KALEIDOSCOPE / Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra Enthno-Jazz Ensemble / Review

KALEIDOSCOPE

JASSO Ethno-Jazz Ensemble

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Sunday (30 July 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 August 2023 with the title "Triumph of musical multiculturalism in jazz concert".

 

Following the success of its Asian Jazz Odyssey concert in December, the Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra (JASSO) and its select group, the JASSO Ethno-Jazz Ensemble, had to relive its efforts fusing Western jazz traditions with Asian elements. Kaleidoscope, led by jazz pianists Jeremy Monteiro and Chok Kerong, Music Director and Associate Music Director respectively, was another triumph of musical multi-culturalism.

 

Opening with Monteiro’s own hit Asiana, saxophone improvisation was customary but then it headed in a different direction. When Likie Low’s erhu and Indra Chen’s guzheng joined in, one knew this was going to be something different. The universally-renowned virtuoso in Monteiro had been striving to make his brand of jazz unique, and in Asian influences he found his inspirations.   

 

Little India, a joint composition by Mohamed Noor, Casey Subramaniam and Shawn Letts, was similarly inspired. With its strong rhythmic beats, undertaken by Noor, himself a percussionist, Riduan Zalani’s Indian drumming and Letts’ own tenor sax extemporisations (above), the music pulsated with energy and verve.

 

Monteiro’s younger colleagues also had their original music spotlighted. 2022 Young Artist Award recipient Rit Xu, not performing this evening, was represented by two works. Pulau Ujong (Malay for “island on the edge”) referred to Singapore’s main island, its never-ending buzz of activity distinguished by a vibrant and heavily syncopated ostinati established on electric bass. Its piquant flavour of polytonality was heightened by stunning drone footage of the Singapore skyline.

 

Just as dissonant and modern-sounding was Lion’s Roar, supposedly locally inspired, with Jacky Ng’s wistfully wailing suonas and more guzheng passages colouring the soundscape. The film screened was strangely that of rolling hills and valleys, definitely nowhere near Bukit Timah. An extended solo by drummer Tama Goh was almost showstopper until a crash of the tam tam was a signal for the music to carry on.  

 

Chok Kerong’s Asian Odyssey was the longest work on show, with spectacular views of China’s karst landscapes accompanying plaints from the Chinese instruments. Alternating between being thoughtful yet kinetically charged, the music represented a spiritual journey of sorts, with the notion of nirvana being within close reach.

 

The concert’s vocal segments were very well received, with highly versatile soprano Khor Ai Ming reliving the cabaret/getai vibe with Ru Guo Mei You Ni (If I Don’t Have You) and a crooning Rudy Djoe doing the honours for keroncong classic Gubahan Ku (My Poem), popularised by Broery Marantika and Teresa Teng.  

 

Closing the 90-minute concert was Monteiro’s Shakti Dance, a music-of-the-spheres kind of vision with a pan-Asian slant. Four drummers from Chinese percussion group Drum Feng and two dancers from the Bhaskar Arts Academy, all in traditional costumes, added to the diversity of this work. Monteiro later jested that this was an audition for the National Day Parade.

 

An encore was inevitable, and popular tune Dayong Sampan / Tian Mi Mi covered in Malay and Mandarin by both vocalists made for a perfectly Asian yet jazzy send-off.