Jeremy Monteiro and the Chicago Connection

Most amazing night of jazz to date. Ironic that i went to a concert with Chicago musicians in Singapore, and i haven't really been to a jazz bar in Chicago yet! (the blues bar in orientation doesn't count)

think: 1 x jeremy monteiro, 6 x awesome chicago jazz musicians, 2 x singaporean players (drum and sorta muted guitar). In the awesome acoustical temple of music that is the esplanade. With funky mood lighting (purple and green? have you ever seen the esplanade concert hall in purple and green??) Largely improvised, cadenza after cadenza, scat after scat.... a song could break for 3 minutes for extended cadenzas then go back to the also embellished lyrical section. Imagine walking down a street, and stopping to dance around aimlessly because you felt like it, and run and leap through the air, before settling once more on your slow journey towards your destination, taking in all the sights around you as you go along. Magical. The pieces were familiar, the musicians were virtuosic, and they had styyyyyle.

What sort of style? well there was the zhai pianist (Judy Roberts) who played Route 66, among other things, and was the most amazing accompaniment. She plays piano with a passion. She'd rock on the chair and whoop and beat time with her hands on the chair and have so much energy that sometimes she'd be half standing up, and her feet and legs were in constant dynamo motion on the pedals. She was having FUN. In fact with all her actions and spirit, her piano playing almost turned into quite something else altogether. She played a piano duel with Jeremy Monteiro, which ended with him strumming the strings of the open piano (!!) and with a big flourish.

Better yet was Howard Levy on the harmonica: he had a few. He played the diatonic super chromatically, and was nimble enough to make it sound like a saxophone, a banjo, and a bagpipe......all at the same time. Most amazing stuff. And his hands barely seemed to move! He seemed to traverse scales with the slightest tip of his head and twitch of his hands.

But nobody was as animated as the bass player, Eldee Young. Imagine an old man with a crop of white hair, diminuitive in stature but slightly portly, making his entrance singing "what a wonderful world" in about as charismatic a fashion as it gets. Then imagine him picking up a double bass which was taller than him. Looks cute? don't be deceived. The old man was sprightly and had as much energy as a bumblebee on speed. Rocked the double bass to and fro like he was seranading and dancing with a lady (1.5 heads taller than him), and strummed and plucked with fingers that seemed to be oscillating so fast they were probably piezoelectric on an AC current (yes i'm running out of descriptive language)....

It was simply quite an experience. And i haven't even started on the piece that everyone played in... vibraphones and drums and guitar x 2 and all... wow.