Thursday September 25, 2008
Relive the good ol’ days with the Rozells
By N. RAMA LOHAN
The Rozells have taken listeners back to the glory days of the crooners ... and will continue to do so.
Musicians hold their beliefs very close to their hearts and while some do what they do to please themselves, others do it purely for the enjoyment of their audience.
The Rozells belongs to the latter camp, a philosophy bandleader/guitarist James Rozells has no qualms revealing. “We play and sing what the audience wants,” Rozells concedes.
A song for you: Kathleen Rodrigues serenading the audience at the Penang Swimming Club in Tanjung Bungah with James Rozells lending support. His right hand man in this duo is in fact a woman, Kathleen Rodrigues, a renowned songstress once deemed the Shirley Temple of Malaysia, who like Rozells, comes from the Eurasian community in Penang.
In fact, Penang has been a hotbed for some of the nation’s best talents, going all the way back to Tan Sri P. Ramlee, Jimmy Boyle, Ooi Eow Jin and later, the ever-loved Alleycats.
While perhaps not well known to contemporary audiences, The Rozells have earned a reputation for having an amazing repertoire of songs that date to as far back as the 1930s and 1940s. It’s not unusual to hear the duo belt out gems from the likes of Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Matt Monro and Connie Francis. Collectively, The Rozells have a staggering repertoire of 1,000 songs.
“A lady once told us that we had performed a song her husband had written ... just after we performed the classic Fly Me To The Moon. It turns out that she was the widow of Henry Mancini (who also wrote the Pink Panther theme),” Rodrigues shares proudly.
“We are doing something we like, and it’s not motivated by money. You could say that we are in the nostalgia business €“ when we do the old songs, we get the audience to reminisce on good times gone by,” Rozells says.
The Rozells took its love for oldies and turned it into a career sometime in the early 1990s, running a pub under the name in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, for nearly six years, until recently.
“The pub functioned almost like a time machine for some patrons in which they could just listen to songs of their time,” enthuses Rozells. “Our patrons were basically regulars and we remember all their names €“ we made many good friends along the way,” adds Rodrigues with a warm smile.
When The Rozells were formed, the Penang music scene was a hotbed of talent. “There were a lot of good bands then ... it was all very competitive. Of course, we had rivals, but we’re all very good friends now. We’ve learned from our peers and I hope that’s a philosophy the younger generation will adopt as well,” Rozells offers.
The Rozells has a great admiration for its contemporaries, too. “As a guitarist, I’ve always admired John Lim ... a great jazz guitarist. I feel the same way about Larry Rodrigues, another fantastic jazz guitarist,” Rozells reveals.
“I like Salamia Hassan’s voice and style very much ... likewise (fellow Penang songstress) Shirley Barnabas. I suppose they just have that class. Younger singers nowadays simply copy the Western acts ... they all have the same voice. It’s probably because they never went through the mill like we did during our time,” shares Rodrigues.
While music performance has moulded The Rozells’ career, the pinnacle of the duo’s success lies elsewhere. “Starting the pub was the most significant moment for us because we built it out of our own finances. We performed there every night for two years after the pub opened. We were able to put our money where our mouth was and pull a crowd every night,” Rozells says.
The Rozells has one simple hope for when it is no more: to be remembered as an act that played honestly and with passion. “All we hope for is to be part of something that could benefit the future of the kind of music we play. We hope we can provide inspiration for the younger generation of music artistes,” Rozells says on a parting note.
For more info, visit rozells.com.my.
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