Still feelin' the blues

He’s not just another musician, writes SUBHADRA DEVAN of Malaysian blues pioneer Jim Madasamy.

WHEN he snaps shut his guitar case, at 4am after a night on stage, in a dim, smoky room perfumed by the smell of alcohol, Jim Madasamy goes home and puts on his running shoes to pound out 7km with only the wind in his face.

“It’s a great feeling,” says the 59-year-old bass guitarist, a pioneer member of the Blues Gang, which has morphed into Purple Haze. That moniker comes from a Jimi Hendrix song of the same title back in the 60s.

Madasamy runs about seven kilometres a day and takes part in jogathons and half-marathons. “I did the Tower Run recently. At least I am happy to say I completed it.

“I started running 20 years ago. I was athletic from young,” recalls the happily-married musician from Johor Baru.

He remembers being beaten to the tape by his classmate, Freddie Fernandez, at school sports meets. That’s music maestro Fernandez, better known today for his work with artistes as in Karyawan than with being with the band Revolvers.

But “he (Fernandez) tells me now I could beat him by walking alone,” adds Madasamy with a solid chuckle.

Madasamy doesn’t smoke, womanise, drinks a bit, and drugs... “Eh, don’t talk about that la. Long gone, those days.”

Those days must have been the glory time of the blues and rock music in Malaysia, when revolution had air play. The Blues Gang started in 1967.

“Back then,” says Madasamy, “we didn’t rely on gadgets to get our sound. You needed lots of skill, feel and expression.”

In 1973, another founding member percussionist Shaik Karim was asked by a friend to help play bass in a band in Singapore comprising Malaysians. They entered RTM’s then Juara Kugiran competition. They didn’t get a prize but got a manager who got them mainly wedding gigs. “After a few months, we got bored because we couldn’t sport long hair and dress freely.”

Also in the lineup was Mat Blues (guitars) and later Julian Mokhtar. The band opened many a big name including for Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) and Mick Box (Uriah Heep).

The Blues Gang hits are innumerable, and include the Negri Sembilan dialect-ridden Apo Nak Di Kato. For more details on the Blues Gang, visit Jim Madasamy’s blog on www.myspace.com/mablu.

These days as Purple Haze, the lineup sees Abdul Munir on drums and Azizi Ithnin on guitars with Ito Mohd (vocals and harmonica) occassionally as well as other musicians.

“Things are slower now, especially for a blues band,” says Madasamy.

“We find it hard to get venues to play. We are asked these days, ‘What? You only play the blues, all night ah?’” he says with a laugh.

It’s not all about the blues for Madasamy. Visit youtube to check out his original Tamil songs like Ayirathil Nee Oruthi. He has 10 of them but hasn’t gone to black as yet. “No sponsor.”

“But the Blues Gang is planning to release an album soon. It’s been 10 years since our last release.”

If you get to see Purple Haze on a stage in a pub somewhere, the requested songs are usually from the Blues Gang era like Mak Siti and Ibu.

The Purple Haze band still know how to deliver the sound of those demigods of the blues and rock like Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Cream, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter and Steve Ray Vaughn, to name a few.

If you haven’t heard of these heroes, you need to check out Purple Haze on Saturdays, at Monsters Bar, Taman Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, Off Jalan Kucai Lama, Kuala Lumpur. For Jim Madasamy, the blues still runs strong.