Profile: Dominic Kaiseng Chow (周啟生)

When you see this guy play the piano, you stare in amazement. When you hear this guy's music, you clap your hands hard. This is Dominic Chow, another super talented composer/pianist/singer/arranger/conductor from the 80's who wrote and arranged more than 300 songs. This is what he looks like:


In his early days, he studied composition with HK's godfather of Canto-pop Joseph Koo (顧嘉煇), whilst receiving a well-rounded music education including classical, jazz, rock, and pop. Dominic emerged in the early 80's with a series of melodic, flowing Chinese style songs, which pushed him into fame almost instantly.

"Emotion's End" (感情的段落) sung by Samantha Lam (林志美), Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong, Year: 1982



"Why Must We Know Before?" (何必曾相識) sung by Ken Choi (蔡楓華), Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong, Year: 1983




"Helpless" (無奈) sung by Paula Tsui (徐小鳳), Music by Ogawa Ron, Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong, Year: 1982



Then in 1984, Dominic composed one of the best everlasting classics for Alan Tam, "Origins Of Love" (愛的根源). This song was illegally appropriated by his close friend 陳斐立, who bore all the credits for the work, including the "best melody" award presented in the same year.

爱的根源 - 谭咏伦

Afterwards he decided to step away from traditional Chinese style writing, coming up with more modern, jazzy, electronic, fusionistic sounds. Being a big fan of Chick Corea, some of this music carry underlying influences of him.

"Hot Babe from Asakusa" (淺草妖姬) sung by himself, Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Richard Lam, Year: 1989



"Eternity" (天長地久) sung by himself, Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Jolland Chan, Year: 1989



Here's an absolutely beautiful song sung by Sally Yeh, called "Passing Times" (流金歲月), with lyrics by Poon Wai Yuen (潘偉源):



Going into the 90's, Dominic fell in love with pretty Crystal Leung (梁晶瑩) who competed for Miss HK in 1990. Using love as inspiration he wrote the spectacular song "Crystal" which is semi-ballad-rock performed by the Taichi Band (太極樂隊). This song won the heart of Crystal, they got married soon after.

"Crystal" sung by Taichi Band, Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Christopher Loak, Year: 1992



Around the same time Dominic began a major collaboration with rising star Hacken Lee (李克勤), writing heaps of great songs for him. One of these is a touching love song, my favourite:

"Retrospecting" (回首) sung by Hacken Lee, Music & Arrangement by Dominic Chow, Lyrics by Christopher Loak, Year: 1993

回首 - 李克勤

Last year (January 2008) Dominic won the "Outstanding Musician of Hong Kong" award, here's part of his performance that night:



There are alot other songs that I really love apart from these, but due to limited space, can't mention them all.