Age has in no way diminished the ebullience of Danny Diaz. Forty years after the singer-songwriter shot to fame in Hong Kong with the Checkmates, Diaz is back with his biggest solo show yet, stepping out of his comfort zone again and into the bright lights of the Cultural Centre, where he will perform with a hand-picked orchestra and push his own boundaries to new limits.
The prospect excites Diaz, who recently returned to live in Hong Kong after residing mostly in Toronto, Canada, for the past three decades with his family. The peripatetic musician, who has played everywhere from Acapulco to Las Vegas, admits he feels most at home in the city where he first made his name during the swinging 60s alongside the likes of The Wynners, Michael Remedios and Christine Samson.
'It's a city people fall in love with after just one month. It's the lifestyle here,' says Diaz. The city fell in love with Diaz all those decades ago, too, and he still counts thousands of fans among veteran music lovers, as well as new ones picked up along the way through his residency at Kowloon's Miramar Hotel and many private functions.
Diaz's usual show is as much cabaret as it is concert. His musical medleys are interspersed with jokes and banter with the audience, Diaz wittily altering lyrics of famous songs into odes about Hong Kong, China or modern life. His joie de vivre enables him to win over the most stubborn of crowds, but his musical dexterity, whether playing keyboards or guitar, remains his greatest asset and one that will come to the fore at tonight's show, Danny Diaz, An Unforgettable Journey.
The journey Diaz refers to is historical as well as geographical. In his own inimitable way, Diaz will somehow work everything in from Sri Lankan tabla rhythms to Cantonese operas and covers of Nessun Dorma, made famous by Pavarotti, to the Beatles and British funkster Jamiroquai. 'I'm bringing in world music elements. It will be a smorgasbord of music,' says Diaz early one morning before another day of rehearsals at a studio in Kwun Tong.
A highlight of the show will be his traditional 20-minute medley replete with impersonations of everyone from Elvis to Barry White. 'When I perform it's all about having fun, for me and the audience,' says Diaz, whose one-liners raise many a smile even if they belong to a bygone, more innocent age of comedy. 'Everyone enjoys a laugh.'
Diaz offers lyrics and banter in Cantonese, Putonghua, Spanish, English, Tagalog and smatterings of other languages when the audience demands, but abides most by the maxim that 'music is a universal language'. He always plays to the crowd. 'It's like everyone's dropped into my living room and there's a guitar and a keyboard and they ask me to play. It's very personal and informal,' says Diaz.
