Sabah Habas Mustapha

The last thing former 3 Mustaphas 3 member Sabah Habas Mustapha ever expected was to write a Indonesian hit song. But in 1994, with "Denpasar Moon," that's exactly what he did.

" I was just trying to write my version of a wistful Sundanese melody with a dangdut (street-pop) - lite rhythm," he recalled. "The big hit was for a lady from the Philippines called Mary Beth. She recorded it for a hi-fi ad in Indonesia, and the record sold out. There were something like 50 cover versions."

"I like some of the same simple chords as Bryan Ferry, and I like romantic pop music."

Since then, Mustapha, who's also known as Colin Bass , has written no more hits. But across his three solo albums he's delved deeper into Indonesian musical styles his wife introduced him to "many years ago."

"Sabah Habas has a Bass and will travel - to where his heart is so lonely, to make a song," his former bandmate, 'Uncle' Mustapha also known as Mekon and Billy Bragg sideman Lu Edmonds, cryptically offered.

Mustapha might not have been lonely, but his latest record, So La Li, (Omnuim) does have many songs, and plenty of delicious surprises, such as the lap steel (from brother Hijaz Mustapha ) on the opener "Di Nagara Deungeun," which takes the seductive jaipong melody out of Asia and into the open American West.

The album was recorded not in the cosmopolitan Indonesian capital, Jakarta, but in the provincial city of Bandung, with the Jugala All Stars, who also appeared on his previous disc, Jalan Kopo.

"I wanted to go back and do the new one with the same guys, because I wanted a record that was a group effort," he explained. "I had no set ideas when I went to Bandung this time. We all got together in the studio and improvised the songs."

What they came up with was Indonesian roots music, using traditional Sundanese texts collected by ethnomusicologist Wim van Zanten in his book Sundanese Music in the Cianjuran Style.

"We made backing tracks and grooves, and found the texts that would fit the grooves, and Tati Ana Mogiono sang them. They're beautiful pieces of poetry, longing for somebody or a homeland."

While there's a certain exotic beauty to the pieces, at least one sounds faintly familiar, as "Seuri" has strong echoes of Roxy Music's "Avalon." But Bass denies that the playful 3 Mustahpas 3 gene was at work, insisting that although "I like some of the same simple chords as Bryan Ferry, and I like romantic pop music, the melody actually came from a melody by [Indonesian singer]Ida Widawati that I heard on a cassette."

Mustapha, who has also produced records for the Klezmatics, Zimbabwe's Stella Chiwese, and Madagascar's Tarika, hopes to tour So La Li with the Jugala All Stars in 2001, although as Colin Bass his fall will be occupied touring as the bassist for veteran prog-rockers Camel.

For those who still hope for more from wacky, influential world music pioneers 3 Mustaphas 3, whose motto was ‘forward in all directions' but who haven't released an album in a decade, don't hold your breath. While Uncle snorted, "Reunion? Mustapha is always united!" Mustapha would only say "there might be an official live bootleg sometime, which might inspire us." But inspiration doesn't come cheap - their current price is $55,000. "We'd need a rather large investment to be able to play the old material," Mustapha admitted. "We're too old to eat couscous from Uncle's fez any more."

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com