JASSO PINNACLE CONCERT 2025 / Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra / Review

 

JASSO PINNACLE CONCERT 2005 

Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra 

Capitol Theatre 

Friday (21 February 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 February 2025 with the title "A showcase of Singapore jazz works".

In conjunction with this year’s SG60 celebrations, the Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra’s (JASSO) Pinnacle Concert was a showcase of original Singapore jazz compositions. This was a culmination of JASSO’s Build Your Legacy Through Jazz commissions where benefactors had new works composed and dedicated to persons of their choice. 

Fifteen works from seven composers, including seven by artistic director Jeremy Monteiro alone, were performed by the 18-strong jazz band of mostly brass instruments. Monteiro and his associate directors Weixiang Tan and Chok Kerong took their turns on the grand piano and conducting the orchestra. 

So what did this evening’s Singapore jazz sound like? Judging by the short single-movement works which Monteiro casually referred to as “songs” (only two had actual lyrics), the tendency was to err on the side of caution by adhering to popular and familiar idioms. One will not find edgy experimental or dissonant harmonies, nor was there reliance on local Southeast Asian or vernacular material as possible themes. 

This is not meant as criticism but an observation that when donors contribute big bucks, the results are expected to be cognitively coherent and aurally pleasing on first encounter. The scandal and fisticuffs that greeted Igor Stravinsky’s epoch-making The Rite of Spring of 1913, his conception of primal Russian music, were thus not to be found. 

Joe Lee on bass guitar.

The end result was, however, a highly enjoyable two-hour concert with memorable melodies, virtuosic solo and ensemble playing dialled to maximal voltage by all on stage. Joe Lee’s The Chauffeur, which opened the concert, had a steady rhythmic drive which relived jazz of the Roaring’ Twenties. 

Julian Chan on soprano sax.

Sean Hong Wei’s Sunshine For Olivia, Weixiang Tan’s Love in All The Small Places and Ernest Tan’s My Wish for You, all inspired by love for close relatives, extended solos came to the fore. The saxophones of Julian Chan and Stephen Rufus, and Leo Jeoh’s trombone, in heady extemporisations were stand-outs. 

Stephen Rufus on alto sax.

JASSO Scholar Lee Ann Gie’s Toby Boy, composed for former MP Abdullah Tarmugi’s grandson, was a playful and highly-syncopated take on Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt. Chok Kerong’s Stars of My Heart had a Brazilian beat, distinguished by breathy but excellent alto-leaning vocals of Vanessa Shavonne. 

Vanessa Shavonne was a revelation.

Sean’s Struttin’ Through Life with You, with its striding pace, was most representative of the big Broadway vibe. Weixiang’s A Gift from Sweden, about a teddy bear, exhibited the warmth and fuzziness of its endearing subject and a lovely trumpet solo. 

Singapore’s “King Of Swing” Monteiro, who celebrates his 65th birthday later this year, should be saluted for his range and versatility. None of his pieces sounded alike, whether Waltz For Dolores, My Tulip, The Happiness Within, The Forever Waltz, Follow Your North Star or Together Forever: An Ode to Love. 

A lifelong student of orchestration, his attempts to vary the moods with harmonic experiments were laudable and far from predictable. For the rousing closing number, A Song for Peace and Love, meaningful words were added, and belted out with conviction and fervour by vocalist Nick Zavior.