Jazz Some Random Thoughts - by Jeremy Monteiro

A lesson in humility from Jazz piano legend Ahmad Jamal

2010-10-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-11-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T22:18:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-09-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

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.

If you are buying a piano...

2008-09-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking of buying a new piano and trying to decide whether to buy a digital electric piano or an acoustic piano, let me offer this advice to help you decide.

If you are into the bells and whistles, synthesizer sounds, auto accompaniment and stuff like that, then get a digital piano.

But if you are into just playing the piano and enjoying the natural acoustic sounds from this lovely instrument, then just buy an acoustic piano.

Space wise, the footprint is about the same, both instruments take up about the same amount of footspace.

Also, an acoustic piano does not consume any electricity (except for the small amount you may use for a heater/dehumidifier) so that will save you money in the long run and not add anymore to your carbon footprint.

I am not against using synthesizers of computers for music making if that is what you want to do. What I am saying is that if you just want to play the piano, then the acoustic piano is best.

When there is a power blackout and none of your other toys work, you can sit in the dark and enjoy making music on your acoustic piano.

Playing the piano is my most favorite thing in the world to do....er wait...except eating...and sleeping, looking out at the ocean, looking at the stars in the sky and did I mention eating and sleeping? Ok rephrase, playing the piano is one of my most favorite things in the world to do.

It really happifies* me.

* yes, its a real word in the Oxford.

Economic Growth or Save The Planet?

2008-09-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

When government leaders in the world say to us that we have to continue to strive for economic growth and they also ask us to do whatever we can so save the planet and halt global warming, I feel like asking...which admonition do they really want us heed?

The only way to save the world is to slow down spending, teach people to recycle stuff, or repair stuff instead of always replacing broken appliances, educate people to not want so many material products so that we will use less natural resources which continue to heavily pollute with toxins and waster products which harm the Earth as well as all living things.

But when you do this (buy less), you will slow down the economy, which people also don't want...so as far I can see, unless leaders in the world are willing to entertain the notion of slowing down economic growth, their calls for all of us to save the planet are just LIP SERVICE!

Without the implementation of an earnest plan to do whatever we need to do to save our environment, our planet will continue to get more polluted and more depleted of natural resources and species until the earth become inhospitable for human life.

That is why we have to do our own part to buy less, use less, waste less, produce less waste products, reduce emissions etc.,

Check out this video to understand why we have to do something on an individual basis. We have to collectively get our leaders to really take the issue of environment very seriously.

www.storyofstuff.com

Read the manual!

2008-08-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Whenever we want to learn to operate a piece of electronic equipment or appliance, we usually read the manual so that we can get the item to work properly for us.

I think the hardest thing to "operate" is interpersonal relationships, whether its relationship between parent and child, co-workers or two people in a love relationship.

It seems amazing to me that many people in relationships try to do this blindly without adequate emotional literacy and we avoid reading the thousands of great books which actually are the manuals to properly work a relationship.

There are great books like "Getting The Love You Want" by Harville Hendrix and more recently "The New Couple" by my dear friends Seana McGee and Maurice Taylor.

Couples often wonder why they get entangled in a gordion knot of power struggle, with the accompanying problems of a lack of communication, blaming, inability to resolve conflict and many other problems until the machinery of their relationship breaks down. Then they try to fix it, again with no understanding of the mechanics of relationship.

I think that reading self help books are like reading the manual and are imperative in gaining literacy in human relationships. Couples should read these manuals long before the relationship hits any bad patches.

Until about 15 years ago, I used to think that these books were for the weak, but not any more.

Although there will always be difficulties and challenges in relationships, having emotional literacy means that we will be able to find a way to get out of trouble more quickly.

One tip, when reading these books, don't underline all the examples of bad behavior or characteristics in your partner.

Instead, underline the bad points which describe your own self. By doing this, each partner shines the light of awareness on oneself.

If both partners do this, recovery will happen and the chances of returning the relationship to equilibrium and continued positive growth will be much greater.

The line dividing good and evil

2008-08-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

The great Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who passed away this past August 3rd wrote in his book The Gulag Archipelago (1973),

"It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.

This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil."

I first heard these words paraphrased when attending a talk by author and teacher Wayne Dyer in the late 90s. I often contemplate on these words when I come across people who come across as being downright evil.

These people have the ability to arouse one's own propensity for evil, whether that manifests in thoughts of jealousy, envy, judgmental-ism etc., and the acts of gossip or sabotage which come from such negative thoughts.

Sometimes I meet people who come across as being good, but an evil sliver of their personality comes through...like when they (or even I for that matter) says something unkind to a service staff member. Later I regret such behavior, but thinking about such behavior reminds me that the propensity for evil still lurks.

When we look at public figures, whether they are politicians or celebrities from the world of art or sport, we often see how on they can be really nice at one moment and complete idiots on another occasion.

Solzhenitsyn writes that the line shifts. That's why when we look back at a different part of our lives, our past personalities and way we might have behaved makes us think that we are thinking about a whole different person.

So I do believe that a leopard CAN change their spots.

Bad people can become good and good people can turn bad.

We should look at people at how they are now and not pre-judge how they will behave towards us, especially if we have not seen them for a long time.

I sometimes share with friends an example of how I used to be quite arrogant in my 20s. I will share that in another posting. Nowadays, I like to think that I am no longer so arrogant, that my line within has shifted in a positive way.

It would be so easy if we could draw a line and say that the evil people are on one side and the good people are on the other side.

However as Solzhenitsyn says, this line exists within the human heart of each and everyone of us.

One way of looking at Freedom....

2008-08-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

When I travel the world to play my gigs, people in the West sometimes say to me, "Singapore is a successful and nice country but there is no freedom there."

What I say to them is, "I don't know what you consider freedom to be, but to me, freedom is the ability to walk on any street and almost every back alley in Singapore at any time of the day or night and not get bugged."

I prefer that kind of freedom to the freedom of being able to say anything you like, whether its fair comment or not, without consequences, and then feel unsafe to walk around many places in your home city....not to mention the strong smell of urea wafting onto the main street of some of the biggest capital cities.

Of course I think we can continue to grow and expand in various areas like freedom of expression, but not at the expense of the high level of personal safety for each person, which we have in Singapore.

Living Our Lives Backwards

2008-08-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

I love this quote by Margaret Young;

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what want so that they will be happier.

The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you really want."

I have in the past and sometimes still make this mistake of living my life backwards. However, I find that when I do as prescribed by Margaret Young, things do happen as I desire.

One area which I think many of us have this attitude is in the area of charity. We lament about how there is so much poverty in the world...and then sometimes say to ourselves, "when I win the lottery or when I am rich, I will give a big amount of money to charity".

I think that if one of our desires is to see poverty eradicated from the world, what we need to do is to give a little along the way and not wait for the "big one". I have seen people who were not rich before and then when they become very rich, they still don't help charities.

A few dollars here, a few dollars there and the culmination of all these small efforts by many people will result in the change we wish to see.

I have a page on my website with links to some of the most credible charity sites in the world where you can start the habit of giving a little on a regular basis right until we actually become rich. I think that lending a helping hand allows us to feel "rich" along the way to becoming rich.

Please click here to check out this page of charity links.

Blessings,
Jeremy

The more spiritual I become....

2008-08-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have found....more and more over the years,

As I become more more spiritual, I become less religious.

Three different kinds of piano tuners

2008-08-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

I often have to engage piano tuners to tune the piano in my home and studio and also for my gigs.

There are three kinds of piano tuners.

One, is able to fool most home piano owners, but not professional pianists like me. They service the domestic market and so they make decent money doing a mediocre job tuning many pianos and just do the minimum for the customer, if not less.

Two, there is the piano tuner who tunes the piano well...meaning that the piano is in tune. Technically speaking...even if you check with a tuning oscilloscope, they tune the piano "perfectly". I sometimes use these tuners.

Three, there is the piano tuner who not only gets the piano in tune but also get the piano to "sing" and make the harmonics and the fundamentals dance to create a 3-dimensional sound which allows the pianist, if he plays well, to stimulate not only the ears, but also his heart & soul and that of the listener.

These three types of piano tuner are metaphors for the three types of workers we are, or workers who work for us. Any type of worker, even musicians.

We need to ask ourselves, in our own chosen profession, are we like piano tuner no. 1, 2 or 3? I think that we need to approach our work like piano tuner no. 3.

We will probably make more money because people who love quality often don't mind paying more for it; but even if we make less money during the rough times, we will still be happy about doing our work because we love it and are passionate about it.

I really don't know

2008-08-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

Redd Holt, the great drummer and dear friend & colleague in our band Monteiro, Young & Holt once said to me..."If you don't know, and don't know that you don't know, then you really don't know."

Its nice to be in a place in my life where I am comfortable whether I know about something or not know. I prefer to know, but I am ok with not knowing.

For example, I believe that God exists, but I don't KNOW for sure (sensory perceptions don't prove to me that God exists, but my life experience so far and my intuition says that there is the existence of a Higher Power some people call God)...and I am ok with not knowing because I am going to be the way I am and behave the way I behave whether there actually is a God or not. That's a really nice place to be, because I can therefore live my life with little fear.

People in Singapore sometimes say in Singlish "Don't know, say Don't know lah!". I have a problem with people who don't know but refuse to admit that they don't know and try to give you some jive answer.

Here's a little video of Redd Holt, O'Donel Levy, the late Eldee Young and late John Stubblefield whom I played with on the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.