3 Mustaphas 3

"It is interesting to see it in the light of all the world-music cash-crops, clone-rangers and musical GM products currently coming from the record company laboratories. We smuggled seeds, preserved crooked plants and made our own manure."

3 Mustaphas 3 helped expand the minds of a generation with their twisted take on world music. From the small, hidden Balkan town of Szegerely, where they learned to play from the jukebox at the Crazy Loquat nightclub, they went 'forward in all directions' - at least to England, reputedly smuggled out in refrigerators. And then their career took off, and although they haven't played together since 1991, the legend lives on, never more so than with the new Play Musty for Me, a collection of live recordings made in concert or radio studios that captures the rare, often hilarious, magic they possessed. We were lucky enough to obtain an interview with Hijaz Mustapha, and thank him greatly for his participation.

Hijaz reads and understands the questions. He puts on his thinking hat (a truncated, conical, brimless item in red manganese and rattan) and turns on its moxibustion unit. He strides to the typewriter and snaps out a few punchy remarks in 8-fingered harmony. The keys whirr like beetles banging against a luminous pumpkin. Words and phrases are produced, the letter-droplets forming answers like icicles on a cold goat's tail. Or gold coat's tail. The whole is coherent, eerie, exfoliated.

"And it's interesting to see it in the light of all the world-music cash-crops, clone-rangers and musical GM products currently coming from the record company laboratories. We smuggled seeds, preserved crooked plants and made our own manure."

Question: You and your brother, Sabah Habas, spent quite some time going through old material to find the tracks on Play Musty for Me. What made you decide to put together this record? And isn't this a case of backwards in all directions? - which is perfectly valid, I suppose.

A: Fun enough, this 'forwards - backwards' corundum was mentioned in an Italian review of Play Musty For Me. If your range is 'all directions' then forwards and backwards are all one direction from the same point. Something to do with entropic/extropic tendencies, I think. So why not call it 'forward' as this is most positive. And anyway, in the old days we could not go backwards as Uncle Patrel was right behind us with a massive pitchfork.

It is good to find the old materials. Play Musty… was just an album waiting to happen. They are only old because of the date. I like it's out there! There is more too, this was amazing to discover archives of it. And there is more that we can't find it. We put it out now as the fan was crying. And it's interesting to see it in the light of all the world-music cash-crops, clone-rangers and musical GM products currently coming from the record company laboratories. We smuggled seeds, reserved crooked plants and made our own manure.

Q: The recordings show just how much music the Mustaphas took in. The jukebox at the Crazy Loquat Club must have given you a good education. To try and crush a myth: The legend is that you were smuggled out of Szegerely in fridges. But I've also read that you said that never happened, that you left to travel and play music for the world. Which is true?

A: Thank you. The Crazy Loquat jukebox was more than a jukebox - it was literally a springboard and trampoline. We had dancers, all people and some bears. When the coffee and bass were pumping no surface was left unstepped. Sweat painted! It was thrilling to see burly troqueros fly past the bandstand in formation. Thus we learned to play all rhythms and to swerve and duck in tempo as one mustapha. You must have these skills.

Now they tell us that forcing bears to dance is cruel and humiliating. I must agree. But as Uncle Patrel would advise: there is always room for inter-species dialogue. We must now find the intelligent way.

The fridge story: it's a true myth, I suppose, but later we tried to deny it as we didn't want to encourage younger fans to imitate our start-up (it is dangerous for unitiated to go inside. When you are disposing of 'fridge' you must always smash the hinges other wise, they will be trapped). And there was a problem with the chemical CFC. Bad leaking. And then, the 'Bratislava Airport incident' - when Niaveti was caught smuggling 9 fridges. He would have got away with it easily, but they frisked him with a metal detector. And also the National Refrigeration Conference Dance in the early 1980, which was a turning point for us. *

Following, Uncle had a deal with 'ColdBold' (?translation) Frigo Company that went wrong and all of his assets were frozen.

Anyway, we came out with his help and made the music. So that's the fridges.

Q: Also, why did Billy Joe Mustapha jump off the Szegerely Bridge? And can Uncle play that saz just like ringing a bell as Chuck Berry once wrote?

A: Never solved the crime. Yes, crime! They say it was remorse, but I suspect it was a revenge contract hit by the Harper Valley P.T.A. As for Uncle, he can also ring a bell just like playing a saz. He is Szegerely's 'Mr Uncle Versatility' - this is how we learned so many, so versatile, and can relax the idioms. Smoothly, or as you will.

Q: It seems strange to me that the Mustaphas released so few albums, considering how much music you played. Did you prefer playing live to recording?

A: when you consider our active western career, 10 years here at most, we might have had time for some more albums - one or two - but we weren't under-recorded. And also we made part-albums with other musicians (example: Jali Roll, Tarika Sammy, Stella Chiweshe…). And singles, too. We were busy touring and playing, so the recording schedule seemed to fit. We know many songs.

For the other question, live and recording are different experiences (both for musician & listener) I think. Sometimes both go together, example this Play Musty For Me, where it's live (or very spontaneous, in radio or studio) and you have the wild of the one with the preservation of the other. Studio or live, is always a pleasure to play with family Mustapha.

Q: Tell me, Hijaz, why did the Mustaphas stop touring and recording? I know the chances of the band coming together again to play are slim - I believe it would take 60,000 of our Yankee dollars for that - but do you ever wish it could happen?

A: I see at more as transition/?transmutation. Mustaphas didn't stop recording and touring and thinking, but just not together. We can be just as dangerous when we spread out. More perhaps.

Of course, the playing together is something that I will always treasure. I would be intrigued to welcome the $60,000 as an incentive (this follows the rule of uncle: fee increases by US$5,000 per calendars year, playing or not). There is American song: 'I'm not for sale, but I could be for rent'. I don't know if this is our attitude altogether, because playing together again is not really about money, it's more an issue of memory, nostalgia. To come back as good as people think that they remember us, we'd have to be twice as better. And we are different people now, inevitable, so it's inevitable that we would be different together. And so would the fans. Not that it matters for the new ones. So who knows? Like your James Bond says 'Only Diamonds are For Never'. Yes, I treasure our playing together.

And we speak to each other regularly and friendly, anyway.

Q: I know that in more recent years Sabah Habas has become a <>dangdut star. But what of the others? I understand it's too costly to speak of Expen$ive, but the remainder of the family, what do they do now?

A: There is a family discount scheme for Expen$ive - have 8 ½ conversations for the price of 10. Like a mobile phone. Sabah Habas (the living model palindrome) is still 'the lynx of the larynx' as you know, with his kartini projects. I am proud of his. The others do many things, too many to announce publicly. But they do the good things - music, teaching for the next generation, causes of justice. [There is a 3m3 website out there with biog data and updates I think].

Q: I heard a rumour that Uncle, inspired by the success of Sabah Habas, planned on becoming a star himself, and underwent plastic surgery. Unfortunately it all went wrong, and he now performs as Kate Rusby. Is there any truth to this?

A: No, it is Kate Rusby who had the plastic surgery. She was running an 'Uncle Patrel-alike' tribute show for years before she caught the English folk bug, which she trained to walk along on the neck of her guitar waggling its little antennae. 6 legs. She is very good.

The nephews would never dare to usurp Uncle Patrel in the star seniority stakes. Was it not him he, who built the giant 'SZEGEROLLYWOOD' sign high above our hometown? And big as it was, was not ever as big as was his talent is?

Q:Finally, does the fez make the man, or the man make the fez?

Q: [for this one I called to Uncle Patrel's private number, as not feeling senior enough to answer. He says (I translate, 24 july 01):]

'the question is why would anyone make a fez if not for the head?

To debate the 'proud red felt' is to make an existential issue out of a fez-essential tissue. No. And to call it a 'man-thing' is old 20th-century gendered-language. Also no. All people can have personal hat rights. Women, men. To wear, not wear. As personal heart dictates. '

*following the previous message with Hijaz' answers, Hijaz has asked me to point out that it's important to smash the locks as well as the hinges of the fridges when disposing of them. This way they are more certain not to trap unsuspecting young- and hiding-out people.

This is a public safety warning on behalf of the Szegerely recyclists and thoughtful scrap-dealers committee.