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SCMP Reporter

THE news was, I admit, something of a bombshell. I arrived home early in the morning in an unfocused condition, flicked on the answering machine and waited for the usual cluster of messages.

  And there it was: 'Hi Robin, this is Ric. I'm just ringing to let you know that Nita and I are leaving Hong Kong.'   I sat down, poured myself a large scotch and tried to take this in. After all, how many symbols of stability do we have here? Even if nothing else stays the same Hong Kong will always have the Peak Tram, the Star Ferry and Ric Halstead playing the saxophone.

  Not any more. Ric and his new bride are off to build a life Down Under.

  I wrote my first story on Ric and his jazz activities 12 years ago and I've lost count of how many there have been since.

  Ric arrived in Hong Kong in 1971 at the end of a journey that had taken him to what was once the Soviet Union, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

  A science graduate from the University of East Anglia, he found a day job with a real estate company. In the evenings, however, he gravitated towards a pub in Tsim Sha Tsui called Ned Kelly's Last Stand.

  There he found himself working behind the bar as well as playing rock 'n' roll on the rostrum and sitting in on Sunday jazz sessions with musicians like Len Tracey and Rudi Balbuena. 'I stayed for two years and made some good friends. Eventually, I was offered my first professional job with the Aldo Jacobini Band, which was an Italian nightclub group,' Ric says.

  After stints with Jacobini in Taiwan and Japan, Ric returned to England to take a jazz course at the Leeds College of Music. He found himself hanging out with a keyboard player called Geoff Downs, whose career took a turn in another direction after he wrote and performed a song called Video Killed the Radio Star, which topped the British pop charts in 1980.

  But Ric's heart was in jazz, which is doubtless why he found himself in rapid succession touring with a Brazilian cabaret show in Europe and the Middle East, and backing Matt Munro and Clodagh Rodgers for a season at Great Yarmouth. Understandably, he began to feel the lure of Hong Kong.

  It was not to be just yet, though. A visit to Papua New Guinea 'en route' to the territory turned into a three-year stint as a music lecturer at the National Arts School in Port Moresby.

  Then, in 1982, he and his sax case arrived back at Kai Tak and he set about creating a Hong Kong contemporary jazz scene.

  The first real break came with an offer from San Miguel to sponsor a jazz record, which turned out to be Ric Halstead and Friends, featuring rock guitarist Perry Martin, Dave Packer on keyboards and harmonica, and Rudi Balbuena on bass.

  At around the same time, Bernie Sutcliffe of Rick's Cafe invited him to put together a quartet to play 'happy-hour jazz'; which was how Ric formed One Finger Snap for the residency. One night, a young Chinese guitar player turned up and asked to sit in. That guitarist was Eugene Pao, and when Ric lost his keyboard player at Rick's he offered Eugene the slot.

  One Finger Snap built up a following and played jazz festivals in Macau and Singapore.

  One evening the local managing director of film company Agfa came to see the band at Rick's. Hans Lodders heard something he liked and sponsored the next recording, a set of fusion jazz cameos of Hong Kong life composed by Ric and Dave Packer and featuring traditional Chinese instruments.

  However, the long-term consequences of the meeting were more important for local jazz fans. Having watched Ric through two more successful recording projects, Hans agreed to head a consortium including Ric, Dave Packer and some financial backers to establish the Jazz Club in Lan Kwai Fong.

  'In a way, the rest is history. We opened the club in March 1989 with Anita O'Dayy and it's been great. I've had the opportunity to put on so many people that I've idolised over the years,' says Ric, who is the club's music director.

  Just as satisfying, however, has been the opportunity to watch local players blossom. Eugene Pao's development since that first spot at Rick's in 1985 has been nothing short of phenomenal. He is now a world-class player and has an album due for release later this year.

  'Paul Candelaria on bass is the same. Dave is a great keyboard player and harmonica player, and now we've got Anthony Fernandez who is a world-class drummer. The club has made it a policy to develop new talent in that we've had the Musical Mystery Tour for bands to have a forum and they have developed there,' says Ric.

  One of the most notable is the world music band Nogabe, now on its second album, which is one of the club's most popular draws. They are going to find their saxophone player difficult to replace.

  Another of Ric's ideas was the 1992 Hong Kong Jazz and Blues Festival, and he has also been an important advocate for jazz appreciation via his Sound of Surprise RTHK radio show.

  This institution, like the Jazz Club, which Hans Lodders insists he is determined to keep open, will survive his departure. South China Morning Post columnist, and no mean bass player, Charles Martin is taking over the show.

  Nevertheless, Ric leaves a considerable gap. No doubt we can expect to hear of a rapid growth in the Brisbane jazz scene.



Out on a high note