Hanging out with "boss", FRED and The SteveMcQueens

We had not been out all week and I started feeling a little bit cooped up hanging on the couch for a few evenings. It was a Thursday evening and luckily there were some things on my face book events calendar that we could attend. In all fairness there were several thing of interest and it was again difficult to choose.  FRED at Artistry or the SteveMcQueens’ CD release at Blu Jaz. But first we had to decide what to eat. We initially chose to have a bite at Blu Jaz, but as we arrived, the lovely waitress Cindy told us, that “boss” was at Piedra Negra. We hadn’t seen “boss” in a while and it is always good to hang out with her, so we changed our minds on food and headed for Mexican. It was good catching up with “boss” and it made me loose track of time a bit. Since I still had not made up my mind where to go for music I decided to do both. I told “boss” and my companion, who were still chatting and looked like they could go on for a while, that I would head off to Artistry and would be back later to finish my beer and see The SteveMcQueens.

As I walked in @ Artistry, Rachma was in the middle of the solo on her Melodica. 

The band FRED is:

Felix Phang on Double bass

Rachma Lim on Melodica

Eugene Ang on Keyboards

Daniel Wong on Trumpet, Flugelhorn

According to their face book site, they explore the texture and colors of European & local jazz through original compositions as well as the works of masters such as Rava, Fresu, Galliano and Lundgren. I understand that several of the local compositions are off Felix' hand.

I stuck around until the first set ended and listened to some nice relaxing music in a nice relaxing atmosphere. It is cool to see that music and setting can be captivating enough for people to just listen.

 

Then I headed back to Piedra to rejoin the two chatterboxes, who were still going at it, when I arrived. I caught the second set of The SteveMcQueens from the beginning with:

Aaron James Lee on drums

Eugenia Yip on Vocals

Fabian Lim on flute and saxophone

Jase Sng on bass

Joshua Wan on keys

When I see the bands name, my mind always wanders off to what is probably one of Steve McQueen's best movies. Papillion. A mad story about a man convicted to a life time prison term on the Devil’s Island 

off the coast of French Guyana. The movie shows the brightly blue-eyed actor,

 wearing the typical striped outfit given to prisoners in those days (The stripes may have been thinner) and in all shapes and forms of agony. 

He later successfully breaks out of prison and ends up in Paris free as a bird.

The SteveMcQueens band were all the NeoVintage soul band they promise to be. Good music and good entertainment. They did manage, for instance with a beautiful Wonderwall, to hold there audience captivate.

 

Yotam Silberstein Jazz trio: a quiet moment of music.

 

I started writing this blog in the hope of knowing more about what there is to offer on live music in Singapore. It is working to the extent that I get consistent Facebook invitations from the musicians and bands that I am linked to via Facebook’s database. It turns out though that it is not improving for musicians that I am not familiar with. Like last Saturday night for instance, it was through a posting by Aya Sekine, that I heard about this guitarist playing with his trio at Sultan Jazz club.  Something made me curious about them, I am not sure if it was just the novelty, or the “if they are from abroad, they must be good!??”.  It also was going to be Hendrix Nite at Blu Jaz though and in my mind, I had committed to that. So I found myself split between a band featuring the guitar works of a Blues and Rock legend and a guitarist who is an up and coming star in the New York Jazz scene. Split between Bali Lane on the south side of Kampong Glam and Jalan Sultan on the north. Between Blu Jaz and the Sultan Jazz club. But more importantly I was split between, what  could become a night of unadulterated fun until my head was in a purple haze and an evening of serious listening among champagne drinkers and cigar smokers (On the balcony only). I could not choose. I decided I could go see Bani only after listening the first set to Yotam and his trio.

There is something to be said about a real band. I mean a group of people, in this case three, who dedicate a significant amount of time playing together. It just shows. You can see it in the dynamics, if they look at each other for a signal it is more with an expectation of something that will happen in the next second, 

than with a question “what are you thinking of next?”.  Often times however they are able to follow each other blindly. All that comes through in the performance.

Another thing I particularly liked about this show, was that the drummer treated the skin of the drums, like it was skin, that highly sensitive organ of a living creature that, in my opinion, and I know there are others, you do treat gently for the best results.

 Thirdly, Yotam had the guts to ask the audience to listen to the music quietly. I think he said it mostly for himself, so he could stay concentrated on the music. It was that kind of music where you should be listening to and far too often, people do not get the picture and continue to have a loud conversation,  at the expense not only of the musicians concentration but also of the listening audience. 

A  special thank you goes out to Sultan’s staff this evening. They played into this request for a quiet zone, by keeping the door to the hallway closed to avoid any noise from outside.  The only thing that now needs a noise cover is the register’s printer ;-)

It was a pleasure to listen to Yotam and the band. I found myself regularly just listening, camera on the table, chin on my hands, tempted to close my eyes, just able to keep them open to capture a fun moment.

 

 I knew it was going to be short, cause I had to go see Bani, but didn’t know it would be this sweet… and I am again going tonight (Sun Sept 1 2013 7:45---Sultan Jazz club)

The Hendrix Bani Rahman Experience

 

I started writing this blog in the hope of knowing more about what there is to offer on live music in Singapore. It is working to the extent that I get consistent Facebook invitations from the musicians and bands that I am linked to via Facebook’s database. It turns out though that it is not improving for musicians that I am not familiar with. Like last Saturday night for instance, it was through a posting by Aya Sekine, 

that I heard about this guitarist playing with his trio at Sultan Jazz club.  Something made me curious about them, I am not sure if it was just the novelty, or the “if they are from abroad, they must be good!??”.  It also was going to be Hendrix Nite at Blu Jaz though and in my mind, I had committed to that. So I found myself split between a band featuring the guitar works of a Blues and Rock legend and a guitarist who is an up and coming star in the New York Jazz scene. Split between Bali Lane on the south side of Kampong Glam and Jalan Sultan on the north. Between Blu Jaz and the Sultan Jazz club. But more importantly I was split between, what  could become a night of unadulterated fun until my head was in a purple haze and an evening of serious listening among champagne drinkers and cigar smokers (On the balcony only). I could not choose. 
 I decided to do both and go for the first set listening to Yotam and after that go see Bani.

When I arrived at Blu Jaz I arrived right in the thick of it .“All along the watch tower” was on with Bani Rahman on bass and vocals backed up by:

Regi Leo Guitar

Wei Tan Keys

Aaron James Lee Drums

No one would deny that Hendrix is a legend, that has not seen an equal yet, so I was actually wondering who would be doing what. It appeared that they had Hendrix’s versatility covered between Bani, Regi and Wei.

Bani as mentioned covered voice,

Regi guitar for the rocky bluesy solos and 

Wei would take up the space in  Hendrix’ solo repertoire where things get a little bit more psychedelical. 

 

The only thing missing was the dress code, and choreography like playing the guitar from the back. From a visual perspective, Bani being a lefty was the only thing the band had in common.  

We all know Bani as an accomplished bassist with a wide interest in music. On Saturday he also did a great job living himself into the roll of Jimmy the vocalist. So much so that even in the announcements, his voice and drawl were quite similar to that of the guitar virtuoso. I was briefly reminded of Whoopy Goldberg in Ghost how her voice changed when a ghost occupied her body. Maybe I should have walked up to Bani and asked “Johnny, are you in there?”. 

 As for the other band members Regi did his thing on the guitar admirably. How do you compete with a man who wore the guitar like a necklace, and according to history even took it to the toilet. The natural looseness with which Hendrix played cannot easily be imitated.

 I’ve not ever seen Wei having so much fun behind the keyboards. I normally see him play Jazz and he takes that very seriously. 

Aaron James Lee, I like the ring of that three part name, went even a step beyond that. I have seen him slip in the occasional smile but Saturday night he was like a pony let loose, jumping off his seat pounding the skin like a true rocker. 

The audience picked up all that energy so easily. From where I was sitting, I could see they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. As mentioned many of them were musicians and a jam, with an impressive line up was unavoidable.

See Weng Choy

Loke (I think)

Abdul Shukor Jalil

Aya Sekine

Corey Manders

Casey

 Richard Jackson

I had no regrets listening to the first set of Yotam, but would not have wanted to miss the rest of the Hendrix night for the world!