What would your favourite song be? One that keeps coming back to you ever so often despite the passage of time? Is it culled from the years of rock ‘n roll, pop, latin, blues, folk or swing for that matter. Whatever it is you are going to enjoy the performances of a new duo on the scene T&R PROJECT who are geared and rearing to give you moments of musical happiness. They are no strangers. Their names are familiar to you – the brothers Ray and Tony Gomes – who have within them “a burning passion for rhythm and music”. I had the good fortune of meeting Ray Gomes who is a bassist of repute in our music scene to find out more about their welcome decision.
You broke into the music scene in Sri Lanka when it was throbbing with well recognised musicians who were holding sway over our music scene. Did you join solo or were you a duo even then?
At the time I started off I was performing with bands and we were not a duo. This was way back in the early 70’s. I started off with my friend the late Hillary Wijewardena who was a lead guitarist and we teamed up with drummer Jan Direckze, rhythm guitarist the late Nalin Nathan and Carlo Foneska who handled the vocals. The following year 1971 as Sunday Morning Breeze we took part in the “JayCee Show” at the Mount Lavinia Hotel and we were lucky enough to win the 2nd place at the show. Immediately after the show we were offered a contract at the “Little Hut” Mount Lavinia, as the resident band. This was a wonderful surprise!
After Sunday Morning Breeze did you continue in Colombo with your music scene?
Yes of course! I played with many bands ever since. There was the X-Periments led by Sohan Weerasinghe, Saybhan & The Tempo quite naturally led by by Saybhan Samat. Then to lead my own band saw me heading Flash Band and later In Harmony. But that was not all! I had my musical moments with Jade led by Anton Goonetilleke, then with Ulitimate led by the late Manjula Goonesekera popularly called Sudu, then with Russell Fernando’s band Pro Arrangement. Soon after I went overseas to join the Colombo Gems led by Adrian Ferdinands & later by Heather Crake and we performed in Switzerland and Norway.
What spurred both of you into becoming musicians when at that time parents were keen that their children move on an education path?
There was music playing always in our home during our young days. My Dad was always fond of music, so was our older brother the late Cliff who was a good guitarist and had a band playing instrumental music, influenced by the Shadows, Jumping Jewels, Ventures who were then the rage globally. Tony and I we started to experiment with the guitar early in life and learned fast. We often played with my Dad’s friends who would come home for parties bringing with them their guitars, clarinets, saxophones for the enthusiastic sing-a-longs during normal times and the much looked forward to at Christmas times. A dear friend of the family who was always with us was the legendary jazz musician, saxophonist and clarinetist the late Malcolm de Zilwa. So with these influences the fire started. Of course, we continued and completed our education as required but the burning passion was music.
As a member of the popular bands in the 70’s and 80’s were you fortunate to travel overseas for performances. What about your brother Tony?
I have travelled widely and performed as a musician. Looking back some of the countries were Oman, Dubai, Qatar, Zambia, The Maldives, Indonesia, Thailand, Switzerland, Norway, England, Australia and USA. My brother Tony too has worked in many countries in Europe as a performing musician. In fact he left for Switzerland in 1981 with the band Arabesque led by Lal de Silva and also played & toured with Esquire Set led by the late Nihar Hamid. Tony married and settled down in Switzerland while playing part time with Swiss musicians.
Ray you and your brother Tony have decided to perform as a duo as T&R PROJECT. What was the reason for the lapse in time to come together?
My brother Tony and his family decided to relocate in Sri Lanka in 2021. We were toying with the idea of playing together since he already has programmed over 100 tracks which he used to perform with his band mates in Switzerland. We just didn’t want it to go waste. That’s when the idea came up. “Lets do something together we said to each other”. Last year 2022 we decided to team up and for the first time and play together as T&R PROJECT.
If as you tell us you can as a duo produce a sound that would suit any occasion – be it formal or otherwise, at Hotels or at independent Halls, what about keyboards & drums?
Music can have many forms such as soloists, duo’s, trio’s, quartets, quintets. Due to limitations in finding the right combination of musicians I guess people looked towards forming Duo’s and Trio’s with the help of technology. Earlier there were Duo’s performing using tracks – notably Raja and Priyanthi Jalaldeen. In fact there were even full bands that were using tracks from drum machines, and orchestration and percussion from synthesizers. So for two musicians to use a drum track and a keyboard track its nothing new! And believe me the sound that can be produced using this is second to none.
Having heard you perform often Ray as a bassist and a vocalist what would the repertoire of T&R PROJECT be for the appreciation of music lovers?
Our repertoire has a variety of musical styles – popular favourites of yesteryear and today, evergreens, jazz standards, bossa nova, latin, funk, r&b, blues, folk and even Pink Floyd tunes in our bag.
