18 Aug 2019  |   04:28am IST

Honouring a memory… a musical legacy

A son’s musical homage to his father could not take place after he suffered a stroke. The father had made a dramatic mark for himself in the world of music. Glen Perry opened his heart whilst taking about his father Chris Perry

As we wish him a full recovery, it’s only fair to highlight the legacy Glen is so proud to have inherited.

His father, Chris Perry, is considered one of Goa’s most talented musicians. An exceptionally gifted trumpeter, he was also at ease with other wind instruments such as the saxophone, and flute as well as finger instruments like keyboard, piano and guitar. In addition, he learnt to read and write music without any formal training.

Speaking to Café when he was busy with organising the show, Glen had said that this was his tribute to his father, who he felt was a musical genius. The concert would have been an amalgamation of blues and Indian classical music. Asked what he had to say about his father, he had said: “My father was a genius and is on the same level as Mozart, Bach and others. I learnt from my father; he was my teacher and the only teacher I had in my life. He is the greatest and I owe everything I am to him.” Asked if Chris was a taskmaster, Glenn had said, “He was like any teacher in Europe, America or Russia, strict and demanding. They want perfection and so did he. You had to be good; he would not take nonsense. My father was so gifted that if a truck or a car went by and honked, he would tell you that it was a G sharp.”

Reminiscing about his father he had said that Chris had big orchestras and he would write music for them. He would do this in Mumbai and he had the capacity to point out an error committed by a violinist in the third row, all thanks to his sharp ears. Glenn had added that his father was put in this world to play music. “He did not go to school but he learnt. He was god’s gift to the world,”

Speaking of himself he had said, “I never went to college or university and learnt everything from my father. He was my everything. I owe my music and my life to my father.”

Then without any hesitation, he decided to deal with the rumour mongering that had acquired a fresh breath of air following his arrival in Goa with regard his father, saying, “Over the years, there have been so many rumours about my father. I have a new song called ‘Rumours, Lies and Fabrication’. There has been a movie made about him and people have been slandering him. There is not a word that is true. I would like the people who have spread these rumours to come and talk to me. I want to talk to them face to face. I would like to do this in a press conference. They spread these rumours to make money. My father was the most loving, tireless person I ever met. Whoever made this movie, I would like to ask them how they would feel if someone made a movie on their father and destroyed his reputation? My father was an angel; I lived with him. My father had Parkinsons disease and could not walk. He suffered this disease from 1987 and his brain was totally destroyed. It’s only after he died that people started spreading rumours; not one of them is true. My father does not belong to me, he belongs to Goa; he is heritage.”

For the show in Goa he had plans to present two new compositions, one called ‘Beautiful Goa’ and the other being ‘Rumours, Lies and Fabrication’.

Glenn has won 3 American awards for his song ‘Aloha’, which was filmed in Hawaii. From thousands of contesting artistes from all around the world, Glenn won the Los Angeles based American Akademia Music Awards for best pop artist of the year 2019. He recently also won the American Global Music Awards for his song ‘Aloha’. Chris Perry revolutionised the Konkani music scene by introducing jazz music and he is credited with taking Konkani popular music to a new level.