A lesson in humility from Jazz piano legend Ahmad Jamal

On August 20th 2010, I played the inaugural concert at the first edition of the Saveurs Jazz Festival in Segré, France. I arrived in Paris on the Tuesday before to chilly weather for a couple of days before Summer returned. It's lovely now.
My French Trio of drummer Benjamin Henocq and bassist Manu Marchés together with my guest the great saxophonist Sylvain Beuf played just before the other headliner, legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, who at 80 is still a commanding presence. Miles Davis once said that no one in jazz could deliver a melody better than Ahmad Jamal and Miles said that his method of accurately yet emotively stating the melody before the improvisation was greatly influenced by Jamal's playing. It was as a great a pleasure to sit and listen to Ahmad Jamal as it was to play the concert.

There was accuracy and precision in his playing along with passion and pronounced dynamics, from a subtle yet groovy whisper to thundering full sounding chords.

Mr. Jamal's concert, which went on after my band's concert, juxtaposed well with mine. Artistic Director and ace trumpeter Nicolas Folmer remarked that there was so much that was different and yet so much that was so similar in my playing and Ahmad Jamal's playing. He felt that my playing was a continuation of the legendary piano players and to place Jamal and me on the same bill made it a wonderful night of pianists and a wonderful way in the first concert in the first edition of the festival to set the tone and direction for future editions of this festival, which will be presented annually.

The moment that left me glowing was after I finished my soundcheck heading back to my dressing room. I saw Mr. Jamal sitting in the artist cafe. As I walked towards him to say hello, he got up from his seat, walked up to me, shook my hand and proceeded to tell me how much he enjoyed my work.

I thought he was just being courteous, then he actually told me where he heard my playing, knew who I had performed with and even named a YouTube video I am on and named some of the the musicians I was playing with on that video (with Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Richard Jackson, Shawn Kelley, Christy Smith and T'ang Quartet).

I was speechless for a moment before I thanked him for his kind words.He then gave me his email address while joking, "Deliver us Lord from Email...." and then proceeded to give me a big hug. In that moment, I learnt some valuable lessons on humility from Ahmad Jamal and also learnt how to powerfully encourage younger musicians.

Of course, I would not give empty praise to young musicians who are off the mark, but even for them I will be encouraging and tell them to not give up and keep at it. I will now make it a point to check out the other musicians on the same bill as I am on a show, especially young and upcoming ones who are already making a good effort to hone their craft.

Ahmad Jamal sounded so great at his own concert with my old acquaintance the drummer Herlin Riley and the rest of the band.

I am so lucky to live this particular life as a jazz musician especially when I think of how hard it can be. I am so grateful to get the sponsorship of EFG International and the support of the Composers & Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) to play at the festival and my other gigs here in France.

After the Saveurs & Jazz Festival, I proceeded to play at one of Paris' leading jazz clubs, the Duc Des Lombards on 24th August, again with my French Trio and this time featuring trumpeter Nicolas Folmer. It was a great gig and an honor to play at the Duc, one of the top jazz clubs in Europe.

I returned home to Singapore to play at INK Bar, my favorite residency in years, to play all of October and the first 12 days of November. In September, I did a TV show in Beijing which will be aired to a potential audience of 300 million on CCTV 4 and 6 as well as Singapore Mediacorp's Channel 8.

On October 8th & 9th, I played my first ever Solo Recital concerts at Esplanade on the 8th & 9th. It was a most exhilarating experience but that is another story.

In November, I will take my trio of drummer Tamagoh and bassist Brian Benson to play at the London Jazz Festival, again with the support of EFG Bank, the NAC and COMPASS. Enroute to London we will play at Germany's oldest Jazz Club in Frankfurt, the Jazz Keller.

Following London I will play in Paris for the second time this year; at the The Swan Bar on the 17th of November with drummer Hidéhiko Kan and bassist Manu Marchés and 18th November at Chez Papa with legendary French bass player Pierre Boussaguet.

At 50 this year and having been a professional musician for 34 years, I am so blessed that I make a living playing the music I love with the people I love for the people who love me. What more can I ask for?

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Photos by Varian Monteiro

Serendipity in Los Angeles

Serendipity in Los Angeles

I once arrived in Los Angeles in 1990 (20 years ago) with two big suitcases of CDs, looking for a US distributor. I went to the Holiday Inn Hollywood where I had a reservation. They said "sorry no record of your reservation".

As I walked on to the street in the noonday sun without a hotel, tired after the long flight, this big black guy who looked like a tall giant suddenly appeared in front of me and said, "you need a hotel?" I said, "its ok, I'm fine". He grabbed my bags, and before I could say anything else, he walked up the stairs of a nearby hotel with me following like a little boy behind him.

He asked the reception if they had rooms. They did. He said, "ok. you're all set." I reached for my wallet to give him some money for his trouble. He said, "no, it's ok, you looked like you were in trouble so I was just helping you out. Keep your money."

And then he shook my hands as I thanked him and he walked out of the hotel, the Hollywood Palm Hotel.

I checked in, fell into bed to sleep and woke up around dinner time, hungry. I got up, had a shower then went downstairs to the hotel coffee shop to eat.

I did a double-take as I looked at the menu. On the menu was Laksa, Mee Siam, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Nasi Lemak...all my favourite food items from Singapore & Malaysia.

Turns out the hotel was owned by a Singaporean lady who also owned the Duxton Hotel in Singapore at the time, hence the Singapore food items on the menu.

I ordered my Nasi Lemak and Teh Tarik and as I sat and enjoyed my meal at the Hollywood Palm Hotel in Los Angeles and thought about my first day in LA on that trip, how at first I thought I was having bad luck and in the end, I had such great luck and I think that angels (both from on high and here on earth) were looking after me.

The Hollywood Palm Hotel is no longer there, but my memory of my time there and of that great trip remains vividly in my mind.

Excessive Nationalism is bad

Nationalism is necessary, it keeps people together & things organised.

Excessive Nationalism is bad. It causes altercations over things like music & dance.

Imagine if National Geographic did a video of a jazz band in Japan & if America thought it was a tourism video by the Japanese government and then accused the Japanese of stealing their culture. Imagine if the Americans started doing things like burning the Japanese flag and small groups in America started calling for war with Japan.

Sounds impossible? But something similar did happen, right here in SE Asia.

All of us in ASEAN are brothers & sisters and we are in this together

We must celebrate and share our culture. We should be proud when we see elements of our culture being adopted by other countries. Like the way the Brazilian Capoeira has ignited across the world, or the way jazz is loved in every corner of the world.

We must use our music, dance and arts to build bridges across our cultures and not use elements of our culture as reasons to argue and fight.

Things have cooled down between the two countries in question, but we must create more understanding between our brothers and sisters in ASEAN so that this kind of misunderstanding will cease to happen.

thoughts on the Thai crisis

Usually when there is some sort of impasse like this anywhere in the world, I will have on opinion on what should be done.

But for this situation in Bangkok, there are so many facts which are not clear from both sides, so I cannot form an opinion or take a clear position, even in the privacy of my mind.

All I know is that I am saddened to see the lovely people of this beautiful country (where I have spent, when I add up all the time spent working here, three plus years of the past eight years) go through these troubled times. I wish them a peaceful resolution.

We in Singapore must watch and learn so that we continue to be, as my song says, "One People, One Nation, One Singapore."

As we expand our space for expression and take steps towards pushing the OB markers in Singapore, our freedom of expression must always be governed by one supreme principal, which is,

Above all else, the greater good of Singapore and its people as a whole, must transcend the interest of any one group or individual.

Don't practice Black Magic (without even realizing it)

Sometimes we as adults practice what I call black magic and cast a spell or a curse on a child without even realizing it.

For example, when we say to a child when they are singing..."hey stop that, your voice sounds like a frog croaking", we think that we are making a joke and the child and us may laugh it off, but some real damage may have been done. The child goes away thinking that his voice sounds like a frog. Some children then become fearful about singing even if they actually have an inherent talent for singing.

Or with a child who has a natural rhythmic ability and who likes to play rhythms on the dining table. Instead of saying. "stop being so annoying...if I catch you making noise on the dining table again, I'm going to spank you!" We could just as easily say to the child, "wow...you really know how to play nice music with your hands, but maybe we can do that together later when everyone has left the dinner table ok?" Or, some kind and gentle words to that effect.

Or sometimes some people say to their child, "if you don't stop misbehaving, I will call the Indian man (or the Chinese man or whatever man) to come and catch you!"

Again we cast the spell of racism on this child who will then grow up with an unexplained bias against a particular race.

To me, when we say these kind of things to children, we are in fact practicing black magic and casting a spell or a curse on them.

When I was a kid, some of my relatives said things like this to me....told me that I sound like a frog when I sang. Right until my early 30s, I believed that and I would be so shy about singing, even though I loved doing it. I loved hearing my sister Claressa sing and wished that I could do it too.

Then in my mid 30s, nervous as hell and still thinking that my voice sounded like a frog, I didn't care...I started singing on my gigs. People started asking me to sing more and told me that they liked the way I delivered a song. All through the years after that, I would continue singing and continued disbelieving or half-believing the nice compliments people gave me.

Then after awhile, my singing become more and more accepted to a point where I started to feel more confident and started enjoying singing more and more.

But still, there was this small voice in my head which said "frog!"

Then one day in 2003 I sang at a concert at the Esplanade on a show which included Greg Fishman, Paulinho Garcia, Eldee Young and Grammy nominated singer/pianist Judy Roberts from Chicago.

Judy went back to the U.S. and wrote a story about the concert in the Chicago Jazz magazine. She said, "Jeremy has an appealing and and expressive voice....you don't expect such a technically dazzling pianist to have such an intimate and wistful vocal sound."

Greg Fishman was quoted in the article as saying, "Jeremy is a consistently excellent vocalist."

And just like that, once and for all, because of what Judy and Greg said, the curse was broken.

Sure I don't think that I am some amazing singer or that my singing is anywhere as decent as my piano playing. But I now do not believe that I sound like a frog when I sing and I feel so nice and free when I do it.

So be careful when you make what you think are innocent jokes to children. Children are innocent and very impressionable and they believe what their parents, aunties and uncles and other caregivers say.

Say things to children which bless them and not things which will curse them. And always remind yourself not to perform "black magic" on anyone, especially children.

Jazz Clubs and Jazz Fans

Jazz fans always clamor for a jazz clubs to be set up in their home towns.

Then when the club is set up, the very people who grumble about not having a jazz club are the very ones who don't go.

In Singapore, rents are so expensive so if one of the 20,000 odd jazz fans in Singapore don't make it a point to go to a jazz club 2 or 3 times a month and have a couple of drinks, the club owners suffer and cannot afford to keep it going.

In recent weeks, I have heard from friends in Singapore that the attendances at Jazz@Southbridge and Harry's Boat Quay have gone down significantly.

The Regent Hotel Bar where I play regularly with Tamagoh and Brian Benson when I am not touring, has also not seen good attendances this year.

I know time are hard, but if you are a jazz fan and wish to see the Jazz Clubs in Singapore stay around, remind yourself in a note-to-self to go support your local jazz clubs 2 or 3 times a month if you can manage it.

Sometimes, we forget they are there so put a note somewhere or reminder on your phone calendar so that you don't forget that these jazz clubs or there, or one day, they won't be, which will be sad I think.

I sometime get strangers come up to me who say..."Hey...I am one of your biggest fans!" I smile and say, "really? Great! How many CDs of mine do you own or have listened to?" They the say..."errr....umm, sorry I don't have any of your CDs and I haven't heard your music...I just read about you in the newspapers". Or WORSE still, they grin innocently and say "Oh...I have downloaded 3 of your albums for free from the internet!".

Sigh...I just smile and repeat Jesus' words to myself...."forgive them for they know not what they do".

Of course, there ARE the loyal jazz fans who do support the clubs, concerts and my work and to those people, I thank you for your loyal support.

Who would you trust?

Would you trust, the Atheist who loves his family, his country, donates to charity, is always honest, does not cheat on his wife, is hardworking and never has a bad thing to say about anybody?

Or, would you trust the person who always goes to his house of worship, prays all the time, always professes his love and faith in God but cheats on his wife, is proud and boastful, lies to his friends and has no integrity in his work and in his financial dealings?

We all make mistakes and we all sin. (Sin is the Greek word pertaining to archery which means "to miss the mark", ie. to miss the bulls eye.)

My point is that Piety does not equate goodness and trustworthiness.

We should trust people who do the work of God even if they don't believe in Him/Her and not the person who professes great faith in God but does not walk the talk.