Music to my ears Sohan Pieris by Patrick Ranasinghe Sohan Pieris   Last waltz  Sohan Pieris & The Spitfires The Way It Used To Be  Sohan Pieris & The Spitfires Portrait of my love   Music to my ears Sohan Pieris earliest influence was classical music which was the music of choice at home where my loving parents encouraged me, he soon realized that he was able to play anything on the piano by ear. he was actually born in Bombay in the late forties, my dad being Ceylon’s pioneer commercial airline pilot  might also mention that there is a link between my birthplace and that of another singer the inimitable Englebert Humperdinck who was also born in India. We moved to Sri Lanka when he was seven years old and knew no Sinhala as he spoke only Hindi he learned Sinhalese at school at St Joseph Colombo ‘The Jetliners’ who were quite a sensation in Colombo ...

Read More →

Obituary: BUDDY MUSAFER – passed away – by Sohan Pieris   A very very sad day for all musicians in SL today. He was not doing well for a while and believe it or not he could not talk – lost  his voice.. We were very close as friends and musicians. I was devastated to hear the news. His elder brother Hassan who was a superb drummer passed away about 6 months ago in Hong Kong. This pix was taken in Australia during one of our tours that I will treasure. He was life of the party keeping all of us in fits of laughter all the time. Here’s another shot with his two sisters and his brother Hassan the drummer who passed away just 6 months ago. Here’s a song I unearthed, which he recorded 40 yrs ago that exudes his humour and laughter to the max. He did it in 3 takes ...

Read More →

The Jetliners–courtesy of Patrick Ranasinghe   1 Puppet On A String * 2 Hi Lili Hi Lo* 3 Guantan Amera Vocal by Sohan Pieris 4 FrutoDe Mare* Vocal by Mignonne “It is the 1960s in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) and on the Saturday morning at 8am every teenager would flock round their radios to listen to the most popular band in the land “The Fabulous JETLINERS “.  The show was sponsored by a popular brand of Ceylon tea named SUNGOLD TEA. Hence the name “THE SUNGOLD SHOW”. This is a sample of the excellent music produced by the then Teenage group now residing overseas but still continue playing their own style of music.  Sit back and listen to this group of fantastic musicians.“   ...

Read More →