For the youngsters it must have been a rare treat of purist sounds, so unlike the mind-numbing commercial fix they are used to. But for those much older and who have seen the music scene here of decades past, it was a treasured trip back in time.

There was once a period when Penang throbbed with great live music talents – a tradition that took a drastic nose-dive during the discotheque craze of the 70s and 80s.

In particular, the island’s environment had many decades ago given birth to icons like Jimmy Boyle, Ahmad Nawab, P. Ramlee, Larry Rodrigues, Joe Rozells and the indefatigable Rajamoney brothers, just to name a few.

If it is true that music is a sign of the times, than this lost period when we flaunted some of our best musicians is one that needs to be remembered for harbouring a glorious era in the social history of our nation. And that the generations of today are unable to emulate the height of musical genius of that time is perhaps a sad reflection of the social milieu we are afflicted with in the present.

So it was no coincidence that the founder of the jazz festival, Paul Augustin, a Penangite himself, hopped over immediately as the festival ended to help put up a marvellous exhibition on "Penang’s Popular Music of the 1940s and 1950s" now on display at the state museum.

Walking through the exhibition serves as an inspirational experience as much it is an eye-opener for many. It is little-known today that the two decades of the 40s and 50s had set a benchmark in sweet and enchanting popular music appreciated on a mass level in this country.

It was a time where a grand celebration of music emerged out of a unique social melting pot made up from so many co-existing communities.

Those were the heady days when Penangites flocked to colourful spots like the New World Park and the Wembley, swinging to the cadence of the ronggeng and the joget, while enjoying music played in theatres, clubs and cabarets.

Then there was the influence of charismatic tunes from the likes of the "keroncong" and the "dondang sayang", with the rich entertainment of the "wayang Peranakan" and the "Bangsawan".

And this evolution of music from coalescing cultural forces occurred amid a backdrop of historic political events, particularly World War II and the Japanese Occupation, which were followed by the return of the British colonialists.

Even when in 1943 the Japanese authority imposed a ban on a thousand American and British musical compositions including love songs and jazz, the repressed passion for such music only exploded when they surrendered later.

It was a time when radio rose in popularity, enabling the sounds of music to seep into tens of thousands of homes, nurturing so many of the emerging talents of that time. Indeed, ownership of radios escalated from just 30,000 in 1949 to 110,800 two years later. Rediffusion, which had come to Kuala Lumpur in 1949, also hit Penang in 1953.

Today, few of our emerging generations have even heard of Zainal Alam, Ooi Eow Jin, Ahmad Daud, Ahmad Merican, David Ng and Albert Yeoh. Few will cherish the legacy left by these personalities and their immense role in shaping a truly Malaysian musical identity. Between them, they contributed to a diversity and fusion of styles that made the music of the era as enchanting as it was exciting.

One can only wonder whether our country can hope to see such a congenial social milieu and vibrant creative air again; and whether our next generations may be able to even taste the sort of flair and purist passion their forefathers had once enjoyed in the past.

** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the Dec 23, 2010 issue of theSun. Himanshu is theSun’s Penang bureau chief