Malaysian Leong Lau arrived in Adelaide at the end if the 60's to study engineering and ended up cutting three great jazz/funk albums in the mid 1970's. After moving to Sydney to make music Leong played sax and flute with a number of bands before deciding to make a record himself. He set up his own Sunscape record label at the suggestion of Frank Zappa who told him it would allow for greater artistic freedom. His first album 'Dragon Man' recorded in 1976 featured some of the best session players in Sydney at the time including drummer Andy Evans, guitarist Paul Pallister and bass player Alastair Bell.
The band for 'Dragon Man' only played together once in the studio with just a couple of rehearsals beforehand. The finished product was released in small numbers and sold at gigs and a handful of stores in Sydney. Leong's records were also sold in Malaysia. Friend and sculptor Peter Brooks was influential on both Leong's music and artistic vision. His love of jazz, funk and the avant garde informed much of the material on his second album 'That Rongeng Sound'. Nights spent cruising the streets of Sydney were the inspiration.
Upgrading his performance to theatre, he joined the Elizabethan Theatre Trust at Strafford-Upon-Avon, where he trained at directing and began producing dance theatre to performances at Singapore’s Victoria Theatre and the Putra Theatre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He approached the Brisbane City Council (BCC)and received the endorsement of Councillor Hon. Helen Abrahams, for the Theatre by the Homeless, a musical structured like the world’s most famous opera, Aida by Verdi, performed with Aboriginal participation at the Musgrave Park festival organised by BCC in 2013
References
.http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/11/16/3634442.htm
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