Hassan Peter Brown talks about his new album

Hoochie coochie man: Hassan Peter Brown is shaking all over with with the blues on his fifth solo album, aptly and simply titled Blues. AZMAN GHANI/The Star

Not many people get to say they went to school and were friends with Pink Floyd’s drummer, Nick Mason. Likewise, few will be in a position to say that British folk legend Davy Graham tried to buy a copy of his own duet record with Shirley Collins Folk Roots, New Routes from them. And it’ll be near impossible to meet someone here who watched the late great guitarist Paul Kossoff live before he etched his name in the rock pantheon as the axe grinder for Free.

Then again, Hassan Peter Brown is not your ordinary, average guy. Far from it, in fact. He grew up in post-war Britain and lived through the kaleidoscopic 1960s, when London was swinging and the sun’s rays shone brightly across the Atlantic during the much-eulogised Summer of Love. He married his Malaysian musical partner Markiza Halim and then moved here to make music with her, but not before releasing a handful of albums in the 1970s and 1980s, namely Young & Foolish (1979), Wild Place In The Sun (1981) and The Searcher (1984), all folk-driven efforts with Brown’s trademark observations of life.