14/07/2023
One ‘for the good times’ with Legend Tom Mawi
Last Thursday evening, July 6th at Gorge Hickes home with others in support of George and family, his brother in law Buli Seiwaitui and I were reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ when he mentioned that their group with Tom Mawi played at Cardo’s every Sunday evening from 6pm to 9pm.
So I told my kids about how great it would to go and listen and relax and bingo, they took me out to dinner at Cardo’s where I met Tom after so long, I think the last time we met was at Robert Vermas funeral in Suva. So it was great to catch up with Tom and the band members. And I recommend anyone interested in jazz with the Maestro himself Tom Mawi and team, Sunday evening at Cardo’s is where its at.
And of course Tom asked me to do a number and you cant refuse a legend, although the last time we performed together on a regular basis was about 50 years ago at the Tradewinds Hotel when Tony Philips owned it, and I was an Assistant Bar Manager and performed with the band in the evenings that included, Tom, Marika, Ben and (Sax) Simone Rabaka, Benji Fong, Robert Verma, with the Daveta sisters, with Ray Glover, former Musical Director for Kamal, as our musical director. The band went on to become the popular Sandalwood Rhythm. So it was kinda like stepping back in time.
Anyway we selected Autumn Leaves an old favourite I used to sing often with Tom back in the day and had not sung it for decades, but once the music started, all the words just flowed easily like it did back in the good old days and with Maestro Mawi himself providing the backing, it bought back some fond memories of the ‘good times we shared’
