Talented musician who gave voice to Sunil Santha hits on air
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Ivor Dennis at Dell Studio
Though Mahesh introduced a few innovations in the music, he did not in any way interfere with the melodies. Ivor maintained the same freshness of ‘Olu Pipila’ exactly the way we heard and enjoyed it in the mid-1940s when Sunil Santha sang it for the first time. He sang the popular numbers through the years right up to Sunil Santha’s creations in the latter period including ‘Emba Ganga’ and‘Thel Gaala Hisa Peran Neno’. Mahesh introduced an appropriate folk song for one of the most intricate songs – ‘Kurulu Hevilla’, the plea to the Kataragamadeviyo about a stolen cock.
The ‘guru-gola’combine has a history going back to the early 1950s. When Sunil Santha heard someone singing his song ‘Varen Heenserea’ in the then popular ‘Amateur Hour’ presented by the well-known actor Laddie Ranasinghe, he started looking for the voice he first thought was his own when he heard the song. When Patrick Denipitiya, a student of his, told the master he knew the singer, he was requested to bring him along. That was how they met.
Staying at Seeduwa, it was not very far for Ivor to come to the teacher’s place at Dehiyagatha near Jaela. Before long Sunil Santha trained him to be a graded artiste over Radio Ceylon. The first song he sang on radio was one of Sunil Santha’s compositions, ‘Kuruluparadeesaye’.
Not long after, Sunil Santha had the confidence to send Ivor to India on his behalf to arrange the recordings for the music in Lester James Peries’ ‘Rekava’. He also got a break as a playback singer when he sang the’viridu’ in ‘Rekava’.
Ivor did his own compositions but preferred to do it the quiet way. He never went behind anyone asking for publicity. I can never remember him visiting a newspaper. Many may not even remember that he released just one CD with his own numbers. When I asked him once why he was fighting shy of releasing a few more, he just smiled. He preferred to be the music teacher that he was rather than chasing wealth.
Ivor also treasured his association with maestro Khemadasa. He enjoyed the challenging chorus singing he did for Khemadasa’s films, dramas and operas. A colleague, T.M. Jayaratne, who was also a music teacher, introduced Ivor to Khemadasa and instantly he found Ivor to be an asset.
From Ranjit Dharmakeerthi’s drama ‘Angaara ganga gala basi’ to Dharmasena Pathiraja’s film ‘Ahas Gavuwa’ (the much talked about song ‘Udumbara’) Ivor demonstrated the master’s brilliance. Singing a not so well-known song in ‘Hima Kathara’ (Khemadasa directed the music) Ivor became the best playback singer of his time.
We felt distressed when we heard of Ivor’s illness a few months back. As a token of gratitude, Lanka Santha organized a concert to raise funds. He had earlier taken the initiative in organizing a felicitation ceremony for Ivor. That was in 2012.Even though with reluctance Ivor made one of his rare appearances on stage at that show.
At the show, a student of Ivor’s at the Performing Arts University, Kolitha Bhanu Dissanayake – a renowned musician and academic, paid tribute to Ivor for the most interesting way he taught them. His subject was folk music and with a ‘rabana’ in his hand, Ivor had demonstrated how folk songs were sung while explaining the intricacies of folk music.
The speaker referred to a sad day when the then Vice Chancellor pulled up Ivor on a flimsy issue. Ivor stopped coming to the campus from the very next day. He was quite sure he was not at fault. “Just like his ‘guru’ he was a man of principles. If he felt he had not done anything wrong, he would not change his stand. With his departure we were the losers,” Kolitha Bhanu said.
Now we have lost him for good. But thanks to YouTube we will still see him and hear his voice.
D.C. Ranatunga