TO the music community, Paul Ponnudorai was a phenomenon. He inspired them with his amazing skill on guitar and his vocals and was blessed with perfect pitch and mastery of the musical language although his knowledge of music theory was rudimentary.

Beyond the stage, Paul was one of the most generous teachers. Many of the artistes who worked the circuits back in the day and are still on the scene today as live musicians, sessionists, producers and so on, admit that he had at one point or the other given them a new perspective of music and inspired them to challenge their own virtuosity. Here are their stories.

Albert Sirimal, singer/guitarist
"He's my No 1 in the world. He was an absolute mentor to me. I saw him for the first time in 1988 playing at Fortuna Hotel in KL. I was starting out and I thought I was pretty good, until I saw him. I freaked out. 'Can a guitar really be played like this?'

"Watching him play, I had to sit down and really watch, and try to figure out what he was actually doing. That first time humbled me to pieces. It was just him and the guitar and he was handling the big songs all by himself. From that day on, I changed my style of playing — not so much to copy his style but to learn how he approached the music. His style of playing was many lifetimes ahead of ours.

"What is upsetting is that he was as skilled a composer as he was a guitarist and singer but so much of his original material was never recorded. We'll never really truly know what he sounded like, just the memory. Everybody who had heard him knows he is good. But you don't really know how good he was. It wasn't until you played with him and really deciphered what he was doing that you understood how good he was."

Gerard Singh, singer/guitarist
"The first time I heard Paul play, I was in Form Six. It was at a pub in Klang called the Gold Canyon, during a Sunday jam session. I thought, who was this guy? I didn't realise how good he was until I became a working musician myself. I didn't realise the complexities, just how difficult it was to do what he did.

"I think he had the greatest influence on the solo guitar pub performers. He influenced them to really push the envelope and to always try to play better and stop making excuses. He made us see that you could actually approach music differently. Whatever he did though, it came naturally. But he also worked very hard to hone his craft. He actually did work at it, and a lot of people don't know that.

"Even when he was younger, he would practise his guitar instead of play football outside with the other kids. I told him once, 'As far as I'm concerned, you are my yardstick. I measure my progress against you, yet you still do far more than I can.' He actually replied, 'Really?'."

Michael Veerapen, jazz composer/pianist
"I first saw Paul on Bakat TV, actually. Then when he moved to KL, we hung out quite a lot together as we had music in common and we shared a similar faith as well. We would play together once in a while, and every time we did it was definitely very special. We played a few duets together — just him on his guitar, and me on my piano.

"I got to know him even better as we worked closely on Francissca Peter's album, and also on Sudirman's winning song at the 1989 Salem Asian Music Awards in London. I wrote the music for One Thousand Million Smiles, but the lyrics were all Paul's. If you look at the words, they are amazing — Paul was just as amazing a writer and poet as he was a guitarist.

"In fact, now that he's gone, I think the quality of my vocabulary is really going to drop — Paul was the only person I knew who would use the most bombastic word to say the simplest thing! But seriously, this man was a poet in more ways than one and had such a powerful command of the language. He could also speak Tamil very fluently, which was something he was very proud of.

"He learnt everything just by ear. He had an amazing pair of ears that picked up every single thing about a particular piece of music. He had some serious radar because not only could he play something after hearing it just once, it would be tone and pitch perfect. That kind of talent is rare.

"He was a generous musician, yes, but I think it was more than that. It is rare for a musician of that stature to be able to play with simply anyone. If he came across a musician of a lesser talent or a younger musician just starting out, Paul would tone down his own playing so he could make the other person sound good, so he could encourage the other person to play better instead of intimidating him.

"Very few others would do that but Paul would, simply because he wanted the other person to also feel good about the music. That's not just generous, and I don't know what you want to call it. We are really going to miss Paul. There is really no one else like him."

Colin Jansen, guitarist/ vocalist
"I first met Paul when he was performing at the Underground Pub in Damansara Heights. I was playing in some pub next door, and when I heard him and his amazing playing I had to go and introduce myself. We became good friends from then on, and we were in regular contact until he moved to Singapore.

"But during that time, Paul taught me so much about playing the guitar. He had such a generous spirit, and even if he didn't know how to articulate something, he would take his guitar and actually show you what he meant. When he left Asia Beat, Lewis Pragasam asked me to replace him and I remember thinking 'what the hell, how can I replace someone like Paul?'. But when I called him and told him I couldn't do it, Paul told me 'Yes you can, you just go and play. If you need help I will always help you, that part you don't need to ever worry about'.

"Eventually I left Asia Beat as well, and together with Paul we were in a band called On The Edge, which also included Harikrish Menon, who is known as Haze. Those were some really good times and we really got some good reviews. Playing with Paul was such an unbelievable experience for me; I was learning new things every day.

"His talent was famous everywhere, as was his technical precision. It came from hard work too, just because he was a genius didn't mean he didn't work hard. His guitar was always by his side — if he heard anything on the radio or someone humming a tune, he would immediately pick up his guitar and try and play it.

"He used to tune his own guitar by ear — all of us musicians would carry tuners with us, but not him. To get one string tuned correctly is already a big deal, but all six? That was how amazing his ears were. In fact, if he was in the midst of playing and he noticed that one string was out of tune, he was so skilful that he would adjust it mid-song. That kind of talent is just crazy.

"To me, Paul had the perfect package. His ears were his asset, he had the heart and soul to play music and he had the voice to deliver. I don't know anyone else with all three gifts. Another major asset of his was that he knew when to step back and let other musicians on stage shine. He knew when he should just be backing up, and when he should be the star. That came not just from passion and talent but humility too.

"What I will miss most of all is his heart, though. He had the ability to love like no one I had ever seen — it is unselfish, kind and genuine. He could have been really arrogant with all his talent but instead he was this amazingly kind, generous and loving man who was more interested in sharing his music than making money. I will always miss Paul, and I still find it hard to believe he's really gone."

Enrico Crivellaro, US-based blues musician and founder of Ethnobeat Records, the label that produced Paul's only album, Right On Time.
"Paul was a much-loved, exquisite man, and a prodigious musical talent. He was a very good friend to me and I am obviously very saddened by the loss. As you might imagine, Ethnobeat Records is a small label, pretty much a one-man, part-time operation, which I actually started out of love for Paul's guitar playing and singing. In fact, I wanted to make sure that his virtuosity would claim its well-deserved spot in music history.

"Not only did I know that Paul was a world-class musician who was therefore entitled to better worldwide exposure and recognition, I also genuinely believed that not making the effort to somehow try to channel his genius into the confined and unfitting space of a CD would have been a waste and a loss for future generations.

"Sadly, with his passing, this has become so true. Now, Right On Time stands as the only memento of his craft and in spite of the tragedy we can find consolation in knowing that Paul's art, voice and guitar will live on, thanks to that beautiful record.

"I was hoping, against my own interest, that Paul would go on to record many more albums for a major label, because that is where he deserved to be. But he was called too soon, and although I am devastated, today I can only be grateful that some time ago, I decided to take the gamble, fly to Singapore and talk to Paul about possibly making an album.

"Along the way, several friends became involved in the recording project, responding enthusiastically to the requests for help and support that Paul and I were seeking. All of these people should now be proud of their contribution to preserving Paul's legacy. Again, it is a small consolation, but at least we have those 15 songs, or should I say masterpieces, to listen to and remember Paul by."

Richard Lim, singer/guitarist
"Paul and I were not just friends but brothers, bonding over a common love for music and good whisky. We first met at Bakat TV actually — I was 16 and he was nine, but I knew even then that this guy was special. When he started performing at Angkasa Raya, I went to listen to him then and we've been friends for 33, 34 years now. We've been through all the trials and tribulations that good friends go through.

"Till today, I can't say we played together as such — you cannot play with a man that talented. We shared a stage and played as friends, both with the understanding that one person was better than the other, that one person was simply planets away. Paul was on the Moon, I was barely on earth. That's how talented he was. We used to do a lot of charity work together because it was something very important to Paul. It was an honour for me to join him on these projects. He really gave a lot of himself, both in terms of his music and his personality.

"To say that I will miss Paul is tough — I've missed him since he left for Singapore, since he got married. I think his friends, me included, were a bit selfish — we wanted him to ourselves… But Paul needed to do his own thing, so we had to let him go. I've missed him for at least 10 years now.

"I don't think we have lost Paul's music — there are records of that and his legacy is there. But now that he's physically no more, we will have to live without a man who taught us to do things differently. He was the standard all of us aspired towards, he was the benchmark… He's been an inspiration, and to me, what we will miss most is being inspired by Paul's sheer genius."

Vijay David, vocalist/percussionist
"There are so many things to say about Paul and his music — one page is never enough. I am, however, eternally thankful to be able to count him not only as my friend but my bandmate as well. I was about 19 when I first heard him play, so it was really quite an honour for me to have been in the same band with him.

"I never had quite as much fun as I did performing with him, because he had such a vibrant sense of humour and this sense of fun, too. I was actually on a break after playing with Albert Sirimal for a while, which was when Paul had approached us. How to say no? We got together and it was magic beyond any words I can find. The three of us fit really well together — two fussy guitarists and one fussy vocalist, yet somehow our chemistry made it all work.

"Paul was also a really learned musician, a musical encyclopaedia — we talked about our music for hours and it was great because we had pretty much the same ideas, although our styles were very different. Although Albert and I knew that Paul was miles ahead of us, we still really enjoyed those talks we had with him. Till today, I always remember those moments on stage when it occurred to me that I was sharing a stage with the great Albert Sirimal and the even greater Paul Ponnudorai. Paul will always be in my heart and my ears, because his music lives on in my head every day."

This story appeared in The Edge on July 16, 2012.