Blues come alive with Kotai in Simunjan

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Shamri, also known as Kotai, busking at the 1979 bazaar with a little help from a stall owner.

Shamri, also known as Kotai, busking at the 1979 bazaar with a little help from a stall owner.

STUMBLING upon a “Blind Lemon Jefferson” in Simunjan, a remote part of Sarawak, is really out of this world.

In this coastal town, right out of the blue came the strains of an acoustic guitar, prompting two wandering blues-loving newspapersmen to track down the guitarist and singer.

As we sauntered around town on a sleepy afternoon, the acoustic echo led us to a creamy white building with no name but only four numbers – 1979 – on the facade. We later learned this is the 1979 Bazaar of Simunjan town.

The town has its very own Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Father Of Texas Blues in the US, in the form of a local blind singer- cum-entertainer Shamri Hamdan.

At what looked like an aircraft hangar that houses the 1979 Bazaar wafted strong curry and deep fried salted fish which pinched the nose.

The authentic aroma of local cooking is irresistible when you are in exploratory mode but the unmistakable sound of the guitar from a man dressed in black shirt and pants overcame the foodie urge.

He held his guitar, his lips millimetres from the microphone and his head swaying to body rhythm as he sang to a small but eager audience.

Some mimicked his sing-along tunes but most were mesmerised by his vocals.

The people who gathered around were mostly hawkers, taking a break after a busy morning, serving regular customers before packing up for the day.

Soon, the crowd were focusing on the man entertaining them at 1979’s Gerai (stall) Makanan 10. A stall operator, Zuraidah Sapian, stirred uneasily to a John Mayall’s British blues drawl: “Looking back at me to see if I was looking back at you, to see if you were looking back at me…”

Two strangers had come to town, one armed with a camera, on the draw for a “shootout at OK Corral.”

The blind singer wrapped up his performance and sensed some unfamiliar listeners causing a stir, but kept his cool as he introduced himself, his world, life and profession to thesundaypost.

Deep Purple’s When a Blindman Cries then sprang to mind and it dawned on us that this two-in-one musician was blind to the world of fretboard that only the privileged knew.

The 30-year-old Shamri, a self-taught guitarist, has hugged the same guitar for the past 14 years and been playing since 16.

“No one really encouraged me to go to school and music got my attention,” he said.

“I joined a band but then, we didn’t play everyday. I find it easier going solo.”

Shamri added that by going it alone, he could live off street-busking, and in Simunjan, he feels he is getting what he wants — an appreciative audience, which is food for the musician’s soul, at the bazaar. He makes less money this way but then again, he can play the music he likes.

“I found out that I get more attention as people really focus on my individual talent,” he explained, his head tilted like Jose Feliciano, the Latin wonder in the kingdom of blind guitarists.

Once in a blue moon, Shamri takes Route 66 or the mundane highway if you like, to Kuching to busk but the income will not be enough for him to live in the city.

“It’s harsh but that’s the reality and I learned it’s not easy to be in the limelight overnight but God made me like this (blind). Maybe it’s also fair, for while living in the dark world, God gave me this little talent to live on,” he smiled.

It makes us ponder the quote from renowned black and blind Blues pianist Ray Charles: “I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart, like my blood.

It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water.”

Without education and like Ray Charles, Shamri has to live off his music and guitar.

Midway through the interview, a woman in the crowd interrupted to reveal Shamri’s stage name — Kotai.

Shamri later showed us his stage name etched on his guitar.

He said right now, the candle in his dark world is his dream to play on a proper concert stage as the main man and to have his own record label.

“I like to entertain people with songs soothing to the ear and here, my audience are of all ages and they love the Malay songs from the 50’s and 60’s, sung by the late Ahmad Jais, the legendary P Ramlee and Soloma.”

Shamri said he also strummed Indonesian rhythm and sang Malay pop rock and ballad.

“I really love music and I only stop playing when I run out of steam. That’s the satisfaction I get as an entertainer and hopefully, I will also make a little cash.”

So for “crying out loud,” we dunked a fiver into his till and asked him if we could take a spin on his guitar and like a true pro, this visually impaired musician handed over his most prized of possessions.

As time was of the essence for thesundaypost copy deadlines, I (Phil), bred on the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, EC (Clapton) and Jimi Hendrix, strutted my penny’s worth, playing blues.

Soon, the busy 1979 bazaar stopped and listened for minutes to a genre that could make you friends on any music stage worldwide.

After a modest round of claps for the blues statement, I passed the guitar back to Shamri, our blind singer-entertainer friend with a dream to become an artiste in his own right and let his dark world shine out of this coastal town.

After dropping a few more ringgit into the plastic container, we left the eatery and returned to our test-driven Isuzu MU-X with the blues in mind — and Kotai too.

It would be a great bonus wolfing down your food to tunes from a gifted musician and a man called Shamri from Kampung Sageng, Simunjan, if you happened to drive this way.

And who is to say the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson (real name Lemon Henry Jefferson, an American gospel blues guitarists from Texas in the 1920’s) could not have resurrected in another blind soul in this part of the world – Sarawak – and at a far-flung coastal eatery known simply as 1979.

‘1979’ — a place where Shamri’s music is heard and he gets paid for entertainment.

‘1979’ — a place where Shamri’s music is heard and he gets paid for entertainment.