[JessePex]

Thailand king's got that swing
Sunday, June 11, 2006; Posted: 11:20 p.m. EDT (03:20 GMT)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- For so many Thais, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is a father figure for the nation. But for a small group of jazz musicians, he is also the King of Swing.

Every Saturday, Thailand's beloved 78-year-old monarch breaks out his saxophone to jam with 10 other local musicians.

Bhumibol, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has also played with jazz legends like Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton and Benny Carter.

"He is simply the coolest king in the land," the late Hampton quipped in a 1987 article in "Sawasdee" magazine.

Bhumibol is well-known among Thais and some of the world's jazz legends as an accomplished musician and composer.

Many can hum and sing his most popular tunes, influenced by his favorite artists -- Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges of Duke Ellington's Orchestra. Bhumibol used to listen to their records and play along.

"The king's style is Dixieland or New Orleans style, like Sidney Bechet when he plays the soprano saxophone," said Manrat Srikaranonda, a pianist who has played with the king for more than half a century. Benny Carter was also a royal favorite, he said.

Les Brown and His Band of Renown in 1996 recorded several of the king's compositions, but under an agreement with the palace, they can be heard only in Thailand. Brown, who died in 2001, once described Bhumibol as "a superior musician."

"I'm sure if he didn't have the job he has now, he'd be successful as a bandleader," Brown said in the 1996 documentary "Gitarajan" about the king and his music.

The king began his musical education during his school years in Switzerland. He decided he wanted to play the trumpet after hearing a band at a mountain resort hotel. However, his mother thought the trumpet would be too strenuous for him, the king's daughter, Princess Sirindhorn, wrote in a 1996 book.

The king's mother "compromised by allowing his majesty to play the saxophone," Sirindhorn wrote. After purchasing a secondhand saxophone, Bhumibol played with other Thai students at his residence in Lausanne during school holidays.

His first composition was "Candlelight Blues," and his most popular are the catchy, lighthearted "Love at Sundown" and the more wistful "Falling Rain" -- all written in 1946, the year he became king.

He has written a total of 48 compositions -- some with fox-trot and waltz rhythms, others patriotic, and a few alma maters for Thai universities.

The king later described the writing of "Falling Rain."

"I became inspired while I was listening to music on the radio," he said in a 1981 speech. "I felt the music in my head sounded better, so I turned off the radio and scribbled it down on a piece of paper. I remember that it was in May. People liked that song. They said it was beautiful. I felt overjoyed," he said.

Bhumibol formed a band that would play with him at the palace, and in 1952 he set up a new public radio station on which the 14-member band would broadcast live performances every Friday.
Comfortable and relaxed

In 1956, Benny Goodman played with the king in Bangkok at the Ambara Throne Hall. During a state visit to the United States in 1960, the king played at Goodman's residence in New York City.

In 1964, the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna named the king an honorary member -- the first Asian composer to be granted the honor.

Of the palace's original Friday band, only Manrat, its pianist, continues to play with the king today, their jam sessions having moved from Bangkok to the summer palace in Hua Hin, 230 kilometers (140 miles) south of the capital.

"We love to play," Manrat, 78, told The Associated Press in an interview granted by the palace. "This is not a duty."

Most of the contemporary band members are amateurs; they include an architect, an engineer and an adviser to the king.

The only professional musician is Manrat's son, 33-year-old Pathorn Srikaranonda, who is also the group's youngest player. Pathorn describes the weekly jams as comfortable and relaxed.

The king and the musicians play swing tunes that hearken back to the Big Band era, including standards such as "Take the A Train" by Billy Strayhorn and Glenn Miller's "In the Mood."

"It's not like a concert performance. It's not like a dress rehearsal, that you would die if you did something wrong," Pathorn said. "His Majesty has a personal warmth and aura in him. ... When he plays the saxophone, he always finds a way to express it from his inner thoughts. It's unbelievable."