The ‘3 Generations Concert’: A musical odyssey

The night of unforgettable music promises to provide dazzling entertainment for all and will feature the great musical family of Sri Lanka; the Bahars and will showcase the musical legacy, energy and iconic performances of this musical family, who have in their own right, left an indelible mark on the local western music scene.

The concert will commence with a performance by Ishan, who was known as the ‘beat-boy extraordinaire’ back in the 60s when he performed with The Jetliners, a beat group which revolutionised the music scene, with a repertoire consisting of songs by Elvis, Cliff, Ricky Nelson and other popular singers during the 60s and 70s.  However due to his interest in advertising, he bowed out of the music scene to reappear 30 years later in the year 2000, at reunion concerts of the Jetliners in Melbourne and Sydney which were followed by more concerts in Australia, including one in the city of Brisbane in 2002. Their final two concerts were held at the BMICH and at a dance at the Coconut Grove at the Galle Face Hotel respectively, which were a part of their ‘home’ reminiscence of the Sundown Dances of the 60s.

Ishan went into hibernation once again from professional music and reluctantly reappeared at the request of Ricky to perform alongside him at Legends in Concert in 2009. And now he’s here again with his family to entertain you in his own inimitable style, which earned him the title of BBE. Come and be pleasantly surprised by what this ‘old man’ and family can dish out for you.

Ricky, a chip off the old block, has been extremely serious about his musical career and in his teen years was voice trained by the highly respected Lylie Godrich. Ricky is today held in high esteem by the world famous voice trainer Seth Riggs of the Speech Level Singing International of Las Palmas, Los Angeles (Josh Groban and Michael Jackson are some of the voices trained by Riggs).

In an audition with Ricky recently, they saw great potential in his voice and thus offered Ricky a six month training course along with a probable recording contract with one of the leading labels in the United States.

In Seth Riggs’s own words: “ I was able to give Ricky a half hour studio time which was adequate for me to assess his vocal capability and to confirm that he has enormous potential to further his career, which would be worth pursuing under my guidance. I am willing to take Ricky under my wing to further his vocal talent and assist this young man, to help him realise his dreams.”

It was the untiring effort and perseverance of Hadia Galely of Mantra Mood, Ricky’s current Manager, which resulted in this as she was instrumental in arranging the audition with Seth Riggs.

“Supporting Ricky’s journey to LA, I am positive it will be a decision which would not leave room for regret and should be worthy of consideration,” added Riggs. This has resulted in the launch of the ‘3 Generations Concert’ to raise funds to help Ricky along his journey.  Ricky’s musical career spans 25 years, commencing as the lead singer of the Steelers, who rocked the local music industry up to the late 90s after which they moved to Germany to launch themselves into the international market. Ricky then performed with Alien Accent, releasing a 12-track CD of originals containing 10 tracks sung by Ricky.

Since the very inception of Ricky’s music career, he has been working with Imran Pakirsaibo of Funtime and has been featured at most Funtime functions for over 20 years, covering many of corporate functions locally and across many continents, performing in front of audiences in Europe as well as in Melbourne, China, Thailand, Maldives, Dubai and Los Angeles in addition to cities in India such as Mumbai, Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Goa and Delhi to name a few.    Ricky had the honour of being judged Best Male Vocalist for two years in succession at the ‘Golden Clef’ Awards hosted by the Sunday Observer and went on to win Best Male Vocalist and Male Pop Star of the year at the ‘Island Music Awards’ thereafter.

Next in line to carry on the legacy of the Bahar family is Ricky’s daughter, Shyanne, a talented and versatile singer. Her love and passion for music has motivated 17-year-old Shyanne to take up recording engineering under the guidance of one of the top music engineers in Sri Lanka, Ranga Dassanayake, a lecturer at University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo. She is also currently being trained by piano maestro/composer Eshantha Peiris and has just completed her first original; composing, arranging the music track and recording the song all by herself. Her line-up for the concert is a mix, with her own renditions of chart toppers and will also accompany Ricky and her grandfather, Ishan.

The trio will be supported by one of the most professional ensembles in town, Triloka, lead by Eshantha Peiris as well as the choirs Voice Print and Revelations. This one-of-a-kind, one-off concert will be held at Waters Edge on 18 September.