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Recession brings on the blues

Wendell Holmes and UBlues perform at the UBlues Fest 2002 in Singapore, Sunday. The city-state is looking to ease the pain of its worst recession in 37 years with its first blues music festival. PHOTO: REUTERS

Singapore embraced the blues on a steamy summer night, looking to ease the pain of its worst recession in 37 years with plenty of cold beer and an outdoor air conditioning system.

Paying for a new perspective on their economic misfortune, some 3,000 Singaporeans -- best known for strict discipline and a now-flagging computer chip industry -- sat under the stars on the site of a British colonial-era fort to hear music rooted in the pain of another former British colony.

"Asia has lots of blues in its history, from colonization to independence -- kind of similar to the black American experience," said Danny Loong, lead organizer of Singapore's first blues music festival, UBlues Fest 2002, which cost some S$200,000 (US$114,600) in to stage.

Over the course of two nights of wailing harmonica music and barbecued ribs, the audience was kept from swooning in the high Singapore humidity by cold air blowers donated by a sponsor.

Many on the lawn before the stage were born long after the British left Singapore during the 1960s. And many did not realize they had heard the blues on their parents' Elvis Presley records, or in Eric Clapton videos on MTV.

"There's not just an economic depression on, there's a racial depression, too... You hear the blues and before you know it you're dancing with the person next to you."

Danny Loong, lead organizer of UBlues Fest 2002, Singapore's first blues music festival

Many had never seen blues performed live.

So the growling singing of Singapore's Universal Blues Band came as some surprise when it belted from the rail-thin 22-year-old body of lead guitarist Trevor Jalla, who spoke into the microphone with a Southeast Asian lilt.

"This is a song for Singaporeans who need to take time out from the hustle and bustle," Jalla said, to introduce his version of "City Boy," a song by contemporary bluesman Keb' Mo' who grew up in impoverished South Central Los Angeles.

To average Singaporeans facing job cuts, higher taxes and rising public transport costs -- all while living stacked on top of each other in state-built housing projects that dot the tiny island's skyline -- the words might just have a familiar ring.

"Too many people, too many cars, take me to Memphis, Mercury or Mars. I don't want to be a prisoner or a slave, I just want to go where my soul can run free," Jalla sang.

As a part of a recent campaign to encourage creativity and freedom of expression as good for business and attractive to tourist dollars, the government, including festival sponsor the Singapore Tourism Board, is touting the opening of a new arts center this autumn.

But some artists are doubtful that the government fully understands the importance of artistic expression.

"If Singapore wants to be an international arts community, we need to do more to perceive value in the arts themselves and not see the arts as a functional part of society," Loong said.

"People need to express themselves, listen and be inspired."

One young Punjabi man of Sikh descent seemed open to inspiration. Wearing a T-shirt from Tipitina's, the landmark New Orleans blues club, Dinesh Dhillon said it was time for Singapore to take to the blues.

"Everybody has the blues. It's not wordy and it's a release of pain that comes from the gut. It makes you happy," said Dhillon, who discovered the blues through gospel music.

"If Singaporeans bother to listen, they will relate."

Loong and others at Fort Canning Park -- also the seat of a 14th century Malay kingdom and Singapore's first Christian cemetery -- agreed that the blues speak to universal suffering, not just that of blacks in America.

"There's not just an economic depression on, there's a racial depression, too," said Loong, an ethnic Chinese and a Christian.

"We're a harmonious country, but we should do more through music. You hear the blues and before you know it you're dancing with the person next to you."

Racial tension flared in Singapore in January when the government barred Malay Muslim schoolgirls, who wanted to wear headscarves to class, under school uniform rules that stress conformity.

"The blues is about deep yearning for something you want and it doesn't have to be boxed up in Christianity like gospel music," said Loong, rhythm guitarist with the UBlues Band. "There are Malays and Hindus here who will appreciate that."

The UBlues Band, along with Smokey Ng from Singapore, Farid Ali from Malaysia, Blues Shaddy and Rick Steele from Australia and the Holmes Brothers from the US -- prompted all races, including a great number of white expatriates, to dance.

"Promoting the blues is a full time job," said Loong, who plans to teach a course on creative thinking and music at Singapore Management University.

"Sure, we want to make money, and this year's just the start," Loong said. "But what we're really interested in is encouraging Asian artists to come out of their comfort zones and say `Wow, I've got something to say.'"
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