Quest for ShangriLa

Nation June 12 2011 Tissa Devendra: The quest for Shangri-La There is something immeasurably attractive about the way Tissa Devendra puts down his thoughts, moving into the days of his childhood and youth, memories like those windows of his long-gone world - snapshots, as he says, in soft focus of the times and the way of life that palpitates no longer around us. Calling this excellent book his Stories and Diversions, he dedicates it all to his first-born grandson, Sankya, and his granddaughters Sahitra and Swyrie, and is wont to say how these memories linger, oddly enough, long after places have gone, “Many of my diversions are random, often irreverent thoughts on the history and manners of our beloved Sri Lanka”, he says, and the artistry brings back the old to wag fingers at the new. While he has kept the quest for Shrangri-La for the last of his writers, I found so much more in his second story, Dreaming of Tibet, and of which he has carried a gorgeous cover picture of an ancient Lhasa Temple clinging to its mountain precipice. He tells us first of 1920 Colonial Ceylon when Ananda College, headed by Kularatne, bubbled with patriotic fervour. It was the time when the College students discarded the Colonial symbol of coat and tie to adopt the Ariya Sinhala dress. The college was soon a magnet for the icons of Indian nationalism and students listened enthralled to the Mahatma, to Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, to the Indian poet Sarojini Naidu (who was once known to have a Sinhalese lover) ... It was also the time when theosophists Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were the guiding lights of Buddhist education, and there flowed in other Britishers and Americans who interacted with the revival of Buddhism. It was the American scholar of Tibet’s Tantrayana Buddhism who was most interesting. He was W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Tissa gives us a title print of a book - Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa: A biography from the Tibetan being the Jetsun-Khabum - Biological history of Jetsun Milarepa according to the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdep’s English rendering. This book was edited with introduction and annotations by Evans-Wentz. Tissa’s father, the famous DT, also read every book on Tibet he could find, and Tissa was free, even as a schoolboy, to read all the books in the home. He was soon fascinated by the intricately-carved temples, whirling dragon-dancing monks, yak caravans and the beautiful forbidding mountains, He learnt of yak shepherds, serene monks in strange headgear or in fearsome masks, the paintings of spirits in conjugal embrace - a spiritual ecstasy - and the sky burials, where the dead were cut up and left as food for the mountain eagles. Tibetan Buddhism held young Tissa enthralled - Lamas in the snow, meditating in a trance ... others in their small kulis, meditating for years within walls ... the transference of the spirit of high Lamas to infant boys. That was the tradition that gave an unbroken line of thirteen earlier Dalai Lamas. It was another book, Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer that told Tissa of the present Dalai Lama’s flight from Lhasa’s Forbidden Kingdom to India where he fashioned a Little Tibet at Dharamsala in the foothills of the Himalayas. Tissa has held scant toleration for the Communist China of Chairman Mao that brutally invaded Tibet. Books gave the western stories of ill-armed Tibetan guerrillas and stave-wielding Lamas who resisted the Chinese Peoples Army and the Red Guards. Many Tibetans perished, many fled to India and China established administrative control, abolished the clerical regime and dragged medieval and monastic Tibet, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century. Tissa has little love for the Dalai Lama too, who had learned to love his multi-cultural freedom in Dharmasala, attracted journalists, politicians, and film stars, and travelled the western world, establishing Tibetan monasteries in America and Britain. Tissa was saddened by the way the Dalai Lama became a sort of pop icon, compromising his moral stature to hobnob with Presidents, Prime Ministers and Hollywood stars, even blessing the US President for the thousands of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today there is a high-speed railway linking Lhasa to Beijing and Tissa’s Tibet of his dreams lies buried in the permafrost of history. But he does not forget Evans-Wentz who left behind The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Decades later, this became a ‘sacred text’ of the Hippie – Beat-LSD movement. Malalasekera’s Dream  I would like to drop down to Tissa’s 14th story: Malalasekera’s Dream. It is not that I wish to confuse readers but I feel that this story carries much that deserves to be told of, Mind you, should this article be too long for my editors, I have already patterned a Part 2, maybe Part 3 as well. Will my editor mind? I think not. On page 79 we have Malalasekera’s Dream: The World Fellowship of Buddhists, and Tissa’s memory takes him back to that very first 1950 gathering in Ceylon - a gathering that gave impetus and inspiration for the 1956 Buddha Jayanthi celebrations. This Wesak, we celebrate the 2,600th Golden Jubilee of the Buddha Jayanthi. The first 1950 gathering was the need, the dream, to knit together the many Buddhist organisations and scholars the world over especially those of Buddhist culture and traditions. As Tissa says, Asia was then emerging from the dark clouds of Colonialism. This gathering would not allow the rising flood of western materialism to submerge the old ways. Malalasekera was a leading member of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA), and President of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC). He was also dean of the University Faculty of Oriental Studies, and in setting up his core group, made his dear friend D. T. Devendra, his key player. Such a gathering it was ... King Sisavong Vong of Laos; Rani Dorji of Bhutan; Princess Poon Diskul of Thailand. There was also Ambedkar and Zen scholar Dr. D. T. Suzuki; Major-General Tunttla Aung of Burma ... Bhikkhu Sujivo of Thailand told of why Thai Bhikkhus wore shorter robes to avoid mud when walking through fields, and he also introduced the saffron sling-bags that had never been seen or used before in Ceylon. There were elegant Japanese Buddhist ladies from Hawaii, and the Chinese twins, both with wispy beards, from Hong Kong. The Catholic Minister of Religious Affairs represented Emperor Boo Dei of Vietnam, and England was represented by Miss E. B. Homer, a Pali scholar, and Cyril Moore. Tissa, who was a bit-player at the gathering, also met Mademoiselle Suzanmne Karpeles who came from France’s Les Amis du Budhisme. (Is that The Friends of Buddhism?). It was soon noted that our Bauddha Kodiya - so popular here, was not known of abroad. Malalasekera then made of it the universal symbol of Buddhist unity. He placed hundreds of the little silk flags on the delegates desks and these were eagerly taken back to the delegates home countries. This story takes me back to 1956 when I sailed on Her Majesty’s Ship, Vijaya, to Burma, carrying a statue of the Buddha as a gift to the Schwedagon monastery and pagoda. Our Chief Signals Officer hoisted the Buddhist Flag on the main mast while we were alongside Queen Elizabeth pier, and this brought signals from many ships in harbour. A Canadian destroyer actually slipped moorings to come alongside, asking if we were in trouble. ‘What is that strange flag?’ we were asked. It took time to explain, for any flag not known of in the Book of International Signals only meant that the ship was in serious trouble. There have been instances of a ship in “labour” even hoisting a broom and a bucket! It is now time to take on the first diversion on page 120, titled The First and Last Tisssa. As Tissa says: “Having been named Tissa by my parents, I was, as a schoolboy in the 1940s, basking in reflected glory whenever a King Tissa appeared in our history books.” Again, the wandering mind - The Arahat Mahinda called to our hunter king, Tissa! Tissa! Reading the ‘Rajavaliya,’ Tissa discovered that Devanampiya Tissa was not the first Tissa who answered Mahinda’s summons. His father was Mota Tissa, and Mota’s father, who was the son of Pandukabhaya, was Gana Tissa. So there was a pre-Buddhist usage of the name. There were also some of the early Buddhist disciples: Mogaliputta Tissa, and the name was also adopted by twenty kings - Suiddha Tissa, the pious; Sura Tissa, the fierce; Deta / Jetta Tissa, senior, and Upa Tissa, junior; Kuda Tissa, the little; Kelani Tissa; Yatala Tissa; Kavan Tissa, the crow-black; Mahadalioya Tissa of the big beard; Vankanasika Tissa, the crooked-nosed; and Voharaka Tissa, the loud-mouthed; Dalpa Tissa, a rather obscure ruler who reigned for nine years. Buddhist monks will occasionally use the name Tissa to this day, but the name seems to have gone into hibernation for nearly 1,000 years. Anyway, our Tissa found his first post-Mahavamsa friend: Tissa Amerasekara, and a most wonderful man at that. As he says, ‘His achievements in Literature and in film, his brilliance in Sinhala and English, left an indelible imprint to be long remembered and studied. It is our tragedy that he left us at the height of his creative power and I dedicate this in memory of the greatest Tissa of our age.’ Well - I have still so much to tell of so many stories, diversions and writers. Let’s go on to part 2. How about Karapothas, Kan-Kun, Kokis and the Kakkussiya? Nation June 19 2011 Of Portuguese comings and Dutch doings Part 2 of Tissa Devendra’s Quest for Shangri-La Tissa Devendra was an interested observer at an International Conference on The Portuguese Encounter. He tells about it in his Diversions (page 125): Encountering Portuguese Names, and in his next tale: Something Rich and Very Strange. I’m holding back the ‘Encounter’ for a moment, because Tissa has taken some pains to tell us of – guess what? – that all¬-too-familiar insect pest, the Karapoththa! ‘I was reading an old travel book about Brazil,’ he says, ‘and I discovered that fro the local Portuguese, this pest was Carpatos. I fired off a query to the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) that had published something about this in its journal. I wanted to know whether we in Ceylon had no karapoththas until the Portuguese came here 500 years ago in their vermin-infested wooden ships and ‘gifted us’ these pests and their word for them. Or did they never have such pests till they landed here and took the creatures and the Sinhala word for them back to Brazil? ‘The RAS had many scholars who knew much about the Portuguese language, but there was no response. No etymologist made reply either until a Sinhalese scholar, Professor Vinnie Vitharana said that we did have cockroaches here before 1505 and we called them deliyo. But why and when did we start calling them karapoththas? He never knew and could not imagine how the name went to Brazil unless there was some Iberian connection. Tissa is still trying to sort this out and adds: ‘If the cockroaches came with the Portuguese in 1505, we have yet another grudge to curse them with!’ Coming back to names, that 2005 conference was prevailed on by scholars who still carried Portuguese surnames that their forefathers had adopted five centuries ago. Tissa regrets that there was no paper presented that gave reasons for the wide prevalence of Portuguese family names among the Sinhalese of the south-west maritime region. In fact, a Brazilian friend was astonished to find so many such names and said that most of them seemed to come from Portuguese Jews who had bolted to the colonies to escape discrimination at home. Silvas, Pereras and Mendis’ Let’s put this into quick mode, shall we... How come our Silvas, Pereras. Mendis’s, etc., are all Buddhists. In Goa, Pintos and De Souzas are Catholic. Our people also stuck to the Portuguese honorific, Don for men and Dona for women. We had Don Baron Jayatilaka and Don Stephen Senanayake. Tissa says that his grandfather and all the sons were also Dons. He gives us a cutting from a Telecom Directory, full of Portuguese surnames as well as a picture of lace-making – a cultural heritage left behind by the Portuguese. The women wear typical jackets of Portuguese fashion that prevailed in that era. When the Dutch barged in there was another stir, for no Sinhalese was allowed to adopt Dutch names. Soon, the Sinhalese with Portuguese names began to reject any suggestion that they were of Portuguese ancestry. It was a name-game of sorts. There was more nonsense when the British moved in and we began naming our sons after British Governors, government-agents, British politicians, poets, and even in the early 1930s thought they had great children they named after Benito Mussolini and Hitler. In Jaffna the Hindu Tamils resisted Portuguese names but there were adaptations of Christian names, giving us Jesu-thasan, Maria-thasan and Saveri (Xavier) – muttu. When the American missionaries came in the late 19th century, there was, for some Hindus, a rush to convert and take the names of their Godfathers. We then had Handy, Mather, Crossette, Watson, even Shakespeare! Tissa tells us that the British rulers liked the spelling ‘oo’ to indicate a specific Sinhala sound. We have the old estate La-boo-kelle and family names such as G-oo-newardene and G-oo-netilleke with the ‘e’ ending in wardene, tilleke, naike, etc. Many of these families tended to be Christian since the Brits favoured competent natives of that faith. However, by the 20th century families began the New Spelling of the Brits who dumped the ‘oo’ and used the ‘u’. Soon the English directories were full of G-u¬newardena and G-u-natilaka with the endings in ‘a.’ Caste-marker To the Portuguese there arose caste, creed and colour. Our English Sinhalese twisted the alphabet to make it a caste-marker. While the Portuguese had Perez, we got onto ‘Pie’ris, ‘Pei’ris, ‘Pei’ries and ‘Pee’ris. The Portuguese Sous(z)a was adapted as Soysa. The Sinhalese also hyphenated names as an unmistakable caste-marker – such as Dias Bandaranaike. The Burghers then fought a rear-guard action, using the non-Sinhalese letters F and Z. They changed Perera into Pere-i-ra, telling of their European ancestry. At times they even dropped the P and used the F and became Burgher F-ere-i-ras. When the Sinhalese-Portuguese descendent spelt his name Da Silva, he was using the same as the name of the Brazilian President, Lula Da Silva The Burghers used the Z and W making the Z-il-w-as and De Z-il-w-as. Tissa also tells of one amusmg transformation where the Scottish “McCloud was spelt Ma-ek-la-wood’. In his story, Frocks, Clogs and Rompers (page 132) we are told of the traumatised villagers of Kebittigowella and Seruwila – where he had worked – where women wore frocks, knee-length, shapeless and of cotton. Yet, long ago these same women wore the Redda-hattay at home, the Osariya to the temple and the Diya-Redda when bathing. In the Rajarata he tells of the Diga-Kamisa – ankle-length cassock-like garments worn by the boys in the village school. They wore no shoes and played boisterous games with their Diga-Kamisa tucked waist-high. Then came the saree. At first, such sarees were kept to be worn only at weddings and conventions, and the wearers would soon go back to their usual skirts, salwas, denims, while the elders put on their Dubai-Gavum or Laesthi-Gavum, It was Tissa’s father who told how the Anagarika Dharmapala – a resolute nationalist - waged a war against such dresses of colonialism. He called it a disgraceful aping of 16th century Portuguese dress and even compelled his mother to discard her Saaya and wear the Kandyan Osariya. Yet, in the low county the women rook to long flowing skirts – but the Anagarika’ s message came across and soon the saree dominated the fashion scene. However it wasn’t long before the Indian saree began to fill low country wardrobes. The Anagarika was not happy, but in the Pettah, Sindhi and Gujarati merchants brought in the Indian sarees to be eagerly snapped up. All this brought in various saree styles. In Panadura and Moratuwa the saree fall was drawn over the back of the head. This is now long forgotten. Muslim women wore the saree steadfastly with the fall to cover all their hair. Today they wear Hijabs. In the 1920-30s the temple artist M. Sarlis, enlivened the viharas with colourful portraits and these were popularized by W. E. Bastian. Soon many old houses had their living rooms honoured by paintings of queens, princesses and devas, draped in modest sarees so unlike the revealing stuff from India. Badge of distinction We find the saree becoming a badge of distinction. The lady of the house wore it, while the Ayah and Kussiamma wore the Redda-Hattay. But even this began to crumble by the 1950s when the ‘Veevin’ (Rural Handloom Centres) took in village girls who were termed Working Girls, dressed in frocks; and all over became full-frock Factory Girls. With the exodus to the Middle East, Dubai-Gavum, Bhai-Suits and Hijabs became the wear of housemaids. What would we call our national dress? Tissa suggests that Sinhala Buddhist peasants never did have a tradition-bound or religiously-ordained national costume. They wore anything that was appropriate. Even today one can worship in whatever one wears if it is modest. It would have been the Anagarika who insisted on the wearing of white to the temple, but we have one of Keyt’s early works: Worshippers at the Dalada Maligawa, that shows women in many-coloured sarees. Today, as Tissa says, our streets, even jungle trails carry an infinite variety of frocks, school uniforms, Dubai-Gavums, minis, dresses that are flared, flounced, hip-hugging, saucily split. Yes, the frock struck back! We have also had clogs – wooden slippers that resounded in Ceylon homes in the World War Two years. No one knew how they appeared, then disappeared. The town dwellers of Ceylon would pound the streets in clogs. It was the war effort that took our rubber and the shoe-and-slipper makers demand for rubber could not be met. It meant flat wooden rubberless slippers – and then came the ‘Issato’ wooden clogs trademarked by a Mr. Issadeen of the Pettah. There were large masculine designs for men, slimmer stylish clogs for ladies and dinky versions for children. Tissa tells of his brief life in Kandy’s Dharmaja College where the boarders wore clogs to school. Their massed entry in thundering clogs drowned all other sound. ‘It was like the Charge of the Light Brigade,’ he says. ‘The Principal then announced a ban on clogs and that was that. Corning to a fashion scene, he then tells of children’s clothes, when newspapers and British women’s journals told of ruffled silky suits for Page Boys and crinolines for Flower Girls. Tissa’s family portraits show the home-made garments they wore, called the Romper. This was a one piece garment buttoned up at the back. Ayahs called it the Jungee. He, as a child, wore it until he qualified for shorts and they were a vital element of his faraway childhood. Dona Catherina Let’s break away to consider Dona Catherina, shall we? Readers will find this Diversion on Page 143. As you can see, the word Dona takes us back to the Portuguese. The father, Karalliadde Bandara, fled to the Portuguese with his infant daughter to escape internecine slaughter in Kandy. The Portuguese realised that they had a ‘Crown Jewel’ in their hands - a potential heiress to the Kandyan throne. They planned to make of this infant another Don Juan Dharmapala. She would gift the Kandyan Kingdom to them. The child, who was Kusumasana Devi, was then unethically baptized and named Dona Catherina. She was then entrusted to the nuns but none knew that she was destined to marry two ‘heathen’ princes. Long before the coming of the Portuguese in 1505, Lanka’s kings were proudly bejewelled, but went topless in bare-chested glory. Dona Catherina of Portuguese taste was offended by the sight. She needed the support of her royal husband, Vimala Dharma Suriya. There was also Konappu Bandara who the Portuguese had baptized, calling him Don Juan of Austria. (Why Austria?) But given the opportunity he abandoned the Portuguese, rallied the Sinhalese, defeated the Portuguese army invading Kandy, seized the teen-aged Dona Catherina and crowned her puppet queen of Sinhale. In any event, both carried a lot of the Portuguese characteristics, possibly even speaking Portuguese to each other. Dona Catherina began to cover up the bare chests of Kandyan nobility if only to show the Portuguese that the Sinhalese were not half-naked barbarians. She also changed the headgear and redesigned all royal regalia. As Tissa says, ‘I came to realise that Kandyan dress underwent a change around the 16th century. All this had to be the work of one woman Kusumasana Devi - who was taken to bed by two kings and into the hearts of the people of Sinhale. ‘ Ok... so I told readers earlier of Kan-Kun and Kokis. Can I go on to this Part Three? You see how beautifully this book has been presented. I know also that whether you enjoy (or not) what I give here, there is also a great deal I intend to leave out. My proposed Part Three will bring my own reviews to a close. This is why you must simply take this book into your house, your library, and your bed... any place you can read and reread and know how memories gather and keep gathering in the mind of one of our finest writers. Nation June 26 2011 A final clutch of memoriesReview of Tissa Devendra’s Quest for Shangri-La – Part Three

As I told readers in Part Two, I will be leaving a lot unsaid, simply because this book has to be read. How will it serve to keep writing of all that it contains? I hope to take you that final threesome: Tissa, his Mother, Father, and learn of their first home off Baseline Road, Borella. They had lots of good neighbours as well as a young couple from Japan who were firm friends. I’m carving this up in the best way I can so please don’t think that I am deliberately making omissions. As Tissa says, they had a lot of Door Stop Shopping. There came the Vattiammas with their vegetables, the fish vendors. The old Kooni-amma with shrimps, a Chinaman with his bundles of silks and laces, the Thrombal-karaya, Bombai-mutai-karaya, and the milk man. There were fast food vendors too, with their lunumiris achcharu and unu-unu pittu and, on certain months in an open playground space, the Sakkali Usaviya where latrine coolies gathered to squat round an old ‘judge’ who pronounced justice on those who had to bear the brunt of pilfering, assault and domestic disputes. Readers will be told of his mother’s love for gardening, the magnificent zennias she grew that were so impressive that that an artist-friend made an award-winning pastel drawing of the flowers – a picture that still adorns their home seventy-five years later. Tissa also tells of a 1939 musical performance by a white-bearded Rabindranath Tagore who, with a book on his lap sang to a troupe of Indian maidens who dance with supple grace. It was when schooling came that that the Devendras moved to a new home, nearer Nalanda College. They were four children then and yet another move to Dharmajah Hill, Kandy. No... I wont tell you of the Steroiopticon that when put to use, a box of pictures told of a long-lost world and street scenes of 1897 London. Many moves later, Tissa takes you to the Forbidden Forest of Kandyan Royalty and thereon to Horseshoe Street. He has given us a separate book on this collection of stories – a must buy if you don’t have it already. Tissa’s father bought his first camera – a German Agfa – and it was when at Dharmarajah College that Tissa was diagnosed as short-sighted and had to wear spectacles. On doing so the boys in his class hooted and even called him Kannadi Polonga – but it was worth it. He could see as never before. Considering that Dharmarajah was founded by Colonel Olcott, with a student body of mainly Sinhala Buddhists as well as Sindhis, Muslims and Tamils, there still came to the upper kindergarten the exotic George Davies, a yellow-haired Lansi whose father was a forest guard and lived across the road at Uduwattakelle. As war closed in Tissa’s father was appointed Principal of a Ratnapura school. Another move... and Ratnapura was the rainiest of towns, where he travelled by buggy to school in the 1940s. He could not forget Kandy. Seventy years ago he saw the twilight of the Colonial era and remembers the Grass For My Feet author, 1. Vijay-Tunga, who came from Galle. There is a very interesting – no, fascinating chapter on the Karl Kasmana Caper that I leave for my readers. Let’s say it involved an Estonian cargo ship that had sailed into Colombo Harbour and was impounded. There were Soviet films and books Claudine Libovitsz, an East European blonde, the Red American Rhoda Miller and both deported by Prime Minister Kotelawala. Moving to Colombo it was the season of the old tram cars in 1946. When, in the 1950s, the Municipality scrapped the trams the last tramcar was decorated with streamers and balloons on its last haul to Grandpass with a hired Kotahena Band belting out the Funeral March. He tells of the streets of his childhood memories, porticos to shelter people running in from the rain and how he accompanied his father to ‘keep an eye’ on the filming of Elephant Walk at Sigiriya. Since his father was then Assistant Archaeological Commissioner, they stayed at the Circuit Bungalow and spent evenings at the Takaran-roofed rest-house. You must read about it all especially when they took Vivien Leigh to Anuradhapura. Not long later she abandoned the film and flew back to London – and Elizabeth Taylor was spliced into the film. And so to Galle where Tissa was a District Land Officer. He tells of Fred Brook, an American with a Hasselblad camera and of encounters with super swamis who broke every rule to take villages for everything they offered – food, money, flowers, honey. Trincomalee was in this regards most attractive. As Government Agent, Jaffna, he was close to Alfred Duraiappah, Mayor, who was a close ally of Felix Dias Bandaranaike, Mrs B’s right-hand man. Tissa makes no bones about this. When a young Tamil shot Alfred on the Temple steps of the Vishnu kovil. He later knew of the teen-age thug, Prabhakaran who had fled by boat to Tamil Nadu. Read, of Tissa’s year at Cambridge, 1968-69. It’s worth every word and I’m keeping mum. He also tells of the women of passion, poison and power from the Chronicles of the Mahavamsa, Culavamsa, Rajavaliya and folk songs - their celebrations, festivals, the Sandesa poems, then of the Kokis – or Koekjis as called by the Dutch, and how the Dutch Kak-huis, the outside lavatory, had become the Sinhala Kakkussiya. You will be told of George Keyt and young Lionel Wendt and how they met another Keyt named Thomas who had forged Keyt’s paintings. He was convicted by the Supreme Court and transported to Penang jail in Malaya in 1865. In 1870 he met George Wendt, also convicted of forgery while in the Ceylon Bank. Both were dispatched to Singapore where they were engaged in building the Governor’s Palace while ringleaders, the Blaze brothers set the prison ablaze to destroy incriminating documents Keyt and Wendt were supposed to have. It is in his final piece, Quest/or Shangri-La, that Tissa tells of D. H. Lawrence, having discovered that Lawrence lived for some time in Kandy and for a few months in the old bungalow they had occupied near Dharmarajah College. Lawrence came to Ceylon in 1922, but he found Kandy incredibly hot. He did write his beautiful poem, ‘Elephant’ and was an indefatigable letter writer. However, even after a trip to Nuwara Eliya he began to feel upset by Buddhism. Read some of the letters Tissa gives. Lawrence then sailed to Australia, saying that I don’t like Ceylon, not to live in... From West Australia he moved to New South Wales, saying that Australia goes from bad to worse in my eyes... and sailed away. So now, readers I leave it all to you and say a big thank you to my editors. Too bad that it all had to end... but will it? Tissa is now a flashing, rainbowed cataract of literature. Soon we will. See more and more and so much more!

Food for thought in Colombo

Sunday Times May 29 2011

Colombo, here we come!

Smriti Daniel checks out some favourite night-time hangouts

Colombo is transformed by nightfall. The streets empty of traffic as most of the city falls asleep but in smoky clubs the strobe lights begin to flash and along Galle Face, the vendors light up their lanterns. Every night owl has his or her favourite spot – the kade that’s always open for a snack at 4 a.m., the club where the beautiful people gather, the quiet walk that takes you past old, moonlit buildings. This week, we’re asking “what do you do in Colombo after dark?” Pilawoos: For cheese kottu and lime juice Here are some answers we received: It’s not your typical girl’s night out. “Sometimes, after dinner we just go to Carnival and get some ice cream. We’ll take it with us and hang out at Galle Face or Independence Square,” says Iromi. Iromi can count on Galle Face Green being alive with people on any day of the week. “Even if you go on a weeknight, there’s a lot of activity,” she says, explaining that people are still around as late as ten. “Galle Face was closed for so long, so it’s nice that people are taking advantage of it now.” If they’re looking for something more substantial than an ice cream cone, Burger’s King at the Malay Street Junction in Slave Island is guaranteed to sate any appetite. If the budget allows for a more upmarket venue, she says 7° North at Cinnamon Lakeside is a great place to relax. Her favourite dish is not on the menu – you will be served Hot Butter Cuttle Fish from the Royal Thai on request. For dancing Iromi prefers either Silk or Amuseum they come out ahead of other city nightclubs because she likes the crowd and the music, which she describes as “really trashy pop.” After a night in the close confines of the club, they like to go for long drives through Fort past the old Parliament, and buildings like the World Trade Centre and the Old Dutch Hospital. Adalia* is a German who has lived in Sri Lanka for 16 years, and says she no longer enjoys going to the local clubs. It takes a restaurant to tempt her out – she recommends Shri Vani Vilas on Messenger Street which she describes as a “a brilliant Indian vegetarian restaurant, where the kitchen is cleaner than the one at the Hilton.” Adalia doesn’t always want company, but she says women eating alone in local restaurants can feel very uncomfortable. She’s opts to go here because “the entire staff watches out for you.” Shanmugajah’s is another favourite. To begin his night out, Andre might go to Lani's Sea Food Restaurant in Dehiwala – he describes it as undiscovered and cheap, and notes the restaurant has good service. It’s secluded, he says. (Lanis is down Windsor Avenue.) Flag & Whistle is another restaurant he would recommend – this one comes with a glorious view. Since the restaurant overlooks the port, it’s a good idea to get their around 5 p.m., just in time to catch sunset over the harbour. “Entertainment in Colombo is basically broken down by age,” says Andre, explaining that the city’s clubs each cater to a specific age group and its tastes. Club hopping is still popular and Andre says the usual round takes dancers through Mojo at the Taj, R&B on Duplication Road and Amuseum at Galle Face. (Different bands step up to the mike at R&B for rousing live music.) Eating out late used to be about stopping at Pilawoos for a cheese kottu and a lime juice, but Andre says there are plenty of better options. The Gardenia Cafe at the Ramada Hotel (the old Holiday Inn) is a coffee shop that’s open all night. Of late, Prasad has found himself at Sopranos (Maitland Crescent) surprisingly often – “for reasons I can’t quite fathom, I like going there,” he says adding that his signature number is ‘Bed of Roses’ by Bon Jovi. “I think it’s the company...the crowd I go with is a lot of fun.” Their raucous night is typically fuelled by food and drink from one of the local clubs such as SSC, CR&FC or CH. Once at Sopranos they tend to stay and sing, well into the night. If anyone feels like dancing Clancy’s is one floor up and Silk is just down the road. French restaurant 'La Voile Blanche' in Mount Lavinia is a bit expensive but serves excellent food says Ramesh. Billed as a ‘Gourmet Beach Lounge,’ the restaurant is known for its seafood, but Ramesh who is a vegetarian still finds something to suit his taste. (The restaurant has a menu up on their facebook page). Another favourite by the Beach is Buba. They’ve preserved some of the mangroves and Ramesh likes to find one of the tables tucked into a corner. For entertainment later in the evening he might opt for a party. But for most part, he’s disappointed with what the city has to offer: “I think Colombo absolutely lacks relaxed, tasteful places to hang out with good music and friendly atmosphere, professionally organised private parties in houses and out of town places are the ones that are really special.” The Greenlands Hotel in Shrubbery Gardens, Colombo 4 is one of Colombo’s oldest restaurants serving South Indian cuisine. But just there on the side is the Greenland’s Bar, which Dominic describes as “an extremely fine and decent drinking establishment.” Though they will not bring your meal to the bar, they serve the best hot vadaai in town on the side, says Dominic. “It’s a place you might go by yourself to read the newspapers,” he reveals, “there’s no one screaming or shouting or jumping up and down.” His other favourite place has an equally respected pedigree – the Castle Street Hotel in Slave Island. “It’s a wonderful place with a long history,” says Dominic, explaining that during the colonial period, while the Grand Oriental Hotel near the ports used to welcome the owners of the estates, the clerks would find their way here. Several portraits hang on its walls – incongruously Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi and Joseph Stalin all share quarters. “People from Slave Island itself always go there,” says Dominic. Burger’s King: Something substantial at affordable prices. Pix by Sanka Vidanagama Galle Face: Always a hub of activity (below) J.R is a Chinese food aficionado and says the city offers plenty of choices – 88 and 168 are both favourites, as is Min Han. The latter, tucked away down Deanstone Place is run by a Chinese family, but attracts plenty of locals. Simple dishes like the garlic broccoli and the chilli pepper prawns come highly recommended. The sports clubs have their own devoted fans. Nishan* recommends pubs like and Cheers, but Inn on the Green is his favourite. Why watch a football match in a group? In one word – “banter.” Anushan is a member of the Rowing Club, and will often take friends there but Machang in Nawala is one of his favourite new places. A sports pub, it has two large screens and a football and pool table as well. Plus some drinks come really cheap, says Anushan. Though he hasn’t been there in awhile, Delon suggests you try to track down a man named Bulan who owns a small shop in Slave Island – “he’s like this massive Malay guy, with big arms and a gold chain around his neck.” Though he speculates that the likes of Burger’s King might have driven Bulan off, one hopes that Bulan can still be found on some nights outside his spot at the Nippon Hotel. Delon remembers the man’s usual menu clearly. “He has all sorts of weird food there – he’s got rabbit and quail, all sorts of offal. He makes a great rampe chicken,” says Delon, adding that “back in the day he used to be very, very popular.” “I’ve always liked going to Summer Gardens,” says Subha describing the old beer garden on Greenpath, opposite Vihara Mahadevi Park. “It’s been there for a really long time and there’s a lot of nostalgia associated with it – going there when we were kids and eating chilli powder fries while our parents had a beer.” (Among other things, the restaurant is known for their steaks, served sizzling.) Today, she also recommends the hoppers, both at Summer Gardens and at Green Cabin on Galle Road. “You have to eat hoppers with tomato curry and cadju curry,” says Subha firmly. She’s also a fan of the Galle Face Hotel. “If you go there a little early, you can have high tea and then stay on and catch the sunset,” she says, suggesting you go on to drinks after dark. The clubs hold little allure for Subha, describing them as insipid, she says she’s frustrated at the lack of an alternative scene and would like to see more adventuresome DJs go beyond playlists made up of mainstream music. Still, for some, Colombo’s clubs still have their appeal. “Nightlife? Amuseum because the music is super, the crowd is great and it’s a beautiful nightclub,” says Nehara.* Later in the night, Lakeside’s Kiribath with mutton curry “is to die for,” she adds.

MEMORIES OF A JAZZ MUSICIAN FROM CEYLON/SRI LANKA

 © stuart de silva inc.Sydney,Australia 2011.

JAZZ – the word has never been clearly defined. Someone asked Thelonious Sphere Monk in an interview “How would you define Jazz?” He answered, “Man, I don’t have to define it. I PLAY it. All you critics and non-players have to do is LISTEN!” No truer word was spoken.

I was born on the same day that piano virtuoso Art Tatum recorded his devastatingly stunning version of Tiger Rag. (He never ever played or recorded it again).

My earliest memories are my father telling me that, in my first year of life, I would wake up in the middle of the night howling and crying and the only way he could get me to shut up was to stumble in the dark (we had no electricity in Nugegoda then) to the piano and play Hoagy Carmichael’s “Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day’. Yes, my father, Herman, came from a musical family, where my grandmother played piano, grandfather on drums, dad & his sister (Cora) played piano and a brother Algernon (Uncle”Joy”) on banjo. Dad, before I was born, played for the Silent Movies at the Empire Cinema in Slave Island. He had a style of playing that I was to only recognise later when I first heard Errol Garner. That chunk-chunk-chunk left hand chords, while the right hand improvised. We had a wind-up gramophone on which he played his ‘78s, from Duke Ellington, thru James P Johnson, Fats Waller, Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson, the Ink Spots, Mills Brothers, Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday and heaps of others.

Because of my growing interest in the music, when I was 4 years old he got me studying Classical piano under the Hungarian Hugo Wagn. He and his brother Victor were then living in Ceylon. It was Victor who started the first Symphony Orchestra in Colombo in 1939. My lessons with Hugo ended when I was 9 years, when he walked in 15 minutes early for my lesson he heard me playing a Boogie Woogie. Tearing at his hair, screaming at my parents “He’s playing that jungle music. I can no longer teach him.” He walked out. I never saw him again till 1959, I was on a bus in London with Rudy Bernardo and saw and recognised him. Naturally, we got off the bus, went and had some beers and told him of my career in Jazz. He was happy to hear of my Doctorate at Juilliard.

This is just a little background info.

In the late 40’s, Gerry  Crake on alto, brother George on tenor, and brother Ben on baritone saxes, with Dudley Pereira on vocals, rehearsed at my grandparents’ home in Girton School Road, Nugegoda, for the Band that was to soon become the Crake Brothers. My Dad played some piano (with Gerry clueing him on chords), grandpa on drums and uncle Joy on banjo. Naturally I was there.

My first introduction to a music that was to become a very fruitful career for 45 years as a professional Jazz pianist around the world.

In  1949, that Great Entrepreneur of Show Biz in Ceylon, Donovan Andre, held a Talent Quest at his Carnival at the SSC. I entered and won all of Rs 100, at that time a fortune. He then spoke to my Dad, who was a regular at the Nite Club, and offered to book me with a trio in his Nite Club, as intermission pianist to Gerry Crake’s Band. What a blast!

That same year, he had brought the Kamala Circus to perform in Colombo. In that Circus, there was a Trapeze Act, The Flying Bernardos. That was Barney and his wife, son Rudy and daughter Colleen. Rudy and Barney also played in Band. Sadly, Colleen contracted a disease and died and was buried at Kanatte. The Family Bernardo did not want to leave Ceylon and Donovan got them Ceylon Citizenship.

The trio I had in the nite club was with Barney Bernardo, (the father) on bass (he also played trombone) and Rudy on drums. The gig was only Friday and Saturday, so it would not interfere with my schooling. He even had his driver, Ian Dias, pick me up and take me home.

Gerry’s Band had, to the best of my recollection, Gerry on alto & clarinet, George Crake, tenor, Derek Evarts on tenor, Ben Crake, baritone, Latif Miskin or Louis Miskin,trumpet ( they alternated) Tony “Rocky” Latham, bass. Rudy Bernardo ,drums, doing a double gig with my trio.

Here were the giants of the Ceylon Jazz scene. What an exposure for a 14 year old. I lapped it up.

Then, the same year, Gazali Amit had heard me, came home and got permission from my parents to join his Quartet in Radio Ceylon broadcasts. The group was Gazali, guitar, Jimmy van Sanden ,bass and Cass Ziard,drums.

More into the learning curve.

In 1951, Donovan Andre, that Giant of Showbiz entrepreneurs in, brought a Variety troupe led by Marie Bryant, “The Harlem Blackbirds”. (She had been the choreographer on Nat King Cole’s TV series in the US).This was an all African-American cast of fabulous dancers, comedians and tap-dancers, whose entire repertoire was to the accompaniment (recorded, and sometimes played by Gerry Crake’s Band) of pure Jazz.

Then in 1953, we had the Horrie Dargie Quintet, the Australian Jazz Quartet, and Max Wildman’s Band, with whom our own Charmaine Drieberg sang (she later married Reuben Solomon and moved to Sydney, where she was to write her fantastic series of books on Asian cuisine).

In 1955, at the bottom of 8^th Lane, Bambalapitiya, Donovan brought a troupe from Paris, “The Parisian Follies”. One of the people in the show was Jazz solo pianist Aaron Bridges (African-American, then living and playing in Paris), who had studied under Art Tatum and Billie Strayhorn. Naturally we became good friends and he visited our home on many an occasion, showing me different chord voicings on the piano. His regular gig in Paris was at the Mars Club, an American owned spot just off the Champs Elysees, a hang-out for Showbiz folks, mainly visiting Acts and ex-pat Americans living in Paris. Ironically, 5 years later, I would take over his gig there and stay on at the Mars for 4 years, playing 7 nights, Art Simmons and I sharing the solo piano spots.

Also in the troupe was Duke Diamond, a fantastic jazz tap dancer, who was to later appear in a sequence in the original movie “Moulin Rouge” as an acrobatic and tap dancer.

In 1951, Radio Ceylon inaugurated the Commercial Service, bringing two Australians, Clifford Dodd and Graham Evans to take charge. They wanted a greater emphasis on Jazz in their broadcasts. To this end, they negotiated a deal with Gillette to sponsor a weekly live Jazz programme for a period of 52 weeks. Gazali Amit got the gig. With Gazali, guitar, Jimmy van Sanden, bass, Cass Ziard, drums and myself on piano, and two vocalists who alternated, Yolande Wolff , who was to make her name in US jazz circles as Yolanda Bavan, and Bill Forbes. The group was called “The Airwaves”, as was the live broadcast programme every Saturday nite.

The contract was for a whole year, but Gazali moved on, Mervyn Cherrington took the guitar seat, Jimmy van Sanden left for the US and Tony Blake came in on bass. Sometime later, Mervyn left for the UK and Percy Bartholomeusz came in on guitar. Again a great learning curve.

I worked at Donovan’s night Clubs, with a short break from 1953 to 1955, with my trio, right up the Purple Orchid Room in Victoria Park, when I left Ceylon in 1958 on a scholarship from Dave Brubeck to Berkelee College in Boston.

Some of the foreign Bands that influenced the Jazz scene in Ceylon.

1939 thru 1941- Teddy Weatherford’s Band at the Galle Face. (see his profiles on Wikpedia)

This was a legendary Band under a legendary leader. Weatherford had been in Asia since 1930, in Shanghai, Burma, Indonesia and Bombay, India. In 1937, he was working in Cricket Smith’s band, playing piano and singing, at the Taj Mahal in Bombay (other reports have the same band in Java, Indonesia at that time), when they moved to the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo as resident Band from July 1937 through 1942.

Story has it that Weatherford took over the Band from Smith for this contract and they arrived in Colombo in July, 1937.

The Band that played in Colombo definitely had Reuben Solomon (alto & clarinet), Rudy Cotton (ten), Rudy Jackson (alto sax/clarinet), Louis Moreno (trumpet & violin) Paul Gozalvez (tenor, from 1940 to 42), Tony Gonzalvez, (bass) Trevor McCabe or Luis Pedroso (drums). There was a 2^nd trumpet, who could have been George Banks (Nepalese born: Pushkar Bahadur Buddaprihiti), and trombonist George Leonardi. On guitar was Cedric West, who, with George Banks, came out of Burma with Reuben Solomon’s Jive Kings in the early ‘30’s.

My father had befriended Weatherford and (from 1939 to 1942) took me to the GFH to hear the band in their Sunday afternoon shows. Weatherford also visited our home on many occasions.

Paul Gonzalvez, the tenor player who was later with Duke Ellington and featured at Newport in that fantastic “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” solo, told me in Paris that he was stationed in Colombo with the US Army and that he did play in Weatherford’s Band 1940 to ’42. Other reports have him stationed in Bombay, but, from what he told me personally, I’ll stick with this.

Rudy Jackson, alto sax and clarinet, was in Duke Ellington’s first band, I think from 1916. I know he recorded with Duke in 1926 and left Duke’s Band in 1927.

Rudy Cotton came back with his own Band to play for Donovan, around 1952, either at the SSC or BRC. Jimmy Emmanuel, piano player, who stayed on in Sri Lanka till his recent death , came over with him. They both, together with Luis Pedroso were in Louis Moreno’s Muchachos at Donovan’s Silver Fawn in Union Place in 1940, where Erin de Selfa started singing, aged 16, known as Dinah of the Red Tails. The Band there was the Red Tails Minstrels.

Moreno, Pedroso and Reuben Solomon, together with Mario Manricks were in Sacha Borsteins’s band at the GFH, with Mickey Borstein, on piano and our own Frosty Vanlangenberg on bass. Moreno also played vibraphone. Mickey Borstein took over the piano chair from Ossie Halpern around 1955/56 when he left the Band.

There are people who have claimed that Buck Clayton played with Weatherford in Colombo, but records show this cannot be true. Till 1937, he was leading his own Band at the Canidrome in Shanghai, but left China just before the 2^nd Sino-Japanese war and returned to the US in 1937, the year Weatherford came to Colombo. That same year he joined Willie Bryant’s Band and while on a tour date in Kansas City, joined Count Basie, where he remained, recording with Lester Young, Buddy Tate, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, the master Joe Jones, Freddie Green (the rhythm guitarist who never took a solo) and others in the band, with Basie on piano.

1940 thru 1944 –at the Hotel in Slave Island, near the roundabout, owned by Greg Roskovski’s mother, was another Jazz piano player: Dr Jazz. Also African-American, he played a lot of Fats Waller, Willie “The Lion” Smith, James P. Johnson. I was taken often to hear him. He too was a friend of my Dad.

Through the war years, when Colombo was South East Asia Command (SEAC), there was a radio band called the Squadronaires, who did concerts and Radio Broadcasts. They were British, but played a lot of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw arrangements. Never got to meet them, but did get to hear them live. Great music.

Some foreign Jazz Groups that played at Donovan Andre’s Nite Clubs.

Horrie Dargie, who played chromatic harmonica, brought his Quintet from Australia and played for month. I have not been able to identify the other musicians, but the band comprised of his Harmonica, tenor sax/violin, piano, bass and drums. They played opposite Gerry Crake’s Band.

The Australian Jazz Quartet, based on the Modern Jazz Quartet, had Jackie Brockensha on vibes and drums, Bryce Rohde on piano, Errol Buddle on tenor, alto, soprano and baritone saxes and Dick Healey on bass. They did a one month stint at Donovan’s and were on their way to the UK after. Errol Buddle lives in Perth, Australia, and is still active on the jazz scene here. Brokensha went onto the US and made a name for himself there.

In 1955/56, there was a Band from Singapore, Placido “Ido” Martin’s Quintet, with Jimmy Aaron, alto, Benny, his brother, drums, and guitarist and vocalist, Benny’s wife, Eva. Ido played trumpet, piano and vibes and was superb on all three instruments. Their style was heavily influenced by Bebop and West Coast Jazz.

In more recent years, Albert Mangelsdorff (a superb trombonist) and 

Joachim Kuhn,piano, and bassist Eberhard Weber, bass, came over with a Quartet, sponsored by the Goethe Institute. All three of them turned up at Jazz Unlimited session and played.( I remember this because Joachim called me up to play while he took a break.) I knew all three of them from Munich in Germany, where I had a 3 month stint in a Jazz Club there.

Then, in 1984, the Australian Embassy brought “Intersection”, a very modern, avant-guard  band. Two of the members, Roger Frampton, piano and soprano sax, and Guy Strazzulo, guitar, turned up at JU at the Capri and we jammed a couple of sets with Lucky Manikawasagar on bass and Aruna Siriwardene , drums and myself on piano, Frampton played soprano sax. Frampton passed away 11 years ago. Strazzulo and I remain in contact in Sydney.

To get back to Commercial Radio: in the 50’s, Greg Roskovski, Mil Sansoni, Chris Greet and Dan Durairaj played a lot of Jazz on Radio. At the time, Dan was the only one into Bebop and played a lot of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the Dutch Bebop piano-accordion Quintet of Art Van Damme, the Jazz piano/singing Duo of Jackie Krall & Roy Crane and many others.

At the time of the “Airwaves”, I had connected by letter with Bud Powell followers “Dizzy” Saldano in Bombay and Toshiko Aiyoshi in Tokyo. Strangely, Toshiko was at Berkelee 2 years before me and “Dizzy” one year before. We never met.

Now, to an appreciation of our Ceylon/Sri Lankan musicians:

Piano: Christie Bartholomeusz (played at The Silver Fawn with The Red Tail Minstrels); Sonny Bartholomeusz (stride piano in the style of Earl Hines/Teddy Wilson – I had a series of lessons from him), his sister, Phylis, who played a mean two handed piano); Gerry Crake (a style reminiscent of Count Basie); Chitra Malalasekare( later Ranawake) (who although being a 1^st Prize winner in Classical music at the Paris Conservatory in France, was intent on playing bebop piano); Rafe Jansz (boogie-woogie and jazz);Mickey and Helen Menezes; Tom Menezes’ daughter, Cathy; Raddy Ferreira (who led a jazz Big Band in Sydney, played for 18 years at the Hilton Hotel, Sydney, and is now on a World Cruise Luxury Liner with his Trio for the past 5 years); “Doc” Gulasekaram (Gulli) ,who led a long-standing Trio with Gazali and Frosty Van Langenberg, playing Art Tatum Trio and Nat “King” Cole Trio arrangements, which he transcribed from the records); Jimmy Emmanuel (need I say more-he was a great pianist); Gerry Crake’s daughter, Heather Crake; Eric and Conrad Martinez(twins) ( Both taught jazz piano. Conrad moved to Denmark.); Ossie Halpern and Mickey Borstein who were with Sascha Borstein’s Band at the Galle Face Hotel ( both superb and modern jazz pianists); “Blind John” – used to play the Hotel in Slave Island where Dr.Jazz played and in later years at lunchtime at The Pagoda in Chatham Street. Claire Croner, (he also plays accordion, but for a while, was the pianist with Gerry Crake’s Band. I took over the piano seat from him).

To these I must add: Patrick Nelson, Desmond Pompeus, Peter Prins, Harsha Markalanda, Dilup Gabadamudalige, Mignonne Fernando, Neri Fernandez (Erin’s husband), Debbie Arnolda and, I am sure a host of young players I’ve never heard. I never met or got to hear Valentine Manikavasagar, but, from what I’ve been told, he is superb.

Bass: Leonard Francke, Jimmy Van Sanden, Tony “Rocky” Latham, Frosty Van Langenberg, Barney Bernardo (Rudy’s father), Ralph de Silva (my cousin, who moved to Australia and played with Graham Belle and other jazz groups, including my Trio), Nesan and Lucky Manikavasagar (both great), Tony Blake, David Sansoni, David Bartholomeusz (Ronnie’s brother), Nilantha Ariyaratne, Nihal Jayewardene (he played beautifully on that Trio I had at the Galadari with Farouk Miskin on drums) Errol Mulholland, Ray Gomez..........A Special Mention for the ever-young Alston Joachim. What a bass player, who can play in any style and make it sound fantastic!

Drums: RUDY BERNARDO! Wadham Dole, Godfrey Davidson, Louis Pedroso, Cass Ziard, Faleel Ziard, Adrian Ferdinands, Farouk Miskin ( Latif’s son), Aruna Siriwardene, Hassan Musafer, Mohan Sabaratnam, Lucky Manikavasagar,  Diren Sabaratnam, Chris Dharsan, Christo Prins, Harris Juranpathy...................

Guitar: Gazali Amit, Milroy Passe-deSilva, Mervyn Cherrington, Percy Bartholomeusz, David Sansoni, Raja Jalaldeen, Revel Crake, Rodney Rabot,

Sax: Gerry (alto/clt), George (ten) and Ben(ten/bari) Crake, Derek Evarts (ten), Clem Croner(ten/clt), Rodney Van Heer (ten), Reuben Solomon (alto/clt), Randy Peiris (ten) Kumar Mollegoda(ten), Harold Seneviratne (alto), Edgar Heber(alto), Malcolm de Zilwa (ten/alto), Freddie Diaz (ten)*

*Freddie was a Major in the Army and couldn’t play professionally. However, Ariya & Chitra Ranawake, Cass Ziard, Tony Blake and I met on Sundays at his house to go through bebop charts. He had a hard-reed and a style like Coleman Hawkins in his bebop phase.

Clarinet: Gerry Crake; Mario Manricks; Reuben Solomon; Clem Croner; Ronnie Bartholomeusz.............

Trumpet: LOUIS MISKIN! What can I say about “Rafai”, as we all lovingly called him? His thirst for playing and booze is legendary. When the Band at Donovan’s took a break, he’d run out to the Carnival grounds and play with the Merry-Go-Round Band. Louis NEVER slept. He was in the CLI Marching Band and he would go straight from the Club and join them in their morning march from Maharagama to Reid Avenue. He also played in Major Perry’s CLI Dance Band and Concert Band (Classical). He lived for music. He had a tremendously powerful sound. There’s only one trumpet player I’ve met and played with, on a tour in Germany, with that sound: “Wild Bill” Davidson. That was with the Buddy Tate Quintet in 1973.

During the “Parisian Follies”, there was Sammy Wilde (Fire-eater/Dancer), who danced to Dizzy Gillespie’s “Cubana Be-Cubana Bop”, and Louis handled Dizzy’s solo with ease.

Others. Latif Miskin (Crake Bros); Tom Menezes (one fantastic trumpet player); Ariya Ranawake (Bebop only); Luis Moreno; Dallas Achilles; Eden Pompeus.......

Vocalists: ERIN de SELFA!!!!!!*; Eileen Nathanielsz*; Dudley Perera*; Kingsley de Mel*; Yolande Wolff*; Jean Van Heer*; Chris Greet*; Gerry Crake*; Marie de Rosairo*; Noeline Honter; Mifanwy Pompeus; Scarlett Hannibelsz;  Mike “Hootie” Gibson (sang only with Doc “Gulli’s Quintet, with Gerry Crake(alto) and Rudy Bernardo added). His repertoire was from Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five Band – the very first R & B/ Rock & Roll Band ever; Bill Forbes*...........

Vocal Groups: Gerry Crake & Dudley Perera; The Three Crotchets (Joy Ferdinando-piano/vocals, Lylie Godridge, Bede de Silva); The Kelaart Sisters  (Decima & Mignonne)*; The De Bruin Sisters* (June,  ? and ?); The Four Sharps* (Gamalathge Bros, Roland & Victor, ? Seneviratne and ?);

*These are singers I had the pleasure of accompanying on Radio and Concerts.

Other: “Whistling” Georgie Siegertz. He could whistle and improvise on the hit tunes of the period. He had his own 15 minute program on Radio Ceylon in the ‘50’s. Anyone who saw “The Bridge Over The River Kwaii”, will recall the soundtrack of our Georgie whistling “The Colonel Bogey March” – he also acted in the movie as a prisoner of war. (George Siegertz passed away in London in March, 2002, aged 82, in London.)

Footnote: In early 1953, my father and I bought the remaining 2 year lease from Julius Mather on the Pigalle Nite Club in Colpetty (3-storey building next to Kreme House), with Donovan Andre’s blessing, help and advice.

I had a Trio, with Wadham Dole and Tony Blake. The Club operated as a Members Only Club, open six days a week, Monday’s off.

Of the Members were Mike Wilson, Sampath Nandalochana and Viswa Selvaratnam, keen Jazz afficianados. After some discussions, we decided to turn Monday’s into a Jazz Club night. With the backing of the USIS in Miller’s Building, and a great deal of help from Ms. Diana Captain (Soli’s sister), who worked there as Manager, we managed to secure an Affiliation Agreement with International Jazz Club in New York to run under their banner.

The Office bearers were Mike, Viswa, Sampath (Treasurer & Accountant) and myself. This Committee was Notarised and Registered, a requirement under the Agreement with New York.

To say it was a success will be an understatement. A lot of the musicians named above would turn up to sit in.

In 1955, when the lease ended, with Sardha Ratnavira (jeweller and gem merchant and fabulous artiste) signing a new lease with Maliban, I went back to playing at Donovan Andre’s Purple Orchid Room in Victoria Park with my Trio. From that time on IJC was held on Sundays, morning and afternoon, at the Greenhouse, the other Room at Donovan’s, where he had his foreign Shows.

I continued to play and the IJC Committee remained the same until I left Ceylon on the Brubeck Scholarship in 1958. When I left, Wadham Dole took my place on the Committee.

Subsequently, IJC made way for Jazz Unlimited under Tommy and Mahes Perera and is still going solidly strong.

© stuart de silva inc.

Sydney Australia. 2011.

Donovan Andree

Island 16 Nov 2003

Malcolm Andree follows father Donavan Andree’s footsteps

by Kalinga Weerakkody

Malcolm Andree follows the footsteps of his late father Donavan Andree who was the country’s leading showman.

Malcolm though 70 now continues in the same spirit as the began 47 years ago into the show business.

He still talks of his earlier days and calls them moments of a lifetime.

His very first show was for the Ceylon American Youth Society ‘Melody Damour’.

The signature tune of his radio show ‘a certain smile’ was

sung by Heather Crake, Loreta Ohlmus and Keen Hangier. It was originally sung by ‘The Johns Boys’ and the show was compered by Bob Harvey, the band members being Harold Seneviratne, Gerry Crake, Erlene Peck and Patrick Nelson.

The other members of the show were Lauren Grahaem, Noeline Honter, Dalrene Suby, Pat Clyde, The Jay Brothers, Denzil and Vasco duo, Denis Roberts, Sharmine Andrado, Doreen Steuwart, the late Lylie Godridge, the late Gerry Crake and Dudley Perera.

Malcolm was paid only Rs.250/- for producing the show — a poultry sum compared to the total returns from the show. When Bob Harvey often asked him how he managed with that paultry amount his answer was ‘I do it for fun kicks’.

Malcolm also had many other radio shows and three of them were sponsored such as "The Elasto (S.L.Marketing Services), Talent Show and Star’s of Lanka.

Malcolm describes the artistes of yesteryear as just wonderful

Malcolm also produced stage shows from 1959 at the request of Kandy showman E.W.Balasooriya.

They begining with English shows around 1962/1963 and later

oriental shows with the help of showman Jayatissa Hettiarachchi.

The artistes who appeared in such shows were La Ceylonians, Three Sisters, Saman de Silva, M.S. Fernando, H.R . Jothipala, Sujatha Attanayake, Nuwan Gunawardena, Derrick de Silva Kumudini (The Rimbo girl) and the duo of the famous Jet Liners fame Tony Fernando and his wife Mignonne.

Malcolm is the youngest of a family of three boys and three girls.

Malcolm talked his father and what he did to promote show business here during the early years.

Donavan had many clubs such as ‘Stadium Sports Club(SSC) and also had carnivals to raise funds.

One of his best shows was ‘Holiday on Ice’ which featured the famous Harlem Blackbirds.

"My father also helped in sports at the request of the then President of Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) Julian Grero and one to benefit was Sri Lanka’s high jumper S.Ediriweerasingham who won the first Asian Gold medal for Sri Lanka in 1958.

Donavan gifted Ediriweerasingham with Rs.3000 (then big money) for his feat.

Among Donavan Andree’s other shows were the Golden Gate Quartet (group of four), Belly dancers.

My father also encouraged boxing, wrestling, netball, football and cricket. The famous Erin de Selfa who sang under the stage name of ‘Diana’ accompanied by a musical group called the Tails was my father’s second wife.

Erin Selfa was also the only local vocalist to sing before the King and Queen of England at the London Palladium.

Following the demise of his father Malcolm took over supporting sports -netball at Stadium SC in Bambalapitiya and among the players such as Pamela Thajudeen, Christine Blake, Mignonne Fernando, Seetha Weerasooriya, Rani Herath, Kildy Kretser, Tony Joseph, Patsy Herath, Anne de Silva and Rio Ramlan to name a few.

He thanked the late Trixie Jayasooriya, late Kusuma George, Ransilu Wijedasa, Ovone Poulier, Rio Ramlan, Margaret Perera and Dasie Kuruppu, for helping the netball team and also helping him to become a netball coach.

Malcom also spoke high of the golden greats of broadcasting such as the legendary Livy R. Wijemanna, Jimmy Barusha, Vernon Abeysekara, Thevis Guruge, Nihal Greg, Harold Fernando, Derrick Meloney, Shirley de Silva, Shirly Perera, Norton Perera, Cris Jayamanna Leon Belleth and Vijaya Corea.

He finally thanked Padmasiri who is looking after him like a father.

Raddy Ferreira Moves On

Just received information that Raddy passed away while performing on a Cruise Liner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNzLdn4lZKE&feature=related

May he rest in Peace!

Homes and Gardens of Ceylon

Click on each one of the links in the page to view. Simply nostalgic, indeed.

http://www.ceylonrealty.com/popup_pages/New%20Folder/

Regal Beginnings

LakbimaNews April 17 2011

Regal’s eight decade EPIC CINEMA SAGA

A D Ranjith Kumara

Regal cinema which marks its 80th ‘birthday’ since it was opened is one of the country’s foremost theatres. The cinema opened its doors on July 26, 1930.
Two students from Jaffna - Chittampalam Gardiner and A L Thambiah signed an agreement in December 1924 to build a metal shed, and having named it Olympia, proceeded to screen silent films. They then leased the land where the Regal cinema is situated today, and established Ceylon Theatres in December 1928.

During the time of the depression (in the world), these entrepreneurs who were unperturbed by the situation opened the Regal cinema on July 26, 1930.

The growth of Ceylon Theatres has been interwoven into the development of this country’s cinema industry since then. The first film with dialogue - His Captive Woman - was screened at the Regal cinema. It starred Milton Sills and Dorathy Mackail.

An advertisement in the Dinamina newspaper publicised the film thus: “The Regal cinema will be inaugurated today at 9.00 pm, the doors will be opened at 8.00 pm. His Captive Woman starring Milton Sills and Dorathy Mackail is a talking film. The tickets will be priced at Rs4, Rs3, Rs2, Rs1 and 50 cents.”

The first ever film with dialogue

The day before the cinema was inaugurated another advertisement had appeared in The Times of Ceylon newspaper and ran as follows: “The largest in Ceylon - the finest in the East of Suez, most luxurious in every detail, comfort - the keynote, a cinema hall as good as the best, the theatre that will fit the largest touring companies - The Regal open tomorrow (Saturday) July 26 at 9 pm, Milton Sills and Dorothy Mackail, 100% talking.”

The advertisement was also accompanied by a photo of the facade of the Regal cinema and another photo displaying the seating arrangements inside the theatre. The inauguration had been attended by then Governor of Ceylon, Sir Herbert J Stanley as the Chief Guest.

Among the films screened at the cinema during the year 1930 had been Madam X, Broadway Melody, Hollywood Revue, The Grand Parade, Spite Marriage and Divine Lady, to name a few.
In addition to these, several other productions based on world reputed literary classics had also been screened at the Regal cinema from 1947 to 1968. Among them were Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Gone With the Wind, David Copperfield, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Brothers Karamazov, A Tale of Two Cities, Dr. Zhivago and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
While browsing through the archives, it could be safely summarised that holding special screeings for the press bean at the Regal cinema in this country.

Two days before the cinema was to be inaugurated, that is on July 24, 1930 a special screening had been held at the theatre. A news report carried out by the Dinamina newspaper had even remarked about a knife attack as well.

A reporter attached to the Observer (English) newspaper by the name of Calvert had been watching the film at around 7 pm while his driver had been outside the theatre. After Calvert had come out of the cinema he had been knifed by his driver who had been unhappy with his boss from morning that day.

A report carried out in the Dinamina newspaper related this story thus “A case was taken for hearing yesterday at the Colombo Police Court against a driver named Justin, who on July 24 night, is alleged to have knifed a person employed at the Daily News newspaper.
The judge had put the case off, to be heard at a later date after having ordered bail for Rs50 from the accused.”

Regal cinema has been mentioned prominently in an old novel as well. The main character of W A Silva’s 1939 novel Radala Piliruwa, Gilbert Jayaweera, was travelling in a bus after a failed affair, and had seen the Regal cinema in the Fort. That incident had been described in the novel as follows.

When the bus was about to pass the Regal theatre, Gilbert spotted a advertisement which displayed a youth attempting to gun down a lass. The lass in the advertisement reminded him of Nandawathee. He was taken aback by this photo, as it portrayed that the youth was about to fire a shot at the young woman. (Page 158, Third Edition)
There was a filmgoer, a resident of Edward Lane, Kollupitiya, who had witnessed almost all films shown at the Regal at that time. This person had also been doing crossword puzzles that appear in the papers in addition to having contributed articles to the ‘Blue Page’ of the Daily News. Two of his contemporaries - Dr Lester James Peiris and Tarzi Vittachchi had also done likewise.

Having compiled a valuable puzzle on Hollywood actors and actresses he had sent it by post to the owner of the Regal cinema - Chittampalam Gardiner. Having been impressed with the puzzle, Gardiner had requested this filmgoer to meet him as soon as possible.

Gardiner had been so taken up by the moviegoer that he had granted him a pass to watch any film at his theatre free of charge.
This person then continued to supply articles to two English newspapers on Hollywood films and stars, and subsequently he became the Publicity Manager of Ceylon Theatres. He was Harison Peiris (1917-1987).

He was the late father of veteran songstresses Malkanthi Nandasiri (nee Peiris), Nirmala Ranatunga (nee Peiris), Niranjala Sarojini and well-known tabla player Manoj Peiris. These details were gleaned from an article headlined ‘Some memories of yesteryears’ and written by Harison Peiris to a magazine published in 1978 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Regal cinema.

The maiden screening

The first Sinhala film screened at the Regal cinema had been a Ceylon Theatres production - Asokamala. This was also the second film with dialogue released in the country and the Chief Guests at its screening had been the Senate Council’s then Minister of Agriculture and Lands - D S Senanayake and his spouse. The maiden screening had been held on April 9, 1947 and the revenue accrued had been donated for religious activities. The queue to obtain tickets for the film is said to have been from the Regal cinema to the Lake House. Publicity for the film had been provided by a magazine called Herald Asokamala special number. This magazine is believed to be the first English magazine issued in this connection in the country. The editor of it was Harison Peiris. The magazine which had been printed in colour had been priced at 75 cents.

The first time the front of the Regal cinema had been included in a Sinhala film was in February 28, 1948 when Kapati Arakshakaya was screened.

This film which was produced by Ceylon Theatres had also carried visuals of the island for the very first time. Those scenes had been shot at Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.
The Regal cinema also had been subjected to a sudden fire way back in May 1951. Well-known personality Dr R L Spittel had gone to the theatre to see a film on May 23, 1951 at its 6.30 screening. He had been watching the film Perfect Strangers starring Dennis Morgan and Ginger Rogers and the fire is said to have occurred in the balcony while the film was being screened.

The Lankadeepa newspaper had carried an article pertaining to Dr. Spittel demanding a sum of Rs 25,000 after the incident.

Dr. R L Spittel who was watching a film at the Regal theatre on May 23, 1951 has demanded a sum of Rs25,000 from the owners of Ceylon Theatres after a fire had erupted in the balcony section. He had demanded it following injuries sustained by filmgoers who had panicked in their efforts to escape the fire from the cinema. It is said that Attorney S Nadesan had appeared on behalf of Ceylon Theatres while State Attorney E G Wickremanayaka had done likewise on behalf of Dr. Spittel.

Hollywood icon visits the Regal

Hollywood icon Gregory Peck had visited the Regal cinema to see the film The Million Pound Note on February 18, 1954. Peck had already starred in the film ‘The Purple Plain which was shot on location in Ceylon and Burma in 1954. The handsome and legendary American actor had arrived at the theatre following an invitation extended by its owner Sir Chittampalam Gardiner, and after he had entered the stage amidst deafening cheers from fans, Peck had been garlanded by Sujatha Jayawardena - a local actress, who was noted to have starred only in international productions then.

When Queen Elizabeth 11 and the Duke of Edinburgh had visited Ceylon in 1954 they had been entertained at the Regal cinema as well.

When the film Rekawa - a watershed in the annals of the Sinhala cinema had been stalled, having seen its first copy, Sir Gardiner had promptly agreed to finance the production. This grateful gesture on the part of the owners of Ceylon Theatres is to this day recalled fondly and humbly by its legendary director Dr. Lester James Peiris.
Rekawa’s premier show had been staged at the Regal theatre on December 28, 1956. The Chief Guest on that day had been the then Mayor of Colombo - V A Sugathadasa. Another coincidence was that on the day that Rekawa had marked its 50th anniversary, a special screening had been held on December 28, 2006. All artistes connected with it had been felicitated by Ceylon Theatres while two books were launched as well.

These two books are Half a Century of Rekawa written by yours truly, and Lester Lekana Sangeetha written by Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara.
The Regal cinema is interwoven with the history of the Sinhala cinema. This history dates back to the maiden film awards ceremony held in the country under the title “Deepashika’ and which had been organised by the Lankadeepa newspaper. This ceremony had been held at the Regal theatre under the patronage of the new premier S W R D Bandaranaika and Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaika. Those who had won the maiden awards on that day had been Rukmani Devi as the best actress for (Umathu Vishwasaya), B A W Jayamanna as best actor for (Kela Handa) and Sirisena Wimalaweera for the best picture (Podi Putha).

The Regal theatre also has been the pioneer cinema hall for the staging of most of the Sarasaviya awards. The first ever Sarasaviya Film Festival was held on July 5, 1967 under the patronage of the then Minister of State, J R Jayewardene. This theatre is also known for having staged the biggest number of premiers in the country and several international film festivals have also been held there.

Subsequently it was set apart for screening only CEL productions.

Regal cinema which provided entertainment for filmgoers for over eight decades in this country is still continuing to go from strength to strength, and is one of the country’s foremost cineplexes. To date, it has remained in the Fort area of the city of Colombo. Today, the Regal cinema is owned by the Chairman of Ceylon Theatres, Ranjith Page.
We also gratefully acknowledge the effort of businessman Gamini Neththikumara who furnished us with a photograph of the theatre of some 70-years ago which appears with this article.

http://www.lakbimanews.lk/portal/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1139:regals-eight-decade-epic-cinema-saga&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12