On a Sunday, a couple of weeks ago, my
friend Anne, one of "Singapore’s own" accomplished Jazz singers, had her birthday
party picnic at the botanic garden. It was carefully planned, to coincide with
the performance of PianoBotanica’s Night of Brazilian Jazz with Jeremy
Monteiro.
Jeremy was sourcing his last name
infused, Portuguese/Brazilian connection to give a very nice concert in the
park. On that early Sunday evening , that started out blazing hot and ended up
in pouring rain, we got a live taste of the beauty of Brazilian Jazz .
Of course on an occasion like that,
with limited acoustics and people more interested in socializing than listening
to music, it could be only a taste. It did help me decide though, to go to
SingJazz Club the following Tuesday. The band, in smaller a form:
Shawn Letts on Saxophone.
Tamagoh on Drums
would perform
there with the featured singer of the Pianobotanica night, Juliana Da Silva.
After the Rani Singam’s Show days
before, I knew that light at SingJazz is a bit of a rpoblem. With band members
basking in spot light, others positioned in dark corners and a singer, in a
twilight zone, right in front, sometimes catching light often times not, the
challenge was on.
Luckily I have the space to just try without the pressure to
deliver. Worst thing that could happen, is that someone would wonder what I was
doing there with a camera, why are there no photos.
Once I arrived at SingJazz and started taking photos, I was happy I brought the
camera, and even happier I attended. For those of you who were not there and
know some of these beautiful Brazilian songs in their English version, I'm
telling you, when sung in Portuguese and by a singer like Juliana da
Silva, they are just <expletive> gorgeous!
It maybe an indicator of how language
influences a culture or an art form like music but even without understanding a
word of the lyrics you can feel that the mood of the music and the stories are a
perfect match.
Mostly soft, relaxed and
lines often ending in that nasal singsong sound, the Portuguese music and
language makes any pretty woman come alive in ones imagination. Some of the
musicians turn to gel,
some forget what is left or right,
and Christy may have
thought at a moment in time that his bass was “The Girl” herself.
It is of course mainly thanks to
musicians like Jeremy that we get the chance to listen to singers like Juliana,
that totally own a music style, with heart soul and DNA.
I heard that the Sunday night at the
Botanic gardens was attended by Singapore’s President Tony Tan Keng Yam, the
ambassador of Brazil, of course and several other ambassadors.
Sports and
culture are important instruments of diplomacy, and it is therefore necessary
to have ambassadors like Jeremy Monteiro to create the international
connections of the kind of caliber of Juliana Da Silva to perform in Singapore.
A little investment from the side of the
government to sponsor and develop more such musician/ambassadors for Jazz music, would in my opinion, not be a waist.
No comments:
Post a Comment