A love for music brought Walter Pru (below) and U Saw Apollo (above) together and created an unbreakable bond that has lasted a lifetime. Pic: Aye Zaw Myo

THE word soulmate has become overused and clichéd.

Too often this word is used to describe shallow, fleeting relationships and friend-ships.

That is, unless you were venturing to describe the incredible bond between musicians U Saw Apollo and Walter Pru, who are 77 and 76 years old respectively.

From the first time they met in 1954, music has always fuelled their souls. It has been more than 50 years and the passion is still burning.

The night they met, U Saw Apollo approached U Walter, who was playing the guitar at a party, and asked him earnestly, “Would you mind playing a song with me?” And thus a friendship was born.

Their childhood years were remarkably similar. At a young age, 8 for U Saw Apollo and 14 for U Walter, both had decided that music would become their life. They dev-eloped this instinct with no guidance; they had no formal edu-cation in music at all.

It is almost unheard of today: gen-iuses who rely on sheer in-terest and listening talent to become great musicians.

U Saw Apollo, from the age of nine, began playing around with the piano, violin, guitar, banjo, saxophone, accordion and clarinet — an astonishing range of instruments to learn in a lifetime. However, U Saw Apollo vouches for the simple way: listen, transcribe and play.

“Sometimes the middle step is not needed, just a lot of devotion,” he said.
As for the listening, he needed only a good gramophone or record player to play the greatest hits of Louis Armstrong, Cole Porter and Benny Goodman.

As U Saw Apollo developed into a budding musician, WWII beckoned and from Yangon he was transported to the countryside of Bago where he entertained British troops in a rice mill. This was where his love of entertainment and human connection first inspired him to perform.

After that fateful night in 1954, U Saw Apollo and U Walter decided to play together professionally. However, years later, a citywide pro-clamation banning all nightclubs brought their collaboration to an abrupt halt.

Each wandered down different paths to survive: Walter to a life at sea, Apollo to playing at private parties.

One day, Walter recounted excitedly, when he returned from a stint at sea: “I was asleep on my bed and Apollo came to me and shook me awake yelling, ‘Let’s go and play!’, so I said ‘Where?’ and off we went to the Strand.”

And the rest is history. The two living legends have played almost everywhere in Yangon and have witnessed the silent march of seven decades.

When asked which was his favourite, Apollo replied, “I can’t remember anything specific. It feels like one continuous stretch of time.”

It seems Apollo has lived for the nights he will never remember with a friend he can never forget.