In Memory of Jimmy Tee

It was only a few weeks ago, when I turned 55, that I wrote I knew how previous life is because I frequently go to the funeral parlour to pray for the dead.

Recently, I received another sad news. A childhood friend of mine from Tamparuli, though he was a few years my junior, passed away.

The late Jimmy Tee was close to me and my fellow bandboys in the 1970s because he liked singing. In the 1980s, when I had stopped being an active musician, he cut his first album; those days still in cassette form.

I'm not sure exactly in what year he recorded the album. The above picture is actually the cover sleeve of his cassette. To read the song titles better, click on the pic to enlarge it.

Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, his eldest brother Johnny used to sing with my band in parties or functions. We also went for recording in RTM, those days still known as Radio Sabah. People still listened to radio then as TV was just being introduced in Sabah.

The late Jimmy was also a younger brother of Datuk Dr Johnson Tee, secretary-general of PBRS party and a local expert on logistics especially maritime; thus his appointment as a Board Member of the Sabah Ports Authority. He is not a medical doctor but a Phd holder.

Jimmy was also a brother-in-law of Patrick Jilan, also a senior PBRS official and Deputy Chairman of the Sabah Parks Board of Trustees and owner of the Linangkit Cultural Village in Tuaran (http://www.linangkit.com).

Rest in peace, Jimmy. You will be missed, especially if I have a reunion with my former bandboys.