Jeffrydin still pines for Mas Mona

While the veteran singer keeps abreast of music trends, he tells Dennis Chua that he remains true to his 1960s pop roots

Datuk Jeffrydin then.

trousers alongside my favourite car, the Volkswagen. This was a timely update of a much earlier album cover, when I still had a lot more hair!”

OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE

Jeffrydin has 30 albums to his credit and his best-known hit songs include

and

American World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur’s famous saying that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away” rings loud and clear in Jeffrydin’s ears. He readily substitutes “soldiers” with “singers” and bucks the “fade away” trend by getting to know the current crop of artistes as much as possible.

“Artistes should always be friends, seniors befriend their juniors, just as juniors respect seniors. While I’ve got a lot to share with my juniors in music, I never stop learning new things from them,” he said, adding that besides he was also mesmerised by Malaysian rock and hip-hop music which are “100 per cent homegrown”.

“One thing we artistes should always have is passion for our craft. If we have it, we will go far in our careers by coming up with better songs over the years,” he advised.

MANINWHITE

Jeffrydin, whose real name is Raden Jeffrydin Raden Imbrosukaman, was born in 1947 in Singapore, of Javanese Raden (royal) descent.

Married to Rashidah Abdullah and a father of three, he began singing in 1962 as the lead vocalist of the Rhythm Boys and later The Siglap Five.

Jeffrydin was awarded a Datukship by the late Sultan

Azlan Shah of Perak in 2002.

Often dubbed Malaysia’s “man in white” for his trademark suit and trousers, he has vowed to stick to his favourite style of dressing as long as he sings.

This year, he sang in two celebrations of organised by Istana Budaya in March and August. Datuk Jeffrydin now.