JEREMY MONTEIRO AT 65: THE STATE OF MY ART / Review

 

JEREMY MONTEIRO AT 65: 

THE STATE OF MY ART 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Friday (14 March 2025)

This review published in The Straits Times on 17 March 2025 with the title "Jazz maestro Jeremy Monteiro's rousing gig for 65th birthday".

Since its inception in 1980, the Cultural Medallion has been awarded to only two pianists. The latest was avantgardeist Margaret Leng Tan (2015), but the first was Singapore’s “King of Swing” Jeremy Monteiro in 2002. Making his 65th birthday this year, a three-hour concert was the summation of 49 years of professional performance, 50 albums and over 700 original compositions behind him. 

Photo: Ken Cheong

With the typical candour and self-deprecating humour of a stand-up comic, he spoke about every work on the programme. The evening opened with a trio, just Monteiro on piano, Jay Anderson (bass) and Hong Chanutr Techatananan (drums). This was how jazz groups began, playing in smoke-filled lounges and clubs of yesteryear, where performances were improvised in the most free-wheeling way possible. 

In Dave Brubeck’s In Your Own Sweet Way, Monteiro’s mastery with dizzying runs on the right hand over left hand chords led the way, and thereafter almost every piece that came was an original work of his. Despite its title, Blues For Capt Hans was an upbeat fast number, contrasted with the true moody blues of Always In Love with its reflective melody transcribed on bass. 

Three became five, when they were joined by Frenchman Nicolas Folmer (trumpet/flugelhorn) and Sean Hong Wei (tenor sax) for Jazzybelle’s Shuffle, a casual saunter down Orchard Road which turned out to be more of a parade. Monteiro’s warm crooning voice was heard in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s My Romance, accompanied by Sean, closing the first half in contemplation. 

Photo: Ken Cheong

The stage got more crowded when the Jazz Association Singapore Orchestra (JASSO) came aboard with Elephant In The Room, a busily brassy number co-written with Briton Alan Barnes. Then came a sequence of what might be Monteiro’s “greatest hits”, possibly his most memorable and catchiest numbers. Carousel in a Child’s Mind, written for his son Varian, was an ear worm of a fast waltz, while Brothers highlighted the solo of Taiwanese flautist Jenni Tsai. 

More guest performers including former Singapore Symphony Orchestra co-leader Lynnette Seah (violin) and vocalist Sneha Menon, who starred in Seul a Paris (Alone In Paris), composed during Monteiro’s lowest ebb while walking through the Jardin du Luxembourg. To heighten its French sense of melancholy, further commentary was provided by him on an accordion. 

Photo: Ken Cheong

Far more cheerful was From Paris to Segre, co-written with Eugene Pao, a classic train piece with with chugging rhythms and far-reaching sense of optimism. Monteiro’s longtime mentor 83-year-old Louis Soliano was also given the spotlight in Artie Butler’s Here’s To Life, where his vocals rose above the drumming to touch hearts. 

Photo: Ken Cheong

The concert proper closed with the lively beats of Mount Olive, after which the orchestra broke out with Happy Birthday To You and a birthday cake wheeled in for good measure. 

There was time for two encores, George Gershwin’s Love Is Here To Stay (with Menon’s soul-infused vocals) and Monteiro’s most heard and best-selling hit, One People, One Nation, One Singapore in a rousing blues-gospel version. Monteiro 65 thus becomes the perfect prelude to SG 60.

JASSO PINNACLE CONCERT 2021: LE GRAND JAZZ / Review

JASSO PINNACLE CONCERT 2021:

LE GRAND JAZZ – A CELEBRATION OF

THE MUSIC OF MICHEL LEGRAND AND BEYOND

Capitol Theatre

Friday (5 November 2021)

 

There cannot be any person who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s who will not recognise a melody by French composer, arranger, pianist and conductor Michel Legrand (1932-2019). Winner of three Oscars and five Grammies, his music was celebrated in this enjoyable concert by the Jazz Association (Singapore) Orchestra (JASSO) led by founder and Music Director Jeremy Monteiro, as part of the Voilah! French Singapore Festival.

 

What does a Legrand melody sound like? The Summer Knows from the 1971 movie (Summer of ‘42) is an excellent example, a minor key tune tinged with a bittersweet melancholy that cuts to the bone and lingers on, once heard not easily forgotten. Jeremy Monteiro’s first experience of it was the recording by Ronnie Aldrich and his Two Pianos (Decca Phase 4), and possibly for many others as well. This evening’s take conducted by Monteiro was a more upbeat version, joined by French guest soloists, saxophonist Syvain Beuf and trumpeter Nicolas Folmer, who performed via live video conference from their homes.

 

Just as exuberant was Watch What Happens, with Monteiro taking on the vocals while leading from the piano. This arrangement by Michael Veerapen also allowed the saxophone to shine in solos as well. Further vocals were provided by American veteran Richard Jackson and local teenager Maya Raisha. Jackson was all soul in What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?, another archetypal Legrand melody for which his deep baritone, as smooth as satin, was best suited. This performance chanelled an unspeakable sadness which could only come from personal experience. Raisha joined him in How Do You Keep The Music Playing?, but hers was one of youthful ecstacy. Oil and water do not mix, and thankfully they did not come together until briefly at the end.

 

Legrand’s music was also an inspiration for several original works by the performers. Valse pour Michel (Waltz for Michel), a joint creation of Monteiro, Folmer and Beuf, had an insouciant Parisian lilt, which opened slow and languid but later picked up on speed. Beuf’s Espoir (Hope), was a song crafted in the midst of the pandemic, in form of a waltz with exciting sax extemporations. Folmer’s Le Chateau de Guillaumes, inspired by castle ruins in the south of France, sang the moody blues on his trumpet, while casting a knowing nostalgic look. Both Frenchmen solo’d in You Must Believe In Spring, another piece which began slow and built up a head of steam.

 

I Will Wait For You from La Parapluies de Cherbourg (1965) is another Legrand evergreen, however its immortal melody was almost lost in Associate Director Weixiang Tan’s dissonant arrangement that leaned to the avant-garde. The tune was simply the best part of this number, so why ignore it? It was left to Sean Hong Wei’s sax and a grandstanding close to save the day. Monteiro’s own Seul A Paris (Alone In Paris), in the style of the French chanson, was filled with the moody blues and soulfully rendered by Maya. Singapore’s “King of Swing” might well have been a dyed-in-the-wool Frenchman in a previous life.

 

The concert closed with Louis Guglielmi’s La vie en rose with Maya taking on the role of chanteuse Edith Piaf (who had popularised it). Styling it in her own very upbeat way, she was aided by a very busy Rit Xu on flute. There was time for an encore, which saw a return of Jackson in Joseph Kosma’s Autumn Leaves, another unforgettable melody which saw scat-singing and trombone solos aplenty. However trust Weixiang Tan to transforming it to almost beyond recognition, which to these ears seemed like modernism for its own sake. Call me old fashioned, but melodies are meant to be loved and cherished, protected like prized gems. Shun and ignore them to your peril! 

Anyhow, this concert by the 14-member JASSO was in many ways an artistic and musical triumph. Further performances from this extremely talented and enterprising outfit are to be welcomed with warm and open arms. 

Photographs by Norhendra Ruslan, courtesy of Jazz Association (Singapore)