Global Jazz

Jazz musicians from different parts of the world - Taiwan, Cuba,
Britain, Australia & Singapore come together and create music in
Singapore in a club called Blujazz - is this Singapore jazz? Not
quite; more like global jazz since Singapore is only the venue
for the performance.
But something new is certanly brewing when these musicians get
together - the important ingredient is the igniting force or the
creative force if you will. In this instance - at a performance of Omniform that played at Blujazz recently - the
creative force is saxophonist Greg Lyons of Britain leading
a motley crew comprising: a trombonist originally from Taiwan who
developed his penchant for jazz while studying in New Jersey,
an amazingly accomplished & versatile Australian saxophonist who
heads the jazz division at LaSalle in Singapore (Tim O'Dwyer),
Chok Kerong, a marvellously fluent keyboardist based in Singapore,
a Cuban on the concert flute, an excellent alto saxist from
Singapore (Fabian Lim), an electric bassist from Australia &
a drummer perhaps Australian as well...
Greg Lyons' compositions had enough complexity without being
(mired in obscurity) to bring out the creative juices from each
player in the form of solid, inspiring, improvisational solos
from each of them in the course of each work...
The solos from Tim on the baritone sax were particularly intense
in their imaginative execution and Fabian Lim showed how sweetly
lyrical the alto could sound in the hands of a skilled player...
Three cheers to Greg for his tuneful contributions on
the soprano sax & the tenor & in the form of the
compositions that made Omniform a night to remember.
Where else in Singapore can you get such a creative sampling
of global jazz?

Singapore Jazz: The Cutting Edge?

There are promising signs of the emergence of a young cohort of
very accomplished jazz musicians with a distinctly contemporary
style that could transform itself into something unique in terms
of our cultural context within the next five years or so.
At this juncture there is amazingly close familiarity with
American jazz idioms among the old-timers; we see this in the
performances not only of key homegrown jazz musicians like
Billy Martinez (string bass), Jeremy Monteiro (piano), Louis Soliano
(drums), Boni de Souza (piano), Steven Rufus (tenorist) or Boon Chye
(tenorist)as well as many of the key members of the Thomson
Jazz Band like Fabian Lim (altoist) in addition to the man
behind the Thomson Jazz group - architect & self-made musician -
Eddy Chan (vibes); not forgetting talented fine female vocalists like
of Jacintha, Rani, Claressa, Anne, Corinne, Olivia as well as Singapore's rare Latin jazz flautist- Wendy Low, in addition to the big sound of male vocalist cum baritone saxist, Jerry Hutapea. However, with the exception of frontline instrumentalists like Rufus & a handful of his contemporaries who keep up with the changing times, it is largely among the younger talents like, Leo Mendoza (altoist), Budi Winarto (tenorist) or Dave D'aranjo (electric bassist); Dr. Malcolm Mah (electric bassist) that we are more likely to experience some semblance of 'avantgarde' (if not yet cutting edge)jazz - frequently characterized by idiosyncratic structures a la
free jazz or radical post-bopical patterns of improvisation.
Among the mature talents, Clinton Carnegie (electric guitarist/bassist) - a past Yamaha prize-winning guitarist, who demonstrates marvellously fluent fretwork in Ian's Groove (an original) in addition to close intimacy with the techniques of past masters like Joe Pass or Wes Montgomery as well as
experimenters like John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra);
yet, one would hope to see more cutting
edge work like that emerging from young Stateside contemporaries
like Kurt Rosenwinkel (of Next Step, Deep Song & Heartcore fame)
&, of course, Grammy Award winner, Marcus Miller.
Young Dave D'aranjo who's probably not yet out of his teens
reveals a magical rumble of low-frequency lyricism bordering on
poetry in his Who Loves Ya, Jaco (an orginal dedicated to the
king of electric bass: Jaco Pastorius). Both tracks can be found
on the Jazz in Singapore CD from kingsworld - which attempts,
but does not quite achieve, justice in providing an accurate picture
of what jazz in Singapore is all about...
Anyway, the skill & creativity these artistes display provide us with
the hope that Singapore will go international sooner rather than later;
these are talents that shouldn't be left to blush unseen (or rather
'unheard') away from international music audiences since they
possess the capacity to do Singapore proud in the context of
cutting edge creativity in the arts; we should treat them like jazz
ambassadors who can help nudge Singapore onto the global jazz map...
But one small cautionary note needs to be sounded: to date it is
difficult to discern close mergence between the modes of jazz & the
music of our Asian mother cultures. Ironically, the examples might
actually have to come by way of models on the outskirts of international jazz like Jobim, Trilok Gurtu, Rubalchaba, the Mahavishnu Orchestra et al... In attitudinal terms it might require the breaking down of
ethnic cultural barriers through cross-over music appreciation;
much has yet to be done in the way of extending exposure to world
music & the use of Asian instruments in jazz performances in
Singapore.
However, the merging of the cultures should not quite lead to
the situation where jazz is almost completely overwhelmed -
as appears to be the case with the new sound of Joe Zawinul &
his Syndicate in World Tour (Zebra Records, 1998)which
is basically a conversion to world music; the only fragile links
with jazz coming from Zawinul's acoustic piano & the bass
improvisations of Victor Bailey & Richard Bona...But the move
in the direction of world music is not unexpected since even jazz
can be seen as the ethnic music of North America & all ethnic
cultures are likely to come under threat from globalisation. But
the roots of jazz suggest that - according to some jazz journalists
- jazz itself was the prototype world music: a blend of african &
european musical traditions. Now jazz is America's classical music
(a la Lincoln Center).
However, looking at the Singapore situation what still holds true
is that more could be expected from arts organizations in terms of
a sustained & intelligent strategy which needs to maximize
attention to the developmental aspects of fusing Asian and Western
music by enhancing the merging of instrumentalists from polar
traditions through the provision of support facilities or
funding for these heritages to meet on the same stage. In
this respect witness the resounding success of vocalist
Susheela Raman who emerged from a strictly traditional
South Indian musical base & yet made it to first prize
as BBC World Music newcomer mingling South Indian
with Western modes & techniques...
The Esplanade, especially with its Mosaic music programme
is doing a marvellous job of providing us with access to
some of the best from the global music scene (Ustad Zakir
Hussain, Shirley Horn, Joshua Redman, Poncho Sanchez, Paquito
D'rivera, Leroy Jones, Kenny G, Chris Botti, Youssou N'Dour
etc...). Not forgetting the inimitable Scandinavian jazz of
Jan Gabarek who gave a full audience a taste of what a
distinctly non-American jazz sounds like...
NB George Benson will be at the Esplanade in December this year.
It is notable that while smooth jazz artistes like Botti &
Benson have been invited for performances at the Esplanade their
appeal seems to be more to the general music listening audiences
rather than jazz musicians since not many of the latter are
familiar with the music of the smooth jazz crowd; the Singapore
jazz musician seems to be somewhat conservative in musical taste:
the preference seems to be for swing & jazz standards rather
than fresh strands a la Boney James, Peter White, Kirk Whalum,
John Scofield or Kim Waters... (Perhaps, it might even be a
case of musical snobbery - there might be a case for a
more relaxed musical environment in jam sessions).
It must be admitted that Singapore has attracted
accomplished foreign talent to direct its jazz
programme eg Tim O'Dwyer who heads the department
at LASALLE. A saxophonist of impressive stature in
the realm of experimental jazz a la Evan Parker,
his influence needs to be felt far more widely than
it is at the moment since one of the stultifying
features of the Singapore jazz scene is the
ossifying tendency to equate jazz with only old-time
swing. O'Dwyer introduced experimental jazz - perhaps
for the first time in Singapore's music history - with an
electrifying John Coltrane celebration recital at the Esplanade
on 12th March 2007.
But I digress; to cast the net more widely - and I am
sure many music critics & ethnomusicologists will be
inclined to agree with me here - Singapore is in the right
context to produce world music award winners like
Susheela Raman (not that award winning is the sole
criterion of musical excellence - but it certainly
helps the cause). The wonder, to date, is why it
is taking so much time...
But there are encouraging signs apparent; hopefully, we
shall soon have our quota of world-beating musicians for
the global jazz community - a befitting tribute to Singapore's
status as a significant global city.
And talking about global city, not longer after Sadao Watanabe
presented a rhythmically Africanised concert on Nov. 28 '07 -
courtesy of his Senegalese percussionist N'diasse Niang -
along came David Sanborn with his screamingly funky American
jazz in a not-to-be-missed encounter at the same venue:
Esplanade Concert Hall! And they stood up more than once for
Sanborn & for Singapore - the growing global city...

Brazilliance

December 06: Luckily enough caught
the Marco Pereira
gig in Singapore.
Brazilians have
the knack of making
music with
passionate intensity.
While other performers
tend to merely play the
instrument with clinical
imprecision (all
too often) Brazilians
play it brimming with
fire; with Marco it was
like listening to a flamenco performance
except that Marco was playing South
American compositions (Brouwer,
Piazzola or Jobim). Funnily enough,
he was introduced as having been in a recent
accident in Malaysia where he had fractured a
few ribs - an event which might have made
for a 'no-show' in other cases. However, the way
he played - I wouldn't be surprised if he had
dislodged a couple of ribs in the course of the
Singapore performance... Three cheers for
the miracle though!

Picked up chill: brazil3 and was immediately taken by Celso
Fonseca's slow motion bossa nova (you're so good to me) - a
beautiful bossa focusing on a writer in love. The bossa mode
seems to be eminently suited to a slow lyric tempo although
there are the occasional frothy & successfully bubbly one's
like Jobim's So Danco Samba; but the bubbly ones are rare
in relation to the ones that express (not necessarily the darker
side) but the more thoughtful or meditative moods -
occasionally descending into bathos; Jobim's Corcovado or
certainly Meditacao appear to be generally more successful;
the loping rhythm of the bossa is wrung to the full in such
songs which, deceptively, often appear understated
or restrained. Scratch a little beneath the surface
however and you're bound to uncover a powerhouse
of passion eg Jobim's Amor Em Paz /Once I Loved -
especially as sung by Shirley Horn in the CD Bossa
Nova: Soothing Sounds of Brazil.)

Brook's Blues Bar

Date: 17th June, 2005. We were on Shepherd's Bush Road, Hammersmith, after a terrific Spanish meal at Los Molinos - which has better tapas than what we'd sampled in the restaurants we'd visited in downtown Barcelona - we crossed the road to Brook Green Hotel where we'd earlier noted that the Brook's Blues Bar had posted something about a blues event that night starting at 9.30pm or so. Friday night - the day before our departure for Singapore - why not savour what the British were doing with acoustic blues?
Down the dark stairway to a table at the entrance to a dimly-lit, semi-crowded basement bar where a large, gently-spoken lady politely ensured we paid our dues - six pounds sterling each,
if I remember right; the show was to begin at nine-thirty; the stage was set.
We sat sipping our drinks expectantly while our two boys (young men rather) were at their handphones trying to block out the surroundings since they weren't into this kind of music.
We noticed a group of very tall blacks, like American basketball
players, peering over the large lady by the doorway then deciding against coming in... they waved at the lady, muttering something inaudible and disappeared up the stairs again.
On stage, there was Gordon Smith, flamboyantly shirted - handling the guitar like the way he wore his shirt, I suppose, while someone bearded struck a few chords on a honky tonk piano (it must have been Tim Penn). I gulped my pint of Newcastle Bitter thirstily as the trio comprising singer/guitarist, pianist & drummer broke into a run resembling something from Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy or Howlin' Wolf... I couldn't tell which, but it sounded vintage Deep South. Man, where did these Englishmen learn to play Deep South - the rawness of country passion, the twang of dark discontent, the hidden rhythms of the heart... this was cardiac surgery of a very high level indeed. It could have been the Newcastle Bitter but my mind began to wander into channels of profundity like: Is this a subtle form of globalisation - this transplantation of intimate aural cultural iconography from the Deep South to Hammersmith? How come such a crossover from the Deep South to London can still appear authentic? Where did these guys get their coolness & intimacy with Southern music without being actually black? A big toast to British blues in the wake of all the turbulence that globalisation can often bring with it; it's a pity but what a show those black basketballers missed, I thought to myself. NB Latest Update: Brook's Blues Bar is no longer at Shepherds Bush Tony Brooks tells me and if you want that British Blues experience that I got a glimpse of in my blog, you need to go to The Telegraph on Putney Heath (SW15 3TU).The next time I go to Britain, I'll head for Putney Heath; thanks Tony...

The Oud Couple

The Recital Studio performances at the Esplanade constitute a less formal music series that will serve as an important eye-opener - or should I call it "ear-opener" - for the music lover. The series provides an opportunity for the appreciation of non-mainstream music since the capital outlay would appear to be less awesome (one can think in terms of an audience size of a hundred and fifty or so; and if there aren't enough seats some could sit on the floor, for instance). There have been exciting and successful performances like that of the Indojazz group from Indonesia who showed how jazz had evolved on the back of Balinese music in their country; however, the two Ouds of DuOuds, who performed on 21 & 22 Jan this year, gave a different insight into how contemporary influences affected traditional music; here it was just louder - because amplified -and crazier - because of all that electronic gadgetry. Altogether, the music blasted the audience with the kind of crude intensity reminiscent of some forms of acid rock in some urban club frequented by under nineteens and it didn't seem like new music - just old pop
stuff which airheads dance to.
One gets the impression that there's a fairly easy way of producing the new world music: get traditional instruments; link them to amplifiers with wahwah & a host of other sound effects; play traditional tunes - because even these sound different on amplified instrumentation...
Somehow, one feels that something is missing; it just sounds like old music distorted to the nth degree. The fact that the musicians employ electronic gadgetry should not be any indication that the music they play is new since otherwise we would need to consider The Shadows, Les Paul et al to be icons of the future... However, there's yet a bright side: it was a rather ear-opening experience providing some insight, by negative definition, into the shape of new world music.
(NB: The oud is a traditional stringed instrument from the Middle East and North Africa; it could very well have been a precursor of the lute).

Southeast Asian Jazz

In an article entitled Jazz in Singapore: From Swing to Post-Bop and Beyond (The Arts Oct/Nov 2003: 36-40 - published by The Centre for the Arts, NUS) I outlined the evolution of jazz in Singapore from its introduction to our country in the second decade of the twentieth century to the year 2003; my conclusion then was that
... jazz in Singapore has developed over the years
from a musical art demonstrated by expatriates
to one where the participation of Singaporeans
continues to become a more and more prominent
feature. But it is difficult to point to an indigeneous jazz
style as yet since much of the jazz played here has
developed on the back of swing,
blues, bebop, hard bop and other American
variants - many of which exist side by side
simultaneously... (p.40)
Although individuals like Julai Tan, Sid Gomez, Claude Oliveiro, Jeremy Monteiro, Boni de Souza, Jacintha Abisheganaden and others provided attractively distinct variants of a kind of global jazz one felt that it was not quite appropriate to search for a rootedness in any Southeast Asian cultural form; their jazz is the jazz of individuals exploring within the context of a largely American idiom - occasionally mixed with Latin flavours - possessing little, if any, linkage with Southeast Asian mother cultures. There are complex reasons for this and urbanization, modern technology, Western education, contemporary media developments etc... all undoubtedly played a role in the evolution of jazz culture in Singapore; the culture of jazz for our musicians was largely incubated in an environment where the musicians were nourished by no other kind of music - with the exception of the Western classical variety.

In addition, the plethora of expatriate musicians made it difficult for a distinctly Singapore variety to emerge since this factor made for the growth of the international species. Perhaps, the strongest pioneering attempts to break away from from this stranglehold was a form of world music rather than jazz that made a fleeting appearance on the Singapore music scene in the mid-eighties and early nineties, I believe - pioneered by classical guitarist Alex Abisheganaden and bassist Joe Peters...

Jazz in the Philippines undoubtedly had a headstart over jazz in other parts of Southeast Asia and the country has supplied innumerable musicians and teachers of music to other parts of our region; the country has also supplied even the US with musicians - playing what would largely be American jazz (if the phrase is not a misnomer); the musical history of the Philippines has been overlain with the influence of three centuries of Spanish rule so the absorption of Western musical forms might have been almost an inevitable development.

However, with Indonesia, the case seems to be quite different. A group called Indojazz performing in Singapore for the first time from 9-10 Dec. 2004 (Esplanade Recital Studio) has shown the vitality and viability of Indonesia's Balinese musical roots through the incorporation of gamelan instruments in a highly charged, percussive musical setup with jazz drumming and electronic keyboards. It was a marvel to witness the stirringly seamless fusion - in a kind of acid jazz context - of ancient rhythms and contemporary melodic improvisational phrasing... The Indonesians appear to have arrived on the threshold of a new form of jazz; three cheers! Although limited in nature their musical achievement would help pave the way for a seamless synthesis between contemporary and traditional modes of music in the evolution of jazz in Southeast Asia.

Moving towards World Music

Classic meets Cuba performed at the Univ. Cultural Centre recently. It was a combination of three German classical musicians & two Cuban percussionists. Without doubt all were fine instrumentalists; the Germans: pianist, bassist & jazz drummer showed outstanding skills as soloists and the Cubans on conga & timbales were equally skillful on their own. However, when they combined, the music they produced sounded so much like old-fashioned Latin music of the fifties and sixties that it was difficult restraining a smile when the compere called it contemporary music.
One problem when trying to blend European Classical music & Latin Rhythms is that there is often inadequate fusion of the two strands; the integration is incomplete - which leads to the listener not knowing how to respond since the two traditions appear to retain their own distinctive styles more appropriate to solo recitals in their separate modes. In other words there has to be a development of listening and playing skills alongside each other for years - very much like incubating culture - before an authentic blend can emerge; it is not just an inclusion of instrumentalists from two different traditions that would produce a satisfactory blend overnight.
Apropos of this, it would be instrumental to look at the way the Bossa Nova form came into the American jazz scene via collaboration between Stan Getz, the American sax legend & Brazilian singers like Astrud Gilberto or composers like Jobim; in this case there is fusion between a Brazilian mode & the American jazz style largely thru the dominance of one - the Bossa Nova mode - & a deep structure penetration of this thru the sax interpretation that infuses the whole mode with its particular improvisional slant. Stan Getz's Mind Games Album provides a convincing illustration of the success of this blending.
Another example that springs to mind is the collaboration between Paco De Lucia the Flamenco legend & the jazz guitarists Al Di Meola & John McLaughlin in their The Guitar Trio Album; here the blend between Flamenco & jazz is seamless, largely because of the dominance of the Flamenco mode with jazz supplying supporting interpretations... In this respect the use of the electric bass (normally associated with funk or acid jazz) & African instruments like the kora in the typical Flamenco groups of the younger generation Spanish guitar bands like Ketama (Canciones Hondas) provide shining guideposts for the future of world music...
Bearing this in mind it might seem foolhardy for ethnicists to think in terms of maintaining an uncontaminated musical culture; as long as globalisation is ongoing & other cultures receive a hearing over the cyber waves, attempts at narcissistic posturing would eventually go the way of the dodo...

Sometimes, even world music would appear to be taking a step
back if basic considerations regarding technque & skill are not
given adequate attention. This appears to be the case with portions
of the recital by Femi Kuti & the Positive Force given at the
Esplanade Concert Hall on 18th March 2007. While there was an
appreciable amount spontaneity displayed by the group - especially
the three butt-wagging dancers - listening to the very simple melodic
sequences that Femi struggled to evoke from the trumpet,
saxophone & assorted instruments made it seem that the Positive
Force was teetering on the brink of being a Negative Force.
One is pleased enough that Femi is endowed with damned strong &
distinctive vocals & a fairly firm sense of social values in his
lyrics (we don't ask for more)...

NB The Japanese jazz icon Sadao Wantanabe shows the way to
world music in his performance at the Espalanade in Singapore
on 26 Nov. '07. The seventy-four year old showed that he has
not yet stopped evolving when he demonstrated how he has
integrated Senegalese percussion into his latest performance.
His percussionist is none other than N'diasse Niang - the
celebrated percussion leader from the Senegalese national
orchestra who has since settled down in Japan with his Japanese
bride. In an amazingly vibrant concert Sadao showed how African
rhythms could provide unusually energetic yet harmonically
wholesome backing for a jazzy swinging style...