‘La Bambas’ celebrates solid 55 years
View(s):It was exactly 55 years ago, the well known outfit ‘La Bambas’ from Moratuwa, decided to begin their colourful musical journey. Their first noteworthy public performance was at the ‘Coconut Grove’, the popular Night Club at the Galle Face Hotel on 25th May 1966.
‘La Bambas’, the pioneer vocal harmony singing group to emerge from the music crazy town of Moratuwa during the golden era of Sinhala group songs in 1966, celebrates its 55th Anniversary last week with the remaining members due to the pandemic situation.
The band ‘La Bambas’ were active in the local music arena until the demise of its leader Brian Fernando in 2013, when the other members- namely Priya Peiris, Lasla Fernando, Rolinson Ferdinando, Erinto Perera and Malsiri Wijesuriya decided to lie low, but without quitting music altogether.
‘La Bambas’ pursued their brand of soft and lilting music exclusively with unplugged instruments, comprising classical (gut stringed) box guitars, percussion sound sand conga drums, supplemented with two, three and four part harmony singing. As a very popular 70s group songs outfit (also referred to as ‘kandayam gee’), they belonged to the exclusive type of quality local harmony singing outfits which bravely continued with the traditional unplugged trend without giving way to the easier way out with fashionable electronic sounds – mostly depicting western beat groups.
The 1966 original line up of ‘La Bambas’ comprised of Brian, Rolinson, Lasla, Erinton, Priya and Sunll Perera. But since the migration of Sunil as early as in 1968, another close friend and neighbour Malsiri Wijesuriya joined the group. This combination endured the virtual life span of the band as one un-separable unit.
Performing with unsophisticated gut stringed acoustic guitars and percussion instruments and singing in delightful 3 and 4 part harmony, they emerged as a trump card with their own creations such as ‘Cock-a-doodle-do’, ‘Nuwara Menikela’ , ‘Enna yanna nelum wile’, ‘Lake Nadee’, ‘Piyakaru Mala’, ‘Kurulan Piyambaala’ and many more .
A remarkable highlight in their career was the 15 year stint they performed three days weekly during the 1980/90 era at the Hotel Lanka Oberoi – the largest and most prestigious five star hotel at that time.
‘It is with great pride that ‘La Bambas proclaim that everything they musically ventured was totally home spun and Moratuwa oriented. All composing , melody making , musical and vocal arrangements were planned out by ourselves and never depended on any outside sources’ Priya reminisced with a sense of achievement .
La Bambas belonged to a rare breed of performers, who boldly appeared on stage with unplugged instruments – an unfamiliar sight to many nowadays audiences .
Their repertoire is astounding and unique in comparison to other groups. They are fully conversent with a wide range of evergreen English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish favourite, American cowboy, plantation and Dixieland hits and music from all around the world to any kind of audiences.
LARGEST SPANISH COLLECTION ON CD
‘LA Bambas’ produced a one of a kind CD in collaboration with ‘Soorya ‘ records in 2016, to mark their golden jubilee. This comprised the largest compilation of Latin American favorites (the real source for the inspiration and evolution of ‘Kandaayam gee’) ever recorded by anyone in Sri Lanka plus Caribbean calypso and English originals composed to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination and Ceylon tea as the best beverage in the world.
Apart from performing music, ‘La Bambas’, at the request of the Sri Lanka Army had conducted over 15 music workshops for a large number of army musicians in various towns of the Wanni District during the past decade. Also, they were listed as the first such group to voluntarily perform for the injured soldiers in the army hospital during the War.