Romeo Diaz
BornHong Kong
Occupation(s)Composer, record producer, music director
Years active1960s-1991

Romeo Diaz (born 1948 or 1949), known initially as Lo-dik (traditional Chinese: 羅迪; simplified Chinese: 罗迪) and later as Tai Lok-man (traditional Chinese: 戴樂民; simplified Chinese: 戴乐民), is a Filipino music composer, record producer and music director. He was one of the members of the popular band Danny Diaz & The Checkmates in Hong Kong in the 1960s along with his two brothers, Danny Diaz and Rudy Diaz.

Biography

Romeo Diaz was born in 1948 or 1949 in Hong Kong and is of Filipino descent.[1][2][3] His father was a professional musician, and he has eight siblings who were all musically savvy.[4][5] When Diaz was 17 or 18 years old, his father lost his job, causing Diaz and his brothers to start performing at nightclubs to financially support their family.[1] They attended La Salle College but after school officials found out about their occupation, they had to drop out.[1]

Diaz began his musical career in the 1960s as a member of the Hong Kong pop group Danny Diaz & The Checkmates with his two brothers, Danny Diaz and Rudy Diaz.[6] The trio won The Battle of the Sounds, a music competition hosted by Levi's where musical groups competed in a football stadium for a $10,000 prize and funding to do worldwide travel.[7] Diaz played the organ, piano, saxophone and flute.[7] Teddy Robin received second place in the competition that year.[1] The StarPhoenix's Ned Powers praised a 1974 performance the group had at The A-Four club in Saskatoon, writing, "A convincing piece amidst all of this is 'Joy', by Bach, a fine instrumental built mostly around Romeo's work on organ and flute."[7] The South China Morning Post reviewed a performance the trio did in 1977 at the Harbour Room. The newspaper praised Diaz for being "superb on alto" and for his "show-stopping rendition" of the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".[8] Noting that Diaz did the group's musical arrangements, the South China Morning Post lauded him for creating "an excellent arrangement along the lines of something that Ray Conniff might have done".[8]

Between early 1969 and April 1973, the band performed at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong.[7] The South China Morning Post's Mansha Daswani said, "until 1972, the trio were regarded as among Hong Kong's premier entertainers".[9] The trio moved from Hong Kong to Acapulco, Mexico, in 1973. In 1975, they moved from Acapulco to Canada. The trio in 1982 ended their band. Danny Diaz explained, "Individually, we each decided it was time. There's life beyond a band and life beyond brothers."[9] In the 1980s, Romeo Diaz relocated back to Hong Kong, where Daswani said he "gained considerable success in the Canto-pop industry".[6][9]

In the 1970 he started to compose for many singers in Hong Kong and Asia. In 1983 he became the resident musical director for EMI records in Hong Kong. James Wong changed Diaz's Chinese name from Lo-dik (traditional Chinese: 羅迪; simplified Chinese: 罗迪) to Tai Lok-man (traditional Chinese: 戴樂民; simplified Chinese: 戴乐民) in 1987 as Wong felt the previous name was unsuitable for a musician.[10] In 1984 he started music production company, Musicad, that won a lot of awards for advertising campaigns throughout its operation. He has worked in close partnership with a composer and talk-show host, James Wong, and he has also collaborated with film directors such as Louis Ng, Tsui Hark, Zhang Yimou and John Woo.

Diaz received the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Score three times. He composed music for the 1987 film A Chinese Ghost Story for which he received that award at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards. The second time he received it was at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for a collaboration with Joseph Koo for the 1990 film A Terra-Cotta Warrior. The third time he received the award was at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards for a collaboration with James Wong Jim for the 1991 film Once Upon a Time in China.[11]

Works

Accomplishments

Personal life

Romeo Diaz is married to Christine Samson who was in the 1960s band D'Topnotes.[6] He has two children, Adam and Krystal Diaz.[11] He lives in Hong Kong.[1]

Children

  • Adam Diaz (Chinese: 戴乾亨) is a composer, arranger, record producer, and guitarist of Hong Kong local bands. He was a guitarist in the Hong Kong band Dear Jane.[11]
  • Krystal Diaz (Chinese: 戴晶兒) is a singer-songwriter who was a vocal coach on the third season of TVB's singing competition The Voice.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Yick, Wing-yan 易詠欣 (2015-06-05). "黃霑拍檔 戴樂民：菲常音樂" [James Wong Jim's collaborator Romeo Diaz: Feichang Music]. Stand News (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2020-09-19. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  2. ↑ "Danny Diaz and the Checkmates photo caption". The Guardian Journal. 1969-01-22. Archived from the original on 2023-09-04. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  3. ↑ "香港故事-音樂‧人間" [Hong Kong Stories - Music‧World] (in Chinese). RTHK. 2015-06-06. Archived from the original on 2018-04-28. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  4. ↑ Moore, Jack (1971-07-25). "Danny Diaz: Ready to Try the Big Time". South China Morning Post. p. 13. ProQuest 1549275226.
  5. ↑ McHugh, Fionnuala (2001-12-09). "The interview: In 1969 Danny Diaz and the Checkmates set off for London labelled Hong Kong's hottest - ever act. Forty days later they had split up. Diaz, however, refuses to harbour grudges and is back crooning in the hotel where the success story that never happened began, Fionnuala McHugh tunes in". Sunday Morning Post. p. 54. ProQuest 2420333705.
  6. 1 2 3 Muzikland (2018). Leung, Cheuk-lun 梁卓倫 (ed.). 香港流行音樂專輯101：第一部 1971–1987 [Hong Kong Pop Music Album 101: Part 1 1971–1987] (in Chinese). Hong Kong: Zhonghua Book Company. pp. 207, 323. ISBN 978-988-8513-71-0. Retrieved 2023-09-04 – via Google Books.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Powers, Ned (1974-12-05). "The Diaz Dynasty". The StarPhoenix. Archived from the original on 2023-09-04. Retrieved 2023-09-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 CM (1977-12-11). "More plus than minus: Caught in the act". South China Morning Post. p. 18. ProQuest 1695949694.
  9. 1 2 3 Daswani, Mansha (1997-10-31). "A blast from the past: Mansha Daswani speaks to Danny Diaz, back in Hong Kong after an absence of 20 years". South China Morning Post. p. 70. ProQuest 1801955479. Archived from the original on 2023-09-04. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  10. ↑ Ng, Chun-hung 吳俊雄 (2021). 黃霑書房：流行音樂物語 [James Wong's Study Room: The Story of Pop Music] (in Chinese). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing. pp. 306–309. ISBN 978-9-620-44696-2. Retrieved 2023-09-04 – via Google Books.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Lee, Shun-kai 李信佳 (2016). 港式西洋風——六十年代香港樂隊潮流 [Hong Kong-style Western Style - the trend of Hong Kong bands in the 1960s] (in Chinese). Hong Kong: Zhonghua Book Company. p. 129. ISBN 978-9-888-36642-2. Retrieved 2023-09-04 – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ "Los Angeles Times: Archives: MOVIE REVIEW 'Chinese Ghost Story' Tilts Toward Camp". pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  13. ↑ Goodman, Walter (23 March 1988). "Review/Film; Sepulchral Seductress And a Taoist Warrior". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
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