leonard Feather’s Jazz from Carnegie show was in London. Included: Phineas Newborn, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke, Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Jay Jay Johnson, and  Clark Terry. Red Garland was booked for the gig, but had a fear of flying, so he was coming by ship and wouldn’t join the tour till Germany.

 I got to know Oscar Pettiford, and Kenny Clark on the tour. What happened was curious. I took my bass player, Ricky Fernandez, a very fine bass player who idolized OP. When I introduced them OP said something that perplexed me: he said to Ricky, “You can have my gig anytime, Master!” It was only much later that I realised that Ricky Fernandez was an exact clone, in physiognomy and humble attitude, of Jimmy Blanton (Ricky passed away in Scotland in the ‘60’s). Plus the fact that Ricky had only one suit, his Tux, which he wore all day, sans bow-tie till gig time.

I remember going down to Rick Gunnel’s Jazz Club at the Mapleton, off Leicester Square, with Klook and OP, and doing a memorable set (Trio) there with them, where Johnny Dankworth joined us for the last two. Johnny’s offer to my joining his Band came just after this.

 As a result of our meeting, OP and Klook offered me a gig in Paris with them and Lucky Thompson. That  happened in early 1961. They sent me the ticket.

After that 2-week gig, I joined Herb Geller’s (alto sax) Quartet, with Donald Brown (Jamaican born) on drums and  Al King (African-American) on bass, to play at a Lesbian Club (where Males were allowed), for a  month’s gig. Our second week there, we were approached by Mr. Nasser from Beirut in Lebanon, to sign up a Jazz Trio for the opening of the Phoenix Hotel there, to do 2 x half-hour sets as an introduction to Dorothy Dandridge (lead star in Porgy & Bess, the movie). I signed the Contract that same night. It was a fantastic deal: Air Fares return from Paris, 3 weeks gig, accommodation at the Hotel, Tax-Free Cash in Hand, US $100, per musician per night. I took Donald Brown and Al King with me, featured as the Stuart de Silva Trio from Paris.

On our return from Beirut, Donald suggested we stop in Milano in Italy, where he knew a Jazz Club where we might get a gig. The Santa Tekla in Milano had the Romano Mussolini Trio (son of the Il Ducé and married to Sophia Loren’s sister), a fine modern-jazz piano player. We played a Trio set and were offered a 2 week gig there, alternating with Romano.

One night, Chet Baker came in, heard us and offered a gig with him and Bobby Jaspar at the soon to be opened Chet Baker Club in Milano. He told us the movie Director Vittorio de Sica was planning to do a movie on his, Chet’s, life and was opening the Club in a couple of weeks. To say the least, the Club was oppulent!  Chandeliers around the room, velvet drapes and leather lounge seats. Nothing like a Jazz Club one could imagine. Plus,alas, an upright piano on the bandstand! The opening night was fantastic: the elite of Milano Society were there, drinking Chivas  and Dom Perignon. The next few nights were a disaster.

The gig was from 8pm to midnight. After the opening night, the place was packed, but no sign of Chet or Bobby. We played Trio sets till about 11 pm, then, they would turn up to play the last lack-lustre set. After a week of this, we, the Trio, decided to get out and return to Paris, which we did the very next day.

 On my return, I moved into the Mars Club in Paris, when Aaron Bridgers, (whom I had befriended in Ceylon, when Aaron, playing solo piano came there on a 2 month’s appearance with Marie Bryant’s “Parisian Follies” in 1952, a Revue which included a Dance Chorus from the Follies Bergére, a fine vocalist, Diane Quiseekay, whose repertoire was all Duke Ellington, and a host of others, performing at the Nite Club where I was playing with my Trio) offered me the piano chair, playing solo piano, sharing the gig with my mentor, the fantastic African-American piano player ART SIMMONS, 7 nights a week from 10pm to 5 am, in alternating 1 hour sets.. When Aaron returned from the States, he asked me to stay on, that he had other gigs lined up. Art moved on to the Living Room in late 1963, where he shared the gig with Aaron Bridgers for a while, then with other French piano players, like Maurice Vander, Réné Utreger, Eddie Lewis.  When Art was hospitalised in 1966, he asked me to take his place and make sure that no other pianist would ‘steal’ his gig, which I did.

I stayed on that gig at the Mars till 1965, when the Club closed for good.

Sometime in the mid-to-late ‘60’s, Timmie Rosenkrantz from Radio Denmark did a recording session of solo pianists in Paris (read ex-pats) which included the Great stride-piano player Joe Turner, Martial Solal, Aaron Bridgers, Claude Bolling and myself, for Danish Radio. Sadly, all efforts to get a copy of this have failed, due to the early demise of Timmie Rosenkrantz.

Again, Duke Ellington recorded  the same piano players, plus Michel Sardaby and Errol Parker in what he wanted to call “A Tribute of Billy Strayhorn from his friends in Paris” ( Billy being very sick at the time in New York). We started recording at 6.30 am in Paris. Each of us was asked by Duke to play a Blues and one of our own compositions. I played “Blues for Billy & Duke” and “A Grain of Sand” (from an aphorism I had written: “A grain of sand in the Oyster of life, through the pressures of Time, can become a Pearl of Wisdom”). We were accompanied by Duke’s rhythm section of John Lamb (bass) and Rufus Jones (drums). Again, not months after Duke left for the States, he passed away. The recording was never released. And again, all efforts to trace this have been of no avail. However, David Sansoni, a fine bass player, (Sri Lankan, living in Sydney) did send me an article he found on the Internet referring to this session, where I am mentioned 

(http://www.depanorama.net/dems/02dems3b.htm)

Happily, just a few days ago, on the 15^th July, 2012, after months of hitting dead-ends in my search, I finally connected with the Duke Ellington Memorial Society, in Brussels, Belgium, of all places, where the Ellington Archives now are. The Caretaker, Sjef Hoesmit, replied immediately that he did have the recording and that he had copied the entire session for me onto 2CD’s which he has mailed to me that day! The recording, under Duke’s supervision, was made, starting at 6.30 am, on 11^th March, 1967, in Paris. 45 years ago! I was just a few days short of my 33^rd birthday. I should get it in a few days. 

What a Blast!!.

Did a month’s gig with Sonny Criss at Jazzland in Paris. This was followed by a month’s gig at the same venue, playing solo piano on the same programme as the Johnny Griffin Quartet with Art Taylor & the Ornette Coleman Trio (David Izensohn-bass & Charles Moffat-drums) (1966).

Again, I worked with Kansas Field’s Trio at Birdland in Paris. Right next door, at the Chat Qui Peche, (where I had started my Parisian sojourn with Lucky Thompson, Pettiford and Kenny Clarke) was the Eric Dolphy Quintet with Donald Bird and Hammond organist Larry Young. Dolphy and I became close friends. When he passed away on that gig in Berlin, Gerry Gray-Wardell Gray’s widow-, then married to Swedish trombonist Ake Perrson (who was working with the Berlin Radio Orchestra), phoned me to give me the news, saying Eric had talked a lot of his friendship with me.

In 1967, acted as Ranji in Joseph Strick’s Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller’s life in Paris) with Rip Torn, Ellen Burnstein and others.

In December 1968, at pianist Joe Turner’s recommendation, did a 3-week stint at the New Orleans Restaurant in Manchester, England, playing and singing.

Went back in 1966 to London for Humphrey Littleton’s BBC Jazz Club Broadcast with Trio. The programme was Harry South’s Band and my Trio.

 Joined Joe Harriett’s Quintet (Ian Carr-trpt, Phil Seaman–drms, Coleridge Goode-bass) for the Commonwealth Jazz Festival, then went on tour of UK with them for 3 weeks.

Through my Agent, as Solo Piano/Singer, from 1967 through 1984, worked Piano Jazz Bars in Toronto, Abidjan, Monrovia, Cairo, Beirut, Tangiers, Tehran, Dubai, Zurich, Brussels, Palma de Majorca, Barcelona, Algeciras, Malaga, Guadalmina, Rome, Milano, Genoa, Pescara, Naples, Taormina, Munich, Dusseldorf, Koln, Stuttgart, Hong Kong for the Meridien, Hilton & Sheraton chains. This period included 6 month stints at the Casinos of Divonne-Les-Bains and Cannes.  I also worked with a Jazz Trio in some of these cities in Concerts and Club appearances.

In Barcelona, the Flamenco Jazz Club, with my Trio (Ron Jefferson and later Lex Humphries on drums) for 10 months, where Stefan Grapelli, Pony Poindexter, Dakota Stanton, Memphis Slim, Harold Nicholas (of the famed Nicholas Brothers) and others were featured guests accompanied by my Trio. Tété Monteliu (an amazing blind pianist from Barcelona, who later recorded with Raashan Roland Kirk, Ben Webster and Don Byas) and his  Trio was the other pianist.

In Zurich, worked the Hotel Splendide (a great room where the piano was in the centre of the room and the seating arranged to the shape of the piano), and in alternating 3 month gigs with Hanno’s Jazz Piano Club in Munich, playing solo and singing, which covered my year’s bookings. (4 consecutive years). *Jimmy Woode II, a dear friend from the Paris days, who was then living between Munich and Zurich, would bring his bass and sit in quite regularly.

*Jimmy Woode II, came to Paris with Duke Ellington’s Band to make the movie Paris Blues. He left the Band, deciding to stay on in Paris, because there was a dearth of ex-pat bass players in Paris at the time. He free lanced around, ending up in Germany with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band and free-lancing between Munich and Zurich, where he ended up living till he passed away.

 Hanno’s Piano Club in Munich was a great experience. Behind the piano was a wall-panel of photographs of ALL the great Jazz piano players ( 1½ metres high by 1 metre wide) which had James P Johnson, W.C. Handy, Joe Turner, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Bud Powell, Horace Silver  and many others I can’t recall. On my very first 3 month gig there, within the first week, the place was packed. It was then that the owner, Heinz Bótticher, insisted that I get my photograph done to fill in the very last panel, which was empty. Even today, I can’t tell you the honour I feel of being placed with the Greats, since I was the only piano player on that wall who had never recorded. The Club was at 26, Franz Strasse, off Ludwig Strasse in Munich, upstairs from the Haus von 101 Bieres.  I don’t know if it is still running.                                                    

In Germany, a 6-week tour with the Buddy Tate (ex-Basie) Quintet in Club dates, concerts and Radio broadcasts. The group was Tate (tnr) “Wild Bill” Davidson (trpt) and German drummer and bass. We also did a live Concert for Stuttgart Radio, which I believe was recorded.

Some major Jazz Festivals;

1962: at Juan-Les-Pins ( South of France) –with my Trio. Bands: the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band & Quintet, Jimmy Smith Trio, Horace Silver Quintet, Fats Domino, Tubby Hayes Quintet and others. Present here was Randi Hultin, a Jazz-musician and photographer from Finland, who took a series of photographs with me and some of the Great musicians who were there. Later, in Paris, she told me she had them. She passed away, but, I believe her son is in charge of her Archives. I still haven’t been able to get a contact for him, but am still trying.

1972: in Liguria (near Genoa, Italy) with my Trio. Bands: the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Ted Curson Quartet, Johnny Griffin/Art Taylor Quartet, Joachim Kuhn/Enrico Rava Quartet.

1973:  at Bolgnia, Italy- with my Trio. Bands:  Cannonball/Nat Adderly Quintet, Dave Brubeck quartet with Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Mingus with Eric Dolphy & Ted Curson, The BeBop All Stars ( Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Thelonius Monk, Art Blakey & Al McGibbon), Phil Woods, with whom I did a set.

1974: at Pescara (on the Adriatic, Italy) - with my Trio. Bands: the Miles Davis Group (with Indian Tabla & Sitar), the Kenny Drew Quartet with Dexter Gordon/Art Taylor, Jackie Byard Trio, the Mingus Big Band, Freddie Hubbard/Junior Cook Quintet and others.

After this gig, stayed on in Pescara at the Hotel Splendide Rooftop Piano Club, as resident Solo piano/Singer, originally for 3 months, extended to 10 months, when I had to leave on (better paid) gig to Taormina, Sicily.While I was in Pescara, Teddy Wilson came into town and stayed at the same Hotel.  At his insistence, he invited me to appear at the Sulmona Jazz Conecrt he was to be featured in, where I would share the stage with him, both in Trio format,using his rhythm section.

In 1985, having been fed-up with living in Hotel rooms the world over, returned to Sri Lanka. Residency, thanks to my dear friend and great drummer, Aruna Siriwardene, at the Galadari *Meridien with my Trio in the Lobby Bar (Farouk Miskin-drums, first with Errol Mulholland on bass, followed by Alston Joachim on Fender, finally with *Nihal Jayewardene-Fender bass).*Nihal had been with Sri Lankan Navy Band, where he played both bass and tenor sax. Although he had never been a serious Jazz player, he told me ‘if I don’t know the tune, I will watch and follow your left hand harmonies’. He certainly did a great job.

 Later, at the Rooftop Restaurant on Hammond Organ and Jean Van Heer –vocals). A year’s residency at the hotel. A live Stereo Broadcast recording of a Concert for SLBC, with Mahes Perera of JU as MC, at the Galdari-Meridien is on Disc 2 of my CD.

*Meridien Hotels were owned by Air France and I had the gig in their Jazz Piano Lobby for the opening of their Flagship Hotel in Paris, thanks to my dear friend Simone Ginibre, Jazz vocalist extraordinaire and later Jazz impressario (who later became George Wein’s European Agent for  Jazz From Newport), who was Music Director for the Hotel, appearing opposite Milt Buckner(Organ) and Sam Woodyard Duo.

I Immigrated to Australia in 1986. Did gigs, but decided to broaden my scope because the gigs were few and far between. Managed the Ceylon Curry Restaurant, followed by Manager of the Caribbean Kitchen, then got Qantas trained for a Travel Agency as Manager, and, finally-till retirement age- as Administrative Co-ordinator in a Magazine Publishing Group (Reed Publishing).

© Stuart de Silva Inc. Sydney Australia  18^th July 2012.

A Day in the Life of a Ceylonese in the 60s

A DAY IN THE LIFE IN CEYLON IN THE 60s

Born at the St. ANNES NURSING HOME in Bambalapitiya, I was weened on LACTOGEN powdered milk when I was a baby, and given WOODWARDS GRIPE WATER, whenever I burped.

I used to sleep on a mattress made by ARPICO and listened to Reddifusion, because our GRUNDIG radio was broken. Later we brought a MARCONI which was wonderful and topped it up with a RADIOGRAM which had a PHILIPS record player too that played 45 and 33 rpms.

I woke up in the morning and washed my face with RANI SANDALWOOD SOAP. The servants used SUNLIGHT SOAP and the laundry was done by hand in the back of the house using those long rectangular shaped BAR SOAP. I brushed my teeth with PEPSODENT, used BRYLCREAM and combed my hair nice and greasy. I put a dab of CUTICURA powder on my face and put on my VELONA banian, with my TULANE shirt over it since the BROADWAY shirt was being dry cleaned at SITLANIS in Bambalapitiya. Later we also wore MANHATTAN DOCOMA and MAXIM shirts to school and work, which were the best in town. I then put on my BATA tennis shoes and walked through the hall where the floor was being made to shine like a mittot using CARDINAL POLISH.

I enjoyed breakfast of toast with an HALF BOILED EGG, CHIVERS MARMALADE and another slice with LYLE'S GOLDEN SYRUP and washed it down with HORLICKS. I took a tablespoon of RADIO MALT followed by another teaspoonful of FERADOL.

If I cut my finger, I had to put some DETTOL on the wound which I bought at the CITY DISPENSARY. While I was there, I also got some PERTUSSIN for my cough and also PHILIPS MILK OF MAGNESIA for my stomach ache. Mum also used to give me the sparkling and bubbly ANDREWS LIVER SALT to cleanse my bowels from time to time. Whenever I had a headache, I rubbed on some 4711 EAU DE COLOGNE on my forehead and took an ASPRO to relieve the pain.

I rode my RALEIGH sports bicycle and went to SENEVIRATNAS in PETTAH to buy toys. While there, I stopped at the FIREWORKS PALACE and bought some sky rockets to light up the night sky. I also went to the RUPEE STORE and F.X. PEREIRAS AND did some shopping there. They used to sell those gummy ROWNTREES FRUIT GUMS. At lunch time I enjoyed a great feast of BURIYANI at PILAWOOS and on the way back home got some house paint at D.L.M.MOHAMEDS. I then went to the FOUNTAIN CAFE and enjoyed a super KNICKERBOCKER GLORY.

Whenever I was planning to have some friends over for a party, I ordered the ice cream from ELEPHANT HOUSE and the short eats from PERERA AND SONS and GREEN CABIN. I also had the servant go to the market and buy some UNDERCUT beef. They also got some great slices of THORA MALU for frying from the fishmonger.

I smoked CAPSTAN NAVY CUT cigarette and went to ALERICS at Wellawatte for more ice cream. I parked my bike and got on my VESPA scooter and bought some flowers from BOWERS FLORIST.

The sewing lady who used to visit our home regularly always used our new SINGER PEDAL SEWING MACHINE while enjoying the coolness under an USHA ceiling fan. I drank ORANGE BARLEY, whenever there was no LANKA LIME in the FRIDGIDAIRE and listened to SUNDAY CHOICE on RADIO CEYLON.

While the servant was fixing an OSRAM light bulb hanging on the rafters, I poured some hot tea and chewed on some HUNTLEY & PALMERS CHEESELETS. I also enjoyed PEAK FREAN after tea biscuits with some KRAFT cheese.

Whenever I suffered a cold so I always took a whiff off my VICKS inhaler. I always wore my new suit from SHEWAKRAMS with great pride and went to the EIGHTY CLUB and met some friends there who took me to the GALLE FACE HOTEL where we enjoyed the view of the sea sipping LION LAGER. Another place for super cut wedding suits was MARIKAR BAWA's in the FORT.

We often went to the balcony of the SAVOY THEARE where they were showing great movies like THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. We ended up at LION HOUSE for egg hoppers later that evening. I finally went home and rubbed some TIGER BALM on my body and drank a cup of BOVRIL and went to sleep.

I dreamed of travelling to America, where there are none of these things mentioned above! That was life in Ceylon in the 60s!

Kumar Molligoda

SATMAG Island Oct 30 2004

Kumar Celebrating 46 years in Music

The Ceylon Observer of 23/07/1958 carried an article by Eustace Rulach titled "CRYING HARMONICA" which said, "another of those jazz groups goes over the air on Tuesday July 29th at 12.15 pm. Featured as "Guest of the Week" is Kumar Molligoda and his "Flamingoes".

That was forty six years ago when Kumar Molligoda was leading a small band. Playing Jazz and playing a composition of his won. His instrument then was the Chromatic Harmonica. Now forty six years later, looking back at what this multi-instrumentalist has achieved, it is quite evident hat he is one of the most gifted saxophonists to be involved in jazz bands, dance bands, supper club bands, pop groups, lobby bands, rock groups, oriental groups and Sinhala film music and cassette recording orchestras.

Having started off on Harmonica, Kumar switched over to singing Rock and Roll appearing at dances and stage shows including Malcolm Andree’s shows. His rendition of ‘Jail House Rock’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ really brought the roof down. As there were no Rock and Roll guitarists around at that time, Kumar learnt to play guitar to accompany himself and also to play the solo spots. Though entirely self taught, he began to improve rapidly on guitar picking up Flamenco, and Jazz styles. His rendition of Arthur Smith’s Guitar Boogie’ was picked up by many aspiring young guitarists of the time. He got the biggest break in his career when the "Manhattans Dance Band" signed him on as their guitarist in 1962. Kumar also taught guitar during this period and Rajah Jalaldeen is his most famous pupil.

In 1963, Kumar Bought the first of his many saxophones. (The Hohner Tenor Sax he still blows). He began appearing in Cabaret spots as a Rock and Roll singer with his guitar and saxophone, and once did a cabaret with a Norwegian girl dancer at the Port Cargo Corpo-ration dance in 1964. In 1964, Kumar joined the ‘Mario Manricks' Band’ as guitarist, but when Mario Manricks heard Kumar play a few riffs on his saxophone, Kumar was asked to play saxophone from the next date. The guitar was gradually dropped as Kumar couldn’t carry a guitar, an amplifier and the sax. Back in those days musicians had to have their own instruments and carry them around too. And that was the beginning of Kumar’s love affair with the saxophone.

Within a month of learning to play the sax, Kumar played for a half-hour radio programme with a dance band News of a saxophonist, playing in a completely different style to all other saxophonists in Sri Lanka, began to spread rapidly. Many experienced saxophonists resented the entry of this ‘Johnny come lately’ into what they considered was an exclusive preserve of theirs. They played melody or very basic improvisations with a very ‘foggy’ sound. Kumar, with his vigorous blowing, fast and colourful variations and a crisp clear tone, showed what a saxophone in the correct hands could do.

Around 1965, Earle Arnolda invited Kumar to join the ‘Fireflies’ beat group which he was managing. This was novelty. A beat group similar to the famous band of the time ‘The Champs’ of ‘Tequila’ fame, ‘The ‘Fireflies’ were a hit with Kumar’s sax sound.

Interest in the sax began to grow. The ‘Jet Liners’ too included a saxophonist in their group and many young musicians took up playing sax inspired by Kumar. Two of them were Ivan Jayaratne and Chinka Thenabadu. Others who had been playing Alto sax went in for Tenor sax. In 1966 Kumar was invited to join the ‘Spitfires’ who were then unknown. They had plenty of talent in the form of Conrad and Budrin and Tillet Perera, a talented saxophonist himself. Within a few months the ‘Spitfires’ were the rage in town. Towards the end of 1967 Kumar left the ‘Spitfires’ to start his own group ‘The Boeings’. The first engagement was the New Years eve dance at the Capri Club. Earle Arnolda took over as Manager and in 1969 the ‘Boeings’ became the permanent band at the Galle Face Hotel’s ‘Mascarilla’ night club replacing the famous Adrian Ferdinands Combo. The ‘Mascarilla’ was the most exclusive night spot in Colombo at the time and this was quite an achievement for young Kumar.

By now Kumar had become a trained English teacher and the ‘Boeings’ had to be disbanded. Kumar then began to free-lance with the Latiff Miskin Combo and the Helen Lucas Combo and other groups. He later joined Peter Prins Combo to perform at the Blue Leopard night club. He left the band to free-lance again but was asked to rejoin the band in 1975 to perform at the Oberoi Supper Club.

In 1976 Kumar left the country to rejoin the Spitfires in Teheran as their guitarist in place of Raj Seneviratne. However, Kumar continued to play sax and he proved to be a big hit with the audiences and the night club owner used to send Kumar a bottle of champagne every night for playing a special disco version of ‘Summertime’. After an year in Teheran Kumar went to Damascus for a two year contract with the Spitfires. The vocalists in the band were Noeline and Maxi. During this time Kumar began acquiring his collection of six saxophones. Kumar returned hone in 1979 and formed a Jazz quartet and also began freelancing. In 1981 Kumar went abroad with Rajah and Priyanthi and performed at the Continental Hotel Sharjah, Meridien Hotel Abu Dhabi, Sheraton Hotel Jordan and Gulf Hotel Bahrein for a 3 year period. On his return Kumar continued as a soloist with various groups. He also re-activated his jazz quartet. In 1989, Peter Prins invited Kumar to re-join his band for the third time. After a trip to Australia with the band Kumar quit the group once more to concentrate on his Jazz quartet. With the departure of his pianist, late Cecil Rodrigo, Kumar began performing with Debbie and later with Anil Perera on Grand piano with no microphones or other electronics. Having performed at the Trans Asia Lobby for one year, Kumar began performing for exclusive functions at prestigious venues with Anil on piano whenever Anil was free, preferring to concentrate more on his job as Creative Director cum Senior English Copy write in an advertising agency.

To date, Kumar has performed at 46 consecutive New Years eve dances. This is a unique record which no other local musician has probably achieved.

Kumar was a pioneer saxophonist in the Sinhala film music and pop music fields having done his first film recording in 1964. He has recorded with Jothipala, Rukmani Devi, Mohideen Baig, Milton Perera, Angeline Gunatileke, Victor Ratnayake, Three Sisters, M. S. Fernando and many others. On the Jazz field he has performed his own compositions at jazz concerts. He was playing Indo-Jazz from the early sixties and has a raga based composition. ‘Improvisations on a Raga’ to his credit. Today Kumar performs on Soprano sax, Alto sax, Tonor sax and the massive Baritone sax in his own inimitable style and distinctive tone and is the most sought after saxophonist. Kumar has spent most of his earnings on his collection of saxes. The Baritone alone cost over Rs. 800,000/- today.

Kumar says that there are six people to whom he is grateful for his success. They are the late Leonard Franke, leader of the Manhattans dance band for encouraging him to buy a saxophone, Mr. Seelanatha Kuruppu for his help in buying the Hohner Tenor sax, late Johnny Willimas of Harmonics music shop, late D. B. I. P. S. Siriwardena for helping to clear his saxophones and providing assistance in many ways, Earle Arnolds for his support and friendship, and most of all his dearly loved late father for supporting his musical career in every way. According to Kumar his father was his greatest fan.

Kumar celebrated millennium night 2000 performing at the ‘Gables’ Hilton hotel with pianist Anil Perera. During the past few years Kumar performed with his jazz quartet at exclusive venues and following the death of bass player Errol Mulholland and Lucky Manic-kavasagar he decided to give up the quartet and go solo. Having performed for an year at the Hilton Hotel’s ‘Spoons’ restaurant Kumar now performs at the Cafe Deli France at Crescat Boulevard. He is grateful to Yasnin Cader and Jagath Wijetilleke of Hilton Hotel, Harpo Gunaratne and Imran Saibo and in a big way to Niroshan de Silva of Deli France as well as his many patrons such as Mr. Nigel Austin and family and Mr. Anslem Perera and family for their support in making his prescent solo career the success it is today.

Just as it happened in 1964, Kumar still continues to inspire many young boys and girls to take up to blowing sax and several saxophonists from the oriental field and the services bands come to listen to Kumar at Deli France. Two of then have already started playing solo or as a duo following in Kumar’s footsteps.

To celebrate his 46th anniversary Kumar has released a CD of 14 well known tunes ranging from pops to latin jazz and be-bop. As it is not a commercial venture, the CD is not available in the shops and can be obtained only from Kumar at the Cafe Deli France.

The CD features Kumar blowing Tenor sax, Soprano sax and Baritone sax and is the first of its kind by a Sri Lankan musician and probably the first in Asia.

Kumar has plans for a concert or a TV programme to celebrate his anniversary but it is still in the planning stage.

One thing Kumar assures is that it will not be a run of the mill type like the concerts we’ve seen lately. So watch out for details and the date. Those who wish to obtain Kumar’s CD can contact Kumar at the Cafe Deli France where he performs on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 7.30 p.m. to 11.00 p.m.

Moving on after 97 Glorious Years

Sithy Rameela Ghouse (nee Sameer): 1913-2010

She was the oldest of our six aunts and four uncles, from the Sameer side of the family. Everyone called her Big Maamee, meaning “the oldest Aunt”. She was also the most simple, patient, and loving of them all. Six children of her own and several grandkids, great grandkids, nephews and nieces was always a handful to receive, greet, and host at her humble home down Lily Avenue at Wellawatte in Colombo. Everyone of us made it a point to visit her, while passing by, when on holiday in Colombo and on special occasions of festivities and celebrations. Her table was always spread and we never missed out on enjoying her sumptuous lunch of rice and curry whenever we walked in, even unannounced.

Her siblings were also very fond of her and closely attached. She must have also been the apple of the eye of our grandparents, since she was their first born, way back in 1913? Always a word of advice, cautioning us on safety, kindness and patience, she never failed to dish out her magnanimous heart to everyone around.

Stepping into the midst of any discussion, news on the radio and newspapers, she never stepped back from joining in and sharing her open views on all topics from politics to preaching. The issues affecting the Muslim world, globally, was one of her prime concerns and she used to update everyone on the developments taking place in Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq and other hotspots whenever her offspring dropped in to see her. She was well versed in the English language having studied at St Clare’s College in Wellawatte in 1919, and was always immersed in books, especially those with an Islamic background. The Holy Quran being her top priority and its Message she also dug deep into the Hadees (traditions of the Prophet), and, was quite at home reading the works of Imam Ghazali, Jalaludin Rumy, Ibn Al Arabi, in English, in her long and pleasant sojourn on Earth. She was deeply religious and always calling on her Creator during her lifetime. She brought her family up in a strict Islamic environment and no one dared to step out of line from this area as they were closely monitored by her, all the time. Her last 24 hours was filled with a continuous chant of God’s Name until the Angels came to take her soul, and she herself closed her eyes at the point of departure from this mundane world, with no assistance from her children around.

Always ready to help others financially or by way of advice she put into practice the words of her favorite poem.

"Do something for somebody, somewhere,

while jogging along life’s road.

Help someone to carry his burden,

and lighter will grow your load".

She had a soft corner for the downtrodden and had a habit of giving away things that lay around the house to the less fortunate who used to come into her home as domestic help.

Taking over as the Matriarch of the family, after the passing away of our grandparents, she stood, solid as a rock, ensuring that everyone lived in close unity and harmony. The children, nephews and nieces, have all grown up and have their own grand children now making her a much loved great grandma/great grand aunt to more than two dozen.

An ardent lover of sweets she specially enjoyed the family favorite "Turkish Bread" which was unique to the Sameer family. Made with flour, dates, dried fruit and sugar it is still considered as the mother of all sweets by every single member of the family. Never did we miss relishing our teeth into the syrup dripping sweet whenever we visited. Now all her girls and even many of her nieces have become specialists in making this delicacy, claimed to be only known to the Sameer/Anis family in Colombo since ancient times as the "secret" of its rich taste was brought from Istanbul by her paternal grandfather Haji Ismail Effendi during his travels to Turkey (Constantinople, now Istanbul) in 1884, during which time he also visited Egypt, Makkah and Madinah fulfilling his pilgrimage of Hajj. She also translated, into English, the extensive diary of her grandfather’s travels across the Middle East from the original Arabic Tamil text which is now available for review, online, on the internet.

Big Maamee will always be remembered for her goodness by every single member of her family. May she walk through, and enjoy, the sweetness of the Greatest Gardens in Paradise!

In all our loving hearts she will always live forever.

From Him do we come and unto Him we return!

Fondly remembered by her Six loving children, and a multitude of nephews, nieces, and great grand kids/great grand nephews/nieces - Colombo and Overseas

Lessons down memory lane

Lessons down memory lane

Back to Basics by Renton de Alwis DN Wed Sep 15 2010

http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/09/15/fea03.asp

My Facebook friend Susil Ratnayke (that’s how his last name is spelt) lives in Sydney, Australia. Susil, a Sri Lankan born Australian, posts a lovely FB page on Sri Lanka featuring her natural beauty, heritage and culture; as he sees it

I am impressed with the deep love this man has for his land of birth and we have been engaging each other for sometime now on Facebook. We are yet to meet face to face and I know there are many thousands more like him, both in real and virtual domains feeling homesick, sharing their caring feelings.

Yet, there are others who dwell on looking at all that is bad out here in Sri Lanka and refuse to even acknowledge that there is hope for us as a nation to make a better future. Some have legitimate reason for being cross. They are deeply hurt or betrayed and refuse to forgive or forget. They refuse to believe that we can work together to focus on achieving the possible. Others are part of a movement, bent on discrediting the Motherland and do as they are expected to or are told. Since actions speak louder than words, it will be left for all Sri Lankans now, to prove them wrong. Our politicians on all sides of the fence, by not letting us down and us citizens making sure that they are not allowed to let us down.

Radio Ceylon

Just last week Susil posted a reference to a song found on ‘You Tube’ and had this to say - ‘Desmond Kelly - My Island Home Hi, it’s time for every one living abroad and visitors from other countries around the world to visit this beautiful and lovely country of ours to enjoy what it has to offer’. Much more powerful than our own promotional slogans, I would say, for it comes from deep within his heart, without any coating with fancy words. It is believable.

It was like a tour of the past and here was my comment on Susil’s page posting ‘Would you believe it, when I was a student, a Desmond Kelly lived down the same lane as I; Waidya Avenue, Dehiwela. He must be in his 70s now in the least. That is if this is the same Desmond Kelly who was a singer and Mrs Georgez’s son-in-law’. He confirmed that it could be him and that he was in his seventy fifth year.

In the early 60’s, as a schoolboy I recollect standing many a day by Mrs. Georgez’s gate on my way from school, listening to Des Kelly strumming his guitar to a song he had composed. Some days he sang songs of others. We then had Bill Forbes, Cliff Foenander, Dougles Meerwald, Harold Seneviratne, Adrian Ferdinandes and the like adorning our Radio Ceylon’s English service. These were the days of 78 rpm (rounds per minute) records, needles and hefty player amplifiers.

Mentors and gurus

These were also days after the ground breaking film Rekawa was a hit with us and the haunting songs composed by our mentor at St. Peter’s College late Fr Marceline Jayakody were lingering in our minds. Sudu Sanda Eliye, Wesak Kakulu, Olu Nelum and Anurapura Pollonnaruwa were top of the charts in the Sinhala service of the Radio Ceylon. We were so proud that the creator of Rekawa Lester James Peries, was also a past student of our school.

Equally proud were we that our school was home to many students from the Burgher community at the time.

The De Nieses, Patternots, Beckmeyers, Hynes, Duckworths and Lovels were there in clans; brothers, cousins and all. They excelled in sports and were a vibrant lot. We were all one big happy family, the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers. The only conflicts we had were limited to mundane issues such as events we were competing in, girl friends or an occasional tough guy showing off his prowess. Never were they about race, cast or creed.

My mother out of fear of her Buddhist son studying in a Catholic school, insisted that I study my Buddhism three days a week, under the supervision of the late Dickwelle Dhammalankara Hamuduruwo at the Karagampitiya temple. At school, it did not matter if we were Buddhist, Catholic, Anglican, Hindu or of Islamic faith. We were all one family cheering for St. Peters College on the cricket, rugby fields or at the basketball court.

No foreigner

If I recalled right, Desmond Kelly was attached to the then Ceylon Navy. I remember him in his blue white uniform returning after a spell at sea, and went on to strumming again.

We lived three houses below on this gravel pathway and could hear his music quite distinctly. My mother who only spoke Sinhala and was very national in her ways enjoyed Kelly’s music just the same. On Susil’s posting another of his friends had commented ‘Very beautiful song. I feel so homesick when a foreigner loves my home country as his home. He sees the beauty that we take for granted’, she said. I am not sure if she lives in Sri Lanka.

I took the opportunity to respond to her and said ‘Please...... I want to let you know that this Desmond Kelly I knew was no foreigner. He was a full-blooded Sri Lankan Burgher.

They loved Sri Lanka then, perhaps they still miss their land of birth. Unfortunately we had not learnt to love them enough and all our other racial groups, that made Sri Lanka so vibrant and beautiful and they had no option but to migrate’.

That was then. Now with that huge burden of terrorism done with, let us reflect on the lessons we need to learn from our past. On how we treated our other Sri Lankan brothers and sisters and the pettiness with which we looked at issues and their solution. I know that some of you will agree and others may not.

Let’s sing along

The truth is we have wronged. Now that we are focusing once again on English education our style and are providing ease of access on the digital pathways to communicate, we could make new beginnings.

Those must pave ways for us to learn to appreciate each other, to love each other and care for each other regardless of race, caste or creed.

In a world where there is so much of a cultural divide, we have many lessons to learn both from within and without.

Let us join the likes of Desmond Kelly and Susil Ratnayke to sing along the song My Island Home.

History of Diving in SL

A brilliant blog by Rex I De Silva for all those who have had their share of joy with the Aquatic community from Kinross to Arugam Bay to Trincomalee, in Sri lanka.

http://sites.google.com/site/rexidesilva/sri-lanka---history-of-diving

Forty Years of Computing

The computer that is referred to as the mainframe, the IBM System/360, was born more than forty years ago. So, what’s the big deal? Why would anyone care? What the heck is a mainframe, anyway? The year was 1970 and I had just come out of University after having offered a Math degree and was hooked on being a Computer Whizkid at the age of 22, very much to the annoyance of my parents who seemed to think and believe that it was all Sci-Fi and had no real value as a profession. So bear with me on a somewhat nostalgic journey that I still remember and can relate.

This story really begins more than 40 years ago, in what must seem like the dark ages of computing. Yes, it was called computing back then, a verb turned into a noun. Computing’s origins were largely mathematically based, replacing scores of humans at bulky electromechanical calculators doing computations. Data processing was a phrase just coming into vogue. It employed computing to replace what were largely clerical tasks – bookkeeping, accounting, and report generation.
Computing and data processing were largely seen as separate and incompatible kinds of applications. Each was separately conceived and the procurement of a computer was justified based on that singular need. There were many computers of this singular type being sold as the 1960s unfolded. IBM had at least four, with additional ones for the military. There were different systems for large and small enterprises. Sri Lanka had just three IBM System 360/20’s used by the Central Bank, Insurance Corporation and University of Peradeniya. It was the same with computers from many other manufacturers. None used the same architecture – there seemed to be no reason to do so at the time; these were single-purpose computers.

The idea of sharing components between computer lines seemed impractical or impossible, given the different missions of the responsible organizations. These were semi-custom computers, designed, configured, built, and tuned to the customers’ needs. Any hope for portability or extensibility was at the FORTRAN or COBOL compiler level and, because of the differing word sizes (number of bits in a byte and bytes in a word) being used, programs often were not portable without recoding.

While there was some off-purpose use of these computers, i.e., for other than the intended original application (even then, no cycle was to go unused), these programs were run serially (one at a time). The idea of, much less the need for, a generalized multipurpose computer didn’t exist.
Because computers were specialized, so were many of the peripherals and interfaces. What we take for granted today – such as USB and PCI connectivity – just didn’t exist. If you bought a new computer, you had to buy new consoles (mostly hard copy, but later CRTs), tape drives, printers, and even card readers. While there was some standardization in punch card formats and tape media, the coding schemes were often unique.
Worse yet, were the control programs (operating systems). Each was different, and closely tied to the underlying hardware architecture. There was no reason for them to be the same across a range of computers and different geographies. Operators were specially trained for the computer that they would keep running. In many ways, they were the heroes of the day, using their intelligence to overcome all of the hardware and software shortcomings and programming errors. There were no standard rules of the road, so to speak. Best practices were developed on the job for each computer.

In retrospect, prior to System/360 was the Primitive Age of Computing. Computer development was a “tribal affair”, and there was little interaction between tribal communities. To summarize, computers were:


1. Special purpose, for either scientific or commercial computing,
2. Designed for a 4-5 year product sales life, maybe including a mid-life kicker,
3. With no concept of upgrading to a larger system within the “family”,
4. With one-of-a-kind architectures and technologies,
5. With parts that were not interchangeable,
6. With proprietary peripherals and interfaces (even from the same vendor),
7. With unique operating systems,
8. Capable of running one program at a time, and
9. Requiring a lot of tending by specially-trained operators and vendor support personnel, who had to be quite knowledgable,
10. There were no standards for computing or principles of operations, and
11. Any minor failure would bring the system to a halt.

This is the backdrop for the beginning of a new era of computing that began at IBM and resulted in the System/360 in 1964.

Hindsight is wonderful. You get to look at what happened, what evolved, and, equally important, what didn’t, and you try to analyze what wisdom you would have brought to that prior time. It’s easy to jump to the “right” conclusion.
On April 7, 1964, the System/360 was announced, with much fanfare, and to the total astonishment of IBM’s competitors, who were struggling to keep up with IBM’s prior offerings. The first Model 40 was shipped in April of the following year.
It’s too easy just to think of a mainframe as a box, and the current state of the art servers as the great-great-grandchild of the original mainframe box, the System/360. It is very hard for most “real folks” who exist outside of the data center, maybe somewhere in the application or end-users’ world, to see the intelligence that resides in the box - in terms of the operating systems, middleware, scheduling and management software, and other utilities - that bring the hardware to life. It’s easier to personify the box – and love it or hate it – as in “I really hate my PC”. It’s probably not the PC that you hate, but rather the operating system (such as a version of Windows), or the middleware (such as a browser), or an application (such as a specialized search engine), or a utility (such as anti-virus protection), or a combination of these, that brings out your ire. When it comes to a server, especially a server capable of running many workloads simultaneously, the less you see of it, the better it is. And the more automated it is, in terms of self-management and optimization, the better it is.

So it is not surprising that most people think that they know what a mainframe is, but are unable to name a mainframe operating system or hypervisor, a controller for virtual machine images. That’s too bad, because these behind-the-curtain software stacks (collections) really put the capabilities onto the hardware, and not vice versa. You might ask, then, so why can’t a mainframe operating system, with all of its goodness, run on a PC? In fact, it can, and many of the other traditional mainframe vendors basically have chosen to emulate the original instruction set of their mainframe on a commodity-chip-based server. IBM, too has done this too in its past, but the performance was just too constrained for the on-demand workloads of the 21st century. It was easier, and more efficient, to put Linux or Java onto the mainframe hardware than to put the mainframe operating environment on commodity hardware. The fact that the oh-so-modern Java and Linux are maximized on a traditional IBM mainframe (i.e., many sessions running under VM as a hypervisor) points to the inherent value of this relatively unknown class of mainframe control software.
There have been a number of series of operating systems for IBM’s mainframes – from the mainline original OS1 and OS2 to OS/MFT to OS/MVT to TSS to MVS to OS/390 to z/OS. The lineage carries the rights to the crown as the jewels of IBM’s Mainframe Empire. Almost of all of the black magic that other platforms’ operating systems hope to deliver under the banner of “mainframe-like” descend from this lineage. But there are other family lines in IBM’s royal family that have given us virtual machines and hypervisor control (VM and z/VM), scaled down functionality with greater operational simplicity (the original DOS to VSE to z/VSE), to large-scale transaction processing (TPF - primarily for airline reservation systems), and to several others developed outside of IBM (including MTS - Michigan Terminal System - from my college and early professional days).

When you add IBM mainframe-originated database products (IMS and DB2) and transaction processing system (CICS), all still in heavy, mission-critical use today by the largest enterprises, to the rich history of mainframe operating systems, then you really can begin to understand why the last forty years are not just about the mainframe hardware. It’s the whole mainframe offering, now including open-systems middleware, like WebSphere and MQseries, plus a strong heritage of customer support and service, that has moved the mainframe to its royal status.

Dr OC Raffel

http://www.ozlanka.com/apr10/raffel1.htm

DR. O.C. (Chris) RAFFEL; an appreciation of a warm and loving medical practioner
Dr. O.C. (Chris) Raffel, who passed away on the 30 th March, emigrated to Australia in 1975 but there must still be hundreds of people in Colombo who will remember and mourn him as the most devoted of doctors and perhaps even a small number who recall, at least by name and reputation, his father, Dr. E.L. (Lawrie) Raffel, who founded the dispensary and surgery in Wellawatte where Chris himself presided for over twenty years.

When he arrived in Sydney, his qualities of dedication to his patients, even at the sacrifice of his own leisure time, quickly distinguished him from the run of general practitioners, and his practice there expanded rapidly. The Eastwood area in which he had settled became a popular one for Lankan migrants and I remember him chuckling to discover that many of his new patients, having forgotten or never heard of the Burgher community, were happily amazed to hear this light-skinned man enquiring about their symptoms in fluent Sinhalese or Tamil.

A smaller number of people will mourn the loss of an incomparable friend, one who radiated a steady warmth rather than a brilliant glare. These qualities perfectly complemented the different ones of his wife Carmel, and resulted in their both providing a setting for pleasure and good fellowship which will live forever in the minds of those privileged to enjoy it.

I have no doubt that it was his response to their qualities that inspired the late Geoffrey Bawa, one of their closest friends, to design for them a house of great beauty in which music and the visual arts enhanced the loving kindness that enveloped all who crossed its threshold. In Australia they had no Bawa at their disposal, but Carmel revealed a genius for creating beauty in unpromising situations, while Chris acquired new skills such as mowing, pruning and eventually cooking. Their human qualities glowed as warmly south of the equator as previously in the north.

Chris had a family feeling which made him a surrogate father to the children of his brother Allan and his cousin Lorenz, both of whom died too young. They too will always cherish his memory, as will his three children, Adam, Suhanya and Lahiru, and four grandchildren. They know they had a most remarkable forebear.