Leandra Lane: Girl on fire

We are having a visitor from New York. A cousin who has been living in the heart of Manhattan for the past 20 years and came to check out our lives in Singapore. Of course you do your best to find something special something truly Singaporean. Since I am more familiar with some parts of the music scene here than any other attractions, I of course dragged her to a gig at the Sing Jazz club in the Sultan Hotel, which in itself is a charmingly restored shop house complex and a true representation of typical Singapore.

So that for one was a good choice.  We got lucky in many ways with the feature at Sing jazz that evening.  The lead singer Leandra Lane is a daughter of an American father and a Eurasian/Dutch mother; a nice hotchpotch of cultures that is predominantly found in this region.

Her orientation was hits from almost any pop era, in a variety of genres, I vaguely remember Queen and Elvis, reggae, pop, soul and R&B, she did it all...with conviction and a strong sense of entertainment.

With eyes lashing out  (they are real) into the audience firing off jolts of fun, 

she quickly hit them in the heart. Many, as if re-animated, jumped to their feet to dance to the music of the swinging band.

 Sebastian Ho

G-Man

Jordan Wei

William Gathright

I can say many praising things about how Leandra managed to get almost all present to the dance floor. It grew and grew in size, by peoples’ initiative to move the furniture. Even G-Man, usually the animator, could sit back and relax most of this evening, 

because Leandra was in the driving seat.

A special note goes out to Sebastian, who regularly managed to sweep things up to a greater height by whipping up some cool guitar solos.

Willie, always a solid bass player came out fabulously well in some of my photos if I say so myself.

Jordan behind the piano, looked and sounded equally good, even though he was a bit tucked away in the darker corners of stage and sound.

The buzz at SingJazz that night that Leandra is the daughter of a Drifter, now that in itself is not unusual for any culture but in this case it is Drifter with a Capital DEE; the doo-wop band from the 50’s and beyond. 

Maybe to some that is a credential that is of value to fame for Leandra Lane, I don’t know if that holds true for the big bad world out there, but here in safe Singapore, Leandra can grab the lion by the ears and take entertainment at venues and events like Sing Jazz, on her own, until deep in the night… to a higher level!

 

 

Dasha Logan: Finesse behind the mic

When I looked up Dasha Logan on Google, the first thing I noticed was a bunch of very nice pictures of her. It made me doubt that I could contribute to this in any kind of interesting way. 

But after I watched the two TED talks by Brene Brown, about vulnerability and shame, I figured what the heck.

Then I also noticed that practically none of her shots had a facet that made her face, with nothing but beautiful features, look so charming; diastema. I don’t know whether it is personal, but I think that that small separation between the two front teeth adds great character to a face, especially a very pretty face.

I saw Dasha at the  Sing Jazz club last week.

 It was one of these nights I had to choose between two events. Either it was going to be Tim O’Dwyer at B28 or Dasha. I reasoned that I will have enough opportunities to see Tim in the future. Dasha however resides in KL so chances of seeing her on a regular basis are slim. So sad…

Dasha dashed over from KL by car with her fellow band members Gabriel and Steve. Gabriel is a bassist

and Steve is drummer,

 so the pianist needed to be locally sourced, and who better than Mario Serio. 

Mario has been accompanying a long list of singers on his Vox series, which is happening every Thursday at Sing Jazz and therefor he knows the piano as no other.

 

For Dasha, Gabriel and Steve it was the second performance of that week at the same venue. Considering that there was a reasonable crowd.

 

Overall it was a very nice performance, with a very good song choice. I was also impressed with Dasha voluminous voice, 

and the occasional growl that seems to try to awaken the beast within while the  audience was focusing on the beauty of the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jose Luis Montiel: Son of Mexico.

It is becoming my favorite place to go listen to some good Latin tunes. Senor Taco at Clark Quay; Singapore kind of reasonably priced, fun staff, good crowd and of course the great Ireson band with

Alina Ramirez Melendez

Martin Elias Reyes

Mario Alberto Lopez Lara

This time NOT with Carlos Sendros

The regular feature Leo Munoz

Something special would need to be offered for me to drag my butt to Clark Quay on a Sunday evening though. What drew me to it this particular Sunday night was Jose Luis Montiel

from Mexico who would be pleasing us with classic Son Cubano. Of course I had never heard of Luis till I received Alina’s invitation but I had heard of the genre Son. I guess everyone knows the beautiful melancholic tunes made popular by the Album Buena Vista Social club. 

Great music for Sunday evening blues. Louis though not from Cuba, to my uneducated ears, perfectly capturing the sentiments of the Cuban Son, melancholic, bluesy with a sense of humor that makes hard life more bearable.

 

On that Sunday night the audience seemed to be mainly the, to me, familiar Latin dance pack. I thought it put a bit of pressure on the band to move away form Son and play more Salsa style music. Only now I know, thanks to Wikipedia, that  several Latin dance music styles are derived from Son Cubano . 

So much for Melancholic and Bluesy. I guess those were the Buena Vista tunes that stuck most for me.

It was no longer the kind of relaxing evening I had intended to have but nevertheless very enjoyable.  Most people were, for the camera's ability, dancing in the dark, but it was still fun to play with the band members’ images and the "silhouettes"  in front of them

Not being much of a dancer myself I could only enjoy watching the dancers move, some more gracefully than others, with the music.   

And as an added advantage, I now had a reason to return the following Monday, because I was told, the band would stick more to the originally announced format... Son.