HERB Patten and gumleaves go way back.

He remembers as a five-year-old being fascinated by a leaf that once put to his uncle’s lips produced magic sounds.

Almost 60 years on, the 63-year-old from Mill Park is known the world over for playing the gumleaf.

He has even been invited to perform in Hong Kong and at the Edinburgh Festival, in Scotland.

“I was just a kid when I picked it up from my great uncle,” Mr Patten said.

“It’s a hard instrument to play. You have to hit the notes and learn how to keep rhythm – and breathe.”

Mr Patten was born in Orbost into the Brabalung clan, in 1943, and quickly became recognised as a professional gumleaf player, giving his first public performance as a seven-year-old.

He was soon playing with a number of bands, covering all music genres.

At different times the gumleaf can sound like a clarinet or a saxophone.

“I prefer a lot of jazz. I like slow ballads, but I can do rock ‘n’ roll and rap beats as well – I’m an all rounder,” Mr Patten said.

His extensive repertoire led him to meet music legends like Johhny O’Keefe and Col Joye, while he also played alongside the trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie.

Mr Patten believes today he stands at the pinnacle of his gum-leaf playing powers.

However, in a touch of irony, the gumleaf is bringing the Brabalung elder success in another art form.

Mr Patten’s digitally altered image of a gumleaf band has earned him a place on the shortlist for the Deadly Art Award, and the Victorian Cultural Heritage Award, in the 2006 Indigenous Art Awards.

His work of art, The Last Of The Gumleaf Bands, is an altered family photograph that dates back to the 1940s.

“I’m very pleased with the nomination because, believe it or not, my wife won this award last year for an original charcoal drawing of the Grampians,” Mr Patten said.

He has been practising art for more than five years and is completing his Masters at RMIT on revealing stories of Aboriginal heritage through a multi-media exploration of gumleaf music.

Mr Patten won his Arts Diploma in 2004, and has held a number of exhibitions of his painting, sculptures and digital works.

But gumleaf playing will always be his first love.

“I’ve been doing it all my life,” he said.