Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

This is my by now annual round up of folk who, apart from one sad loss, have played an ephemeral role in my life

January
–2. Peter Postlethwaite, 64, film and stage actor.
–4. Gerry Rafferty, 64, singer-song writer (Baker Street)
–4. Mick Karn, 52, bass guitarist extraordinaire (Japan)
–9. Peter Yates, 81, film director (Bullit, The Dresser)
15. Nat Lofthouse, 85, "traditional English centre-forward"
15. Susannah York, 72, British film star.
30. John Barry, 77, film score composer (inc. James Bond)

February
–6. Gary Moore, 58, blues, hard rock and ballads guitarist
13. George Shearing, 91, British-American jazz piano legend.
13. T.P. (Thomas Patrick) McKenna, 81, Irish stage and film actor
16. Miree New, 51, leading light of Jakarta's western expat scene.
23. Roger Diski, 61, ethical travel pioneer (with Jakartass family connections)

March
12. Joe Morello, 82, jazz drummer (Dave Brubeck Quartet. Download Unsquare Dance and see if you can clap along with him to the very last note!)
13. Augustus 'Owsley' Stanley (aka The Bear), 76,  "a copious producer of the best LSD in the world" and sound engineer.
17. Michael Gough, 94, actor (inc.the butler in Batman)
18. Terence 'Jet' Harris, pioneer bass guitarist (The Shadows)
23. Elizabeth Taylor, 79, film star never out of the public eye.
27. Harry Wesley Coover Jr, 91, inventor of Super Glue

April
–8. Sidney Lumet, 86, film director (The Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon, etc.)
–9. David Jardine, 63, a highly valued and deeply missed friend. Read his Collected Writings)
23. John Sullivan, 64, TV screenwriter (Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith)
25. Poly Styrene (Marianne Joan Elliott-Said), 53, flamboyant feminist punk icon (X-Ray Spex)

May
–1. Henry Cooper, 76, boxer, Our 'enery.
–2. Osama bin Laden, 54, terrorist leader
19. Kathy Kirby, 72, singer
27. Gil Scott-Heron, 62,  'Godfather of Rap' and a troubled but true humanitarian.   .

June
–3. Andrew Gold, 59, singer, composer and arranger
–3. Miriam Karlin, 85, actor and social activist.
–8. Roy William Skelton, 79, actor (voice of the Daleks)
10. Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor, 96, soldier, traveller and writer. (An extraordinary life. J )
23. Peter Falk, 83, actor (Colombo)

July
–3. Anna Raymond Massey, 73, actor
26. Frank Foster, 82, jazz saxophonist and composer, notably Count Basie Orchestra.

August
12. Robert Robinson, 83, broadcaster and writer
22. Jerome (Jerry) Leiber, 78, prolific lyricist (inc. Hound Dog), record producer and song publisher

September
–6. Michael S. Hart, 64, founder of Project Gutenberg in 1971, the precursor of eBooks.
–9. Graham Collier, 74, jazz composer and educator
25. Wangari Maathai, 71, Nobel Peace Prize winner for the Green Belt Movement
27. David Croft, 89, writer of TV comedy series, inc. 'Dad's Army', actor and producer

October
–1. David Bedford, 74, a musical polymath, from arranging Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells to modernist works for the Proms.
–5. Steve Jobs, 56, founder of Apple, a computer and phone company.
–5. Bert Jansch, 67, acoustic guitar virtuoso. (Listen to his version of Davey Graham's Anji here.)
–6. Diane Cilento, actor, Tom Jones, The Wicker Man
–7. George Baker, 80. actor, writer and director
12. Dennis Ritchie, 70, co-creator of the UNIX operating system that powers everything from smartphones to search engines.
20. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, 69, another dictator bit the dust.
21. Edmundo Ros (Edmund William Ross) , 100, bandleader who "single-handedly introduced Latin American music to English audiences." Listen here.
29. (Sir) Jimmy Savile, 84, flamboyant disc jockey with a flair for good works and big cigars

November
–6. Gordon Beck, 76, jazz pianist and composer.
19. John Neville, 86, actor and director
22. Paul Motian, 80, jazz drummer
27. Gary Speed, 42, well-respected footballer, club and country manager.
27. Ken Russell, 84, film director

December
–6. Dobie Gray (Lawrence Darrow Brown) , 71, soul singer and songwriter (Drift Away, The In Crowd)
–7. Peter Croker, 89, the last surviving member of Charlton's FA Cup-winning side in 1947
13. Russell Hoban, 86, prolific author (inc. Riddley Walker)
15. Christopher Hitchens, 62, maverick, polemical journalist.
Quotes: "I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information."
17. Cesária Evora, 70, the voice of longing from Cape Verde. Listen to her singing Saudade.
17. Kim Jong-il, 69, the 'Dear Leader' of North Korea  … who "never needed to urinate or defecate … ", … unlike former Indonesian president Megawati who visited him in 2005.

18. Ronnie Wolfe, 89, co-writer of TV comedy series Rag Trade, On The Buses.
18. Václav Havel, 75, Czech statesman and playwright.
24. Cheetah, 80, the chimpanzee purported to be Johnny Weissmuller's co-star in Tarzan the Ape Man.

30. Ronald Searle, 91, cartoonist, illustrator and author of St.Trinians.

"Let us teach ourselves that politics can be not just the art of the possible, especially if that means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic manoeuvring, but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely the art of improving ourselves and the world."
Václav Havel  R.I.P.

The death of Steve Jobs, the man behind Apple Inc., has occasioned an outpouring of grief from multitudes who viewed him as a lifestyle guru.

I didn't and the only gadget he designed that I have is a dead i-Pod which was given to me by Son. No.1 because, he told me, the battery was dead and he couldn't get it replaced. There isn't an Apple Store in Jakarta, but it isn't that difficult to find an approved retailer, all of whom advised me to buy a new one.

I didn't, and won't, as I'm not a conspicuous consumer. Nor would I ever buy a product which knowingly used child labour or whose outsourced workers whose "horrendous" working conditions were such that they were driven to suicide.

What Jobs did was to revolutionise computing – from introducing the graphical user interface to pioneering touch-based technology – but he "sold out many of his ideals like many of the baby boomer generation".

Many Americans of his, and my, generation, were called 'baby-boomers' because of the massive spurt of procreation as forces returned from World War Two and the Korean War, and we adopted 'alternative lifestyles' in the sixties and pre-yuppie seventies, partly because we could afford to.

The Jakarta Post regularly carries a supplement from the International Herald Tribune which generally focuses on business issues. Not unexpectedly, today's has an extensive overview of the life of Jobs.

It closes with this paragraph: If he had a motto, it may have come from 'The Whole Earth Catalog', the publication that he said had deeply influenced him as a young man. The book, he said in his commencement address at Stanford in 2005, ends with the admonition, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish."

"I have always wished that for myself," he said.

And me too, which is why I've posted below an article which I've had waiting for an opportune moment to publish.

And so another year ends with familiar rituals.

A raid of my archives disabused me of the notion that I’ve always finished a year with my record of the passing of familiar faces and voices. However, apart from 2007, I have thought it important to celebrate those whose lives which have made a difference to my life, generally for the good.

2004 – the Aceh Tsunami
2005 – Honours and Dishonours
2006 – More ‘natural’ disasters
2007 – launch of Thinking Outside The Indonesian Box blog
2008 – Obituaries with a Part 2
2009 – Obituaries

2010
January
–9. Mark Ellidge, Sunday Times photographer
11. Mick Green, 65, influential British rock’n'roll guitarist
18. Kate McGarrigle, 63, Canadian singer and songwriter (Free download of songs + videos)
28. J.D. Salinger, 91. reclusive author (Catcher In The Rye)

February
–6. Ian Carmichael, 89, TV and film actor
–6. Sir John Dankworth, 82, (jazz) musician, composer and bandleader.

And the band played on ….

–9. Walter Frederick Morrison, 90, inventor of Pluto Platter, later renamed Frisbee

March
–3. Michael Foot, 92, politician, journalist and author  (in Jakartass)
He was a resolute humanist with profound faith in the ability of “free men and women using free institutions” to secure irreversible advances in standards of living and liberty for every country and community.
–9. Mickey Jones, 63, guitarist and singer (Man, Flying Pigs), neighbour and good friend. (in Jakartass)
17. Charlie Gillett, 68, radio presenter, author and music publisher.
20. Harry Carpenter, sports, esp. boxing, commentator
22. ‘Diz’ Disley, 79, jazz and folk guitarist, and cartoonist
28. Herb Ellis, 88, master jazz guitarist

April
–8. Malcolm McLaren, 64, ‘punk impresario’.
24. Bo Hansson, 67, reclusive Swedish composer and musician
27. Morris Pert, 63, composer, musician

May
–2. Lynn Redgrave, 67, actress from noted theatrical dynasty
–9. Lena Horne, 92, civil rights pioneer and classy jazz singer
16. Henry ‘Hank’ Jones, 91, jazz pianist who “played and recorded with a virtual who’s who of jazz history”
24. Ray Alan, 79, ventriloquist and writer
29. Dennis Hopper, 74, a film actor for five decades and 100 films.

July
22. Harry Beckett, 75, British jazz trumpeter
24. Alex Higgins, 61, flawed snooker genius

August
10. Jimmy Reid, 78, Scottish trade union leader. (in Jakartass)
14. Herman Leonard, 87, photographer noted for portraits of classic jazz artists.

Dexter Gordon
(click for larger image)

September
29. Tony Curtis, 85, film and TV actor.

October
–4. Norman Wisdom, 95, knockabout comedian and actor
10. Solomon Burke, 70, soul singer
11. Clare Rayner, 79, “popular agony aunt, writer, broadcaster and patients’ champion”
13. Mary Malcolm, 92, early BBC TV announcer.
15. Malcolm Allison, 83, football manager.
25. Gregory Isaacs, 59, reggae singer.
26. Paul, 2, clairvoyant cephalopod and football pundit.

November
—–-Elsa and Ron Wilson married 80 years
–9. Robin Day, 95, furniture designer, esp. stacking chairs
11. Dino De Laurentiis, 91, film producer
12. Des Alwi Abubakar, 82, Indonesian historian,”uncrowned king of Banda”
28. Leslie Nielsen, 84, film actor (Naked Gun and ‘spoof movies‘)

December
15. Blake Edwards, 88, film director and screenwriter (Pink Panther + +)
17. Don Van Vliet   (Captain Beefheart), 69, musician and artist
24. Elizabeth Beresford, 84, children’s books author, creator of the recycling Wombles.

 

I remember little of the Glasgow shipbuilders occupation and work-in of 1971-72 as I was at that time I was doing my thing in Ibiza. However, I have always been aware that the work-in – which was not a strike, a withdrawal of labour – was successful.

Jimmy Reid, who died aged 78 on Tuesday, was a leader, the public orator, of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, and his advocacy of ‘the right to work’ – with dignity – is a cause dear to me. (Mind you, I’ve always felt that there should be a ‘right to not work’, but that can wait for another time, another post.)

No doubt I will be reminded by a commentator or two that he was a member of the UK’s Communist Party’s executive committee and that therefore nothing of value can be said about the man.

So I will let these words justify the man.

“From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable.”

And from his speech upon his inauguration as Rector of Glasgow University in 1972.

“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.

“This is how it starts, and, before you know where you are, you’re a fully paid-up member of the rat pack. The price is too high.”

Fine words which encouraged dignified action.

It is with immense grief that I have just learned of the death from leukemia yesterday of one of my all-time music heroes, Hugh Hopper. He had been seriously ill for a year, but this news is devastating.

All aficionados of the so-called Canterbury scene, and there are many here in Indonesia, will know what a sad loss this is.

Probably best known as the fuzz bass player with Soft Machine from one track on Soft Machine One, which they toured around the USA as support group for Jimi Hendrix with Hugh as the roadie, to the Sixth, for the past forty years he carved an individual even idiosyncratic path with compatible musicians. Like all master musicians, you can instantly recognise his voice and tone which, befitting a bass player, he generally used to support his fellow musicians.

He is less well-known as a composer, yet Robert Wyatt will attest to his melodic capabilities. Probably the most 'famous' song is Memories which was recorded by Whitney Houston back in the late sixties long before she became a diva.

He was a modest man in life, far from the archetypal rock star.

I last met him on Sunday 8th September 1974 – was it really that long ago? – outside the Drury Lane Theatre in London just before a concert by Robert Wyatt and Friends, a concert which was a sought after bootleg but is now available on a properly mastered CD released by Rykodisc/Hannibal.

I was with the mother of Son No.1, who'd known Hugh and many of the 'Canterbury Scene' in their earlier days. Hugh reminded her that she'd read his palm back then and predicted a steady yet not famous career in music. This he told her was what he had, and he was grateful.

And so are very many of us.

I'm not sure what else to say, so here is an interview, including a short discography, he gave to All About Jazz a year ago.

An interesting interview from 1998
Obit on Canterbury Scene website
You Tube – Hugh plays Kings and Queens

Yosef Ardi reports on the news that Manchester United is about to be sponsored by a major internet gambling concern, Mansion, which is owned by the Sampoerna family from Indonesia which last year sold its interest in their cigarette company to Philip Morris. (NB. It turned out to be Tottenham Hotspor who sported the logo. Edited 10.11.11)

Mansion’s logo, M, is very similar to a major kretek cigarette here, A Mild, so although cigarette advertising is illegal in the UK, Indonesian viewers will be treated to some subliminal adverts. Wayne Rooney smokes kreteks? Yeah, probably.

And today comes the sad news, for Jakartass and many others, of the death 4 days ago of Ivor Cutler, aged 83.

“Ivor Cutler (was) a Glaswegian whose humour is surreal, to say the least. He (was) a master of anecdotes, monologues, comic songs and poems, commentaries on the more neglected aspects of everyday life, and just sheer nonsense. But very often, if one looks beyond the nonsense facade, there seems to be a glint of a message in it all – whether or not he intended it to be, we will never know.” – D.A. Eger.

I first saw him in concert in either 1969 or 1970 at, probably, the Royal Festival Hall in London. The concert by Soft Machine had two halves, a fairly unusual event for a rock (or was it jazz?) group but then those were unusual times. In the interval Ivor entertained us with wry songs accompanied only by a harmonium, a child’s toy. It was so small that Ivor had to sit on the floor to play it. His lyrics were somewhat baffling, even if you managed to get past his thick Glaswegian accent. They made sense, sort of.

if your breasts are too big
you’ll fall over
unless you wear a rucksack*.

I encountered Ivor in 1970 at the Gospel Oak Primary School in North London where he taught …. artistic subversion. It was that sort of school; amongst the parents were George Melly and Ken Loach.

In my second bachelorhood days, I used to have Saturday dinner parties in my Herne Hill flat. If the night went on beyond my bedtime, I would play an Ivor Cutler album I’d come across in a street market, probably Who Tore Your Trousers?

No-one would stay long enough to listen to both sides. Not even me.

Remember, you can’t erase a love letter with a nipple, however rubbery it is.

*rucksack, also known as a backback

This might not mean a lot to you but the music described below is part of my lifeblood. If I have any regrets about living in Indonesia it is that I cannot hear any of these musicians live, as I would have done, regularly, if I had continued to live in London.

Obit from Allaboutjazz.com by Aymeric Leroy, chronicler and archivist of the ‘Canterbury Scene’.

British jazz saxophonist Elton Dean died on the evening of February 7th, 2006, in a London hospital. For the last year in particular he had been suffering from heart and liver related heart problems. He was 60.

In the past few years Dean had again been involved in a variety of Soft Machine-derived line-ups: SoftWorks with Hugh Hopper, Allan Holdsworth and John Marshall; Soft Machine Legacy with Etheridge replacing Holdsworth; Soft Bounds, with Hopper and French jazzers Sophia Domancich and Simon Goubert; and the French-based PolySoft tribute project, again featuring Hopper. Soft Machine Legacy recorded its debut album in September, and the band were looking forward to supporting it with a series of live performances; a live DVD, recorded in Paris last December, is also set for release later this year.

I first saw and heard Elton in mid sixties with Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men. There was a piano player, named Reg Dwight, in the group for a while. He decided that he needed a better name if he was to achieve stardom so he borrowed Elton and John and the rest, as they say, is history.

I have the largest collection of ‘Canterbury Scene’ music in Indonesia. If any local readers would like a CD of MP3s, many not officially released, please email me.