旧爱重温 [recapturing that old lovin' feeling ]

the time was 1950s. the place was shanghai.

it was a night after she had put her daughter to sleep, she decided to tidy up the letters which had been scattered randomly on the make-up table for as long as she could remember. inadvertently she saw a letter with faded yellowish stains, which carried a stamp of malaya, with handwriting so familiar it was uncanny. it took her a few seconds before she realized it was his writing which she was so used to. he used to write at least 4 times a week when he was working as the sailor for a shipping company in malaya. he used to tell her all the things he saw and he ate in the foreign land of malaya. he said he wanted to earn a lot of money to afford her a good life back in shanghai. he would always end his letters with the words: "wish you were here".

tears ran down from her cheek as she recalled how one fateful morning a telegram from afar brought the news of his sudden death when the ship had a major collide. she broke down and cried and cried. she didn't break the news to her then 2 year-old girl. when asked why papa didn't come home for the longest time, she just told her "papa is very busy. he will only come back to see us once he has finished all his work".

it has been almost 5 years since that day. for the past year, she had been living a life of solitude with her girl. she never sought new partner in her life for she believed he had never left her in spirits, eventho' physically he wasn't with her. some nights, she would play the slightly out-of-tune upright piano in the living hall, which he used to serenade her with songs of zhou xuan and lee xiang lan, nights after nights of loving romance.

tonight, her memory flood gate is wide open, she is again overwhelmed with the memories and longings of her man. she slowly proceeded to the piano in the living hall filled with darkness, except a dimly-lit lamp shade next to it, and started singing those favorite tunes that both of them cherish so much.....

this is the sound.....  

             

有进步 [we call it progress]

she is everywhere

two charity concerts in ipoh next week!

transform, transform, transform.

judging by our latest survey on supporters' and buyers' demographics, we are no longer an "audiophile" music label as we started out to be.  if winnie ho's latest album is an indicator, we have become just a "good music label", which is exactly what we wanted to transform to.

audiophile buyers are but just a very minor percentage, majority of our supporters are just, err, music lovers. what is even more pleasing is, even pop music lovers are starting to buy our CDs. this is no small achievement (think converting a jay chou fan to listen to jazzy sounds of teresa teng) , we have to give a pat on our shoulders!   

this bodes well for our future, really. much broader scope, with enlarged market. in fact, in our future albums, we would engage more local original compositions because time is ripe now, the label is widely recognized now.  

yet we remain humble and true to ourselves. the journey is still long, profits are still not consistent.

our biggest challenge remains:
1) those who buy CDs don't go concerts
2) those who go concerts don't support local artistes
3) those who support local artistes cannot afford our tickets

so, it is not easy.

if it was easy in the first place, we won't be the only one doing this!

马来西亚版的蔡琴老歌 [malaysian version of cai qin lao ge]

many say CD has died and nobody buys CDs nowadays.

but the very few who do, are the genuine music lovers that treasure the silver discs. this group may be diminishing by the day, but you know they always exist.

yudi yap 【友弟】, a veteran local songstress known for her shanghai jazz repertoire, believes that she makes albums for specific listeners who still treasure CDs. collaborating with hotshot pianist and music director, our very own tay cher siang, yudi has created an album worthy of being called "the malaysian version of cai qin lao ge". .... not the least because she covers two songs from that famous album too.

this is one of a kind album that speaks to you in a manner akin to a lover whispering to you in the most intimate manner. it is very sparse (think an older version of 2v1g), very minimalist and very very very intensely emotive.

we would post a mp3 player in our next post.

yes, you may be able to buy it soon! 
 

新加坡音响展 [singapore hifi show: MOD DAC 2012]

we love going to hifi shows, especially when they invite us to do live performances! not only can we introduce our music to these audiophiles, we also get to sell a lot of CDs!

MOD DAC (digital audio convention) 2012 is going to have its inaugural show in august 25th-26th at Singapore's Raffles Convention Centre. organized by MOD, the publisher for car audio magazine SPL, this show is not just your ordinary hifi show per se. it is gonna combine multimedia, head-fi with the usual hifi and av. the timing is just perfect, as it coincides with regional hifi show calendar with many shows happening in july/august timeframe. 

what makes it sweet is admission is FOC! even sweeter for us is is they have invited winnie ho to be the official performer for the show and her album "the jazzy sounds of teresa teng" made "the official show's CD".  what a privilege indeed for us malaysians!

winnie is gonna perform 2 live showcases per day, on 25th and 26th august, respectively. we don't have the logistics info as yet but we were told we may perform in 4 different rooms where the hifi dealers could showcase their top-notch systems.

if you would like to follow MOD DAC's run-up to this exciting event, do join their facebook  page!        

we also intend to release a new album, a world's premier,  just to greet this prestigious event!

大哥向弟弟致敬 [barry gibb pays tribute to robin gibb]

we know barry gibb of the bee gees would be so heart-broken. we know. barry is a man of great sensitivity.

 

barry gibb has paid tribute to robin gibb by releasing this farewell video that makes us all 

teary-eye. such touching display of brotherly love, the unspoken bonding that is universal. 

the remembrance clip, set to the bee gees ballad "heart like mine", features never-before-seen home video footage of the gibb brothers as kids, as well as career highlights and live performances.

we share barry's sadness.

旺角的一个角落 [a little corner in mongkok]

spotted by a friend in a cd shop in mongkok. we guess it must be The Beat or Wai Wai

a close friend tapped on our shoulders and said, "do you know you are one of the very few home-grown music labels in malaysia that have major overseas distribution?". we were like taken aback but then we thought for a while, yeah, that is true!

we don't know about malay artistes' CDs being sold in indonesia or other countries. we do know liyana fizi CDs go all the way to japan recently. we also know sheila majid CDs went to japan and indonesia last time.

for malaysian chinese artistes, we are one of the very few that goes to HK, we guess. penny tai and fish leong, even tho' they are malaysian but their labels are taiwanese labels and that do not count. yuheng (a local singer-songwriter) has her own music label in malaysia and her CDs do go to taiwan and china and that's counted as a rarity. most malaysian artistes based overseas are normally owned by overseas music labels.

but in terms of having good distributors in taiwan and hk, we think we count ourselves lucky as they are all aggressive in promoting our stuff. just look at how they promote winnie ho's album in mongkok. a couple of  friends visited HK lately and they were impressed by the way the record shops promote our stuff. it shows that they definitely accept malaysian products.  

what a blessing.     

原来我才是笑话 [the joke was on me]

we have always been taking bee gees for granted, saying that beatles is the best band in the world and bee gees is a distant behind but truth be told, we can relate more to the gibb brothers than the beatles. Without bee gees' immense contributions, the 60s, 70s and 80s pop would be colorless. 

as a mark of respect, we would dedicate the next 3 blog articles on the bee gees, starting with this one.
--------------------------------------
the year was 1980, we were in the top class class in ACS, ipoh. there was a very naughty fella in the class by the name of kusu. kusu was the kind who always got punishment from the teachers for all the naughty pranks he did in the class.
 
kusu is good in caricaturing. one of his fave caricatures is the gibb brothers. he likes to draw on whichever table he sat on. so when you see a table with bee gees caricatures, you know kusu had sat on it. besides that, he could imitate robin gibbs very well, singing in high-pitched falsetto, with the agonized and tightened-muscle look on his face.
 
practically the whole class loved bee gees and we could sing their songs as familiar as our morning assembly song of "negaraku". yes, as the 80s kids, we practically lived thru the bee gees era, the rise and fall of their long-spanning career.
 
there was another a very cool guy by the name of kc, who was the prince among us nerds. A1 class being the top class in ACS, it was full of nerds and kc was simply the best looking and best liked guy by female students from MGS.
 
kc always played "i started a joke", "words", "massachussetts" on his guitar whenever there were gatherings. and we would singalong like there was no tomorrow. the girls were particulatry impressed with kc's guitar skills. with his guitar, kc stole the hearts of many girls.
 
even until now, when the old classmates gather at  karaoke lounges, "i started a joke", "words", "massachusetts" are still being sung with such gutso and passion.
 
today, we mourn the passing of robin gibb. we know barry gibb would be heartbtroken because when maurice gibb passed away, barry broke down and shut himself from the outside world.
 
we are all saddened because bee gees have given us so much good times and good music. the gibb brothers' music was a big part of our salad days.   

音乐良药 [music as therapy]

we have a long-lost friend who suffers from nasal cancer.

this man is humorous, manly and positively well-liked by many, man or woman.

his disappeared from our social circle for more than 10 years and he only picked up the phone to call us last year, telling us about his suffering.

so, before we met up, we imagined a man who is skinny, balding and terribly unwell. how wrong we were, he is still well-built, albeit with a face that's slightly darkened, the result of chemo and radiation therapy.

he recounted to us, blow by blow, how he went thru the treatment and how suffering and painful the treatment were. not a teardrop from his eyes, but sheer guts and determination.

eventho' he is fairly recovered after 3 years, he still needs to be observed for the next 5 years to see if there is any recurrence. so life is never certain.

he sold his money-making business in oz and not knowing what's the next step.  he plans to take a rest.

before parting, we passed him a copy of 2V1G and told him that perhaps, he should listen more to music now that he is stronger and has more time to relax .

this morning, we received a call from him. he said he likes it so much. being a "banana", he knows nothing about the lyrics but he says the songs sound familiar and he also shared it with his corporate-bigwig wife, who also shows great liking in the music. he says something touches him in the music.

we jested to him: perhaps you could invest in our company. just make music that makes people happy and recover faster from unhappiness. 

we are meeting more and more people each day who say they are looking at life with a different perspective, after some major hiccups in life. and most of them say, music does something to them that's is indescribable; it has a healing effect, it is a therapy.

to these people, we offer this advice: amidst life's hustle and bustle, don't lose sight of little little things in life, like music that you grow and relate to: the song you played when you had your first date, when you get wet in the rain to deliver that birthday present to your girlfriend, when you had your first breakup, when your mum recovered from major illness, when you dad was celebrating his 70th birthday,  when your sister was getting married..... there is a song for every memorable occasion.

play those songs once in a while and revel in the beauty of those occasions.           

動人的月亮 [a touching moon]

many people have cried over roger wang's solo guitar version of this song.

our hard-working photographer-cum-videograher has chosen to re-title this song "perennial as the moon", see whether you agree with his translation.

the snippet is taken from the recent double take concert. enjoy!

又一首免费下载的歌！ [it is coming, the 2nd song for free download!]

due to the overwhelming response to the free download of the song "forgetting him" from winnie ho's album, to the extent that dropbox has to ban us due to excessive traffic, we are thinking of releasing another song for you good people! aiya, you may not have bought the album, but never mind la, we are generous people.

mastering god, mr. doug sax

to make it a bonus, this song MAY be mastered by doug sax! MAY be, not certain yet, depending on whether the sponsorship comes true! naturally, this version is not available on the album yet and may be released in special edition later this year.

the previous download has spread to countries outside malaysia and the feedback has been largely positive. 

but all we can tell you is, this remixed and remastered version is gonna knock your socks off! satisfaction guaranteed.

so be a good boy and wait, good things come to those who wait. 

荣幸上报！ [another appearance on the edge financial!]

click to enlarge

as a non-mainstream independent music label, we always have difficulties getting press coverage, other than we calling a press conference to announce something, a concert or an album release.

certain press are not easy to invite to press conference, let alone get them to write an article about us.

it came as a big surprise when the edge financial weekly contacted us last week, telling us that they have heard bits and pieces of winnie ho's album and were interested to do a write-up!

the edge, the edge, wouldn't you be flattered when the edge wanted to cover you? the edge, as far as we know, is the most authoritative, influential and best-selling financial newspaper in malaysia. and it is always a hot-seller the moment it hits the newsstands on sunday morning.

we are not into financial matters but we love the "options" pullout, which focuses on good life and other more lifestyle related topics. it is our favourite section and we are sure many would think likewise.

so, buy the edge on 14th may 2012, monday morning, where tay cher siang and winnie ho would get their space to talk about their most sensational achievement to-date, the "jazzy sounds of teresa teng" album!

latest update: the album has shipped out 3,000 copies and sold over 1,800 copies (retail sales plus corporate sales) in just less than 2 months since its launch on 15th march 2012. this is quite an achievement!      

苏打绿成功因素 [sodagreen:why they are successful］

after cheer chen, sodagreen is easily the most successful indie act that manages to cross over to mainstream in a big big way.

incidentally, they share the same producer in will lin 【林玮哲】. will lin did produce an album for cheer in her early career and now he is fully reaping the rewards (ie. making good money) in sodagreen. he is our top producer in our list of ace producers. will was the pioneer in creating a new style of music in taiwan in the late 90s, which was epitomized by his proteges like faith yang nai wen 【杨乃文】 (his ex-girlfriend) and shunza 【顺子】.

just like many indie acts, sodagreen's success factor lies solely on one man, lead singer and chief composer, qing feng 【青峰】. this young chap is one of the biggest talents in the chinese music industry since jay chou. in fact, sodagreen nowadays sells more CDs than jay chou!

let's analyze sodagreen's music. it is totally original. it is a bit like britpop but not entirely. it is not entirely indie music either in that it has very rich instrumentation and arrangement.  it has strong character, very strong hook and a very definite "qing feng" character. in fact, this is indie music with commercial appeal. sodagreen is quite unlike any chinese indie act that's prone to plagiarizing and imitating western acts. in fact, dare i say, sodagreen is so much more original than mayday 五月天， which essentially is a chinese rock version of beatles and has seen better days.

what's more precious is qing feng's music connects with the youth in a big way. that's the sound of the youth in taiwan. it is not angsty nor angry but relevant on matters concerning the youth such as loneliness, solitude, friendship, love are all dealt with with such gentle poetic manner. sodagreen's music celebrates youth, all the glorious things that make youth so memorable and cherishable.

qing feng's music is stylish, hooky and very refreshing. in our very own high standards of measuring chinese pop, sodagreen's music is one of the best music in chinese pop since david tao in the late 90s. its originality scores the highest in our measuring criteria.

sodagreen has released 10 albums so far and admittedly not all are consistent but this latest one (cover above) is really great, it is like a return to form that made them so unique and special.

we can't praise sodagreen enough except to say this: in 2012, they still make us want to listen to chinese pop. 

another bonus is, producer will lin is very particular about recording quality and most times, sodagreen albums sound great in hifi systems!
    

来看我们的十个理由 [10 reasons why you must come]

1） this is winnie ho's latest concert, and her only major concert in 2012, fresh from her sensational solo album! like her or not, you can't deny she can sing and very well at that!

2) it has two fantastic guest male singers in ah worm and ah fei

3) it has tay cher siang yet again. who doesn't know TAY CHER SIANG by now?

4)  we are singing songs from the two most respected and legendary composers in the chinese pop history: jonathan lee and liu jia chang. together these two godfathers are responsible for evergreen classics too many to count!

5) winnie ho and tay cher siang are malaysia's treasures and they will carry the malaysian flag proudly abroad in the very near future. be the early supporters rather than late supporters cos it is cooler that way!   

6) be part of the FIRST CHINESE JAZZ MOVEMENT in malaysia! 

7) it is held in bentley music auditorium again, the 2nd best hall in malaysia after DFP in terms of acoustics

8) ticket price are only RM125 and RM85, well worth the price for a full-scale jazz production

9) you get to meet hundred of like-minded chinese jazz lovers under one roof! and lastly,

10) the organizer is pop pop music, you can't expect anything less from us (ahem, blowing a big trumpet!)

buy your tickets at popular CD-RAMA at ikano power center (IPC) or telephone booking at 012-2083790!

   

摄影初哥 wanted! [novice videographer wanted!]

pop pop music 在此号召对摄影热爱刚萌芽的朋友们参与我们的拍摄阵容。一来可借此机会挑战专业水平并磨练，二来以供往后踏出社会工作的参考资料。若有兴趣者，请联系Leslie 012-2083790, 并将作品寄到lesloh@yahoo.com. 负责人将会迅速与你接洽。

Looking for budding videographer who wants a good portfolio to add to his resume of work! We have a couple of live concerts/MVs which require a good budding videographer who are willing to work for a token fee. Yes, we are well known enough to make your efforts worthwhile. Please contact Leslie 012-2083790 if you are keen!

爵士人生 [jazz the way you are]

we wouldn't believe what we read! we just read somewhere that jazz is dying in US, a minority interest, and jazz musicians are suffering....

certainly the head honcho in the ministry is western educated! we will surely call datuk kamaruddin to invite him to our next concert! and check out if there is any funding at the same time :-)

indeed, we wanna promote jazz as a way of modern lifestyle and good living. it isn't high-brow or inaccessible, it is just, a lifestyle; a way of living.

in taiwan and china, there is a not-so-new term called the "small capitalist" 【小资】, which refers to a growing group of adults in the late 20s to mid-40s who earns a decent living, with good savings, is particular about lifestyle and the finer things in life. annual holidays to exotic places, red wine tasting parties, watches collection, cigars smoking, jazz club visits, .... you get the drift. we are sure about the existence of such group in kuala lumpur and our aim is to congregate one, even if it is a minor one. that's the sole purpose of our chinese jazz appreciation night in june 2012.

interestingly,  we find a small group of music lovers who have departed from chinese pop music to appreciate our music. they find the typical chinese pop too repetitive and manufactured. this is surely is a very encouraging sign to us!

in these times of chaos and thrash, chinese jazz, a genre seldom heard and explored, will have its best chance to emerge stronger and attract some new supporters.

and we will carry the malaysian flag for being the most aggressive proponent of such genre in the chinese music world!

芽菜鸡和河粉 [of beansprout chicken and hor fun]

the 4th installment of "the jazzy sounds of teresa teng" is finally confirmed!

it is gonna be held in the city of beansprout chicken and sar hor fun! the last we discovered, there are many more new restaurants selling beansprout chicken other than old hand lou wong!  in fact, ipohan have relegated lou wong from the top spot.  what makes it worth looking forward to, apart from the fun of having another repeated showcase, is the food, the glorious food of ipoh!

the date is 7th june 2012 (thursday),  you can buy tickets from us. for those in ipoh, you can get the tickets from friendly records in kinta city or CD-RAMA in ipoh parade. check the phone numbers in the poster above.

ticket price are RM168 and RM138. please don't ask whether it includes dinner because this is a charity show to raise funds for sam tet school! ;-)

fresh from her latest album, winnie ho is gonna re-deliver her signature performance albeit with added confidence that she now has an album to back her up.  roger wang and zyan will be there too. 

sin chew is gonna be our media partner so readers in perak are gonna read a lot about this event in the forth coming weeks under the perak edition of sinchew.

the second half of 2012 is event-packed. we will soon be announcing many more events which you could participate, including KL live house's opening month in july where pop pop music will be hosting a night  and our chinese jazz appreciation night in june.

winnie ho's and tay cher siang's strong profiles have opened many doors. we have been invited to many jazz festivals all over asia so you will see us traveling a fair bit. it is so wonderful that a malaysian chinese singer is gonna represent the country in so many jazz festivals. already confirmed are macau jazz fest, tianjin (china) jazz fest, kota kinabalu jazz fest  and hopefully taichung (taiwan) jazz fest!

it is wonderful to be busy with music! we feel so blessed!

诉求 [a message to new century workshop]

to the ceo of new century workshop of hk, the very productive audiophile music label in hk....

you do have some great veteran artistes but can we consumers demand that you at least improve your recording quality a bit so that we get our money's worth when we buy your CDs?


thank you!

赞赞赞 [double thumbs up]

we tried to write a report on last week's double take concert but after reading what joanna funk wrote in sabah song music blog, we gave up!

joanna gave an excellent rundown of the concert, blow by blow, and it is hard to beat.

so here's it http://sabahsongs.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/jazz-duo-double-take-wins-sabah/

 

first time we had a concert where we get 100% positive feedback!

a friend commented that mia sounds like sarah vaughan

the till is ringing at the CD counter

many wondered how a guitar and a voice can carry the whole of 90 minutes, i think after watching double take they should all be silenced now.

there is an unspoken chemistry about roger and mia. it is like old friends, old partners having fun on stage. mia's presence is larger than life. you can't believe she is only 27 when she has the presence of someone 20 years older. the calmness, the confidence and the ease of which she carried herself on stage. it is the culmination of 12 years in the business, since she was a teenager at 15.  

roger put a lot of thoughts into the program to avoid boredom and singularity. his michael jackson medley and the muppet "rainbow connection" easily won the crowd over. a friend, who came to watch for the first-time confessed that she had tears running down her cheek when roger reprised "the moon speaks for my heart" from "the jazzy sounds of teresa teng" concert repertoire.  

at the end of the day, we witnessed how two genuine musicians make genuine music in the most simplest format. you really can ask for more, except for more songs in the encore. mia only did one song for encore, which was such a pity cos the crowd wanted more.

it is also the first time that we got a 100% positive feedback on our concert. amazing.  
  

优的 [another good one]

the day will come for major celebration

another good review on "the jazzy sounds of teresa teng" from a local music blogger...

we feel that it will take at least one year for this album to make a real impact on the market， just like 2v1g four years ago.  we remember how the critics (and slanderers!)  were silenced when overseas recognition and awards started to "flow" back to malaysia. what a good feeling that was! ;-)  


本地一个部落客给《靡靡之音》的正面评论。。。我们都觉得这专辑需要一年的时间去发光发热， 就像当年的 2v1g

http://songismusic.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post.html?m=1

and a fan, mandy,  has laboriously created 3 youtube videos of her fave songs in the album! what wonderful gesture! we are not even idol type, you know ;-)  thanks, mandy!

中文爵士欣赏会 [chinese jazz appreciation night]

we are buoyed by the awesome feedback to double take concert last saturday! seriously, it was not easy to amass 300 people to come to watch a local act amidst such miserable climate in the event industry but we did it in style! we would be writing a short review shortly!

we didn't make money in the concert but never mind, we gained in credibility.  the trust and support we gained far exceeds the minor monetary loss we suffered. now, that is the true spirits of a music label who is bent of promoting local talents, wouldn't you agree?    

up next, a  chinese jazz appreciation night brought to you by us! it is totally FOC, with red wine to boot!

our purpose is to further influence/educate/make aware/enlighten more music lovers to listen to chinese jazz. you will be asked to bring at least 3 friends whom you think are potential convert. the flow would be casual and not formal and the place we choose is going to allow plenty of mingling among the crowd.

tay cher siang and myself (and perhaps with another guest speaker) would be doing some talking, interspersed with singing by our singers (winnie ho, z Yan, etc etc) and music videos of some chinese jazz divas who are not known to many.

the session is supposed to be fun and relaxing, so if you are keen, please register early with lesloh@yahoo.com!

we would only allow a max of 100 guests, and each of you need to bring at least 3 guests! timeline would be May 2012, venue to be informed later!

in case you get worried by the "getting 3 friends" thingy, fret not, this is not Multi Level Marketing! ;-))))