Jeremy Monteiro builds his band and his empire

By Paul W. Blair

JAKARTA (JP): How jazz groups come together is often a fascinating story. Consider, for instance, the chronicle of the Jeremy Monteiro ensemble. They are appearing for the next three evenings at the Jak Jazz festival that is underway on five outdoor stages at Plaza Timur in Senayan.

Jeremy Monteiro is a Singaporean keyboard player who is definitely not content to sit passively at home waiting for the telephone to ring. Yet his sharing the Jak Jazz bandstand this week with Japanese-born trumpet player Terumasa Hino is the result of a phone call he received, not one he made.

"About three years ago, Terumasa was putting together an all- Asian jazz group to play at a couple of benefit concerts in Tokyo. He heard about me and gave me a call. We appeared at the Budokan arena in front of an audience of 7,000 and were seen by people in fourteen other countries over an international TV hook- up. Very nice exposure for this music. So that's how he and I first got together. Terumasa flew to Singapore to play at the opening of the original Jeremy's last year -- and he'll be playing again when we open the new Jeremy's next Monday evening."

"The past year has been a great year for me musically but not financially. I opened the original place as Singapore's very first full-time showcase for real acoustic jazz. However, we ended up losing about S$600,000 in just seven months. It's almost like the sarcastic old joke, 'How do you become a millionaire playing jazz? Start off as a billionaire!'"

"This time we're doing it a little differently. The new club has a fine central location right at the corner of Orchard and Scotts Roads. There'll be music at least six nights a week by my group whenever we're in town: a mixture of electronic fusion jazz with a little pop and some more bebop-oriented things."

Jeremy insists that a regular inflow of foreign artists into Singapore is good for the arts community there. What's more, he adds, if you're a talented enough painter or actor or classical violinist or jazz horn player, you won't have any trouble getting legal permission to work in the country for awhile. "The government is a little stickier when it comes to run-of-the-mill bar bands. But if enough people vouch for your talent, you're in. It's a lot tighter in Malaysia."

"I chair the Economic Development Board's Music Industry Task Force and also sit on the National Arts Council's Art Resources Panel. Whenever anyone starts singing that tired old protectionist tune, I say forget it! This freer inflow of overseas players may hurt local musicians a little in the beginning. But look what happens when local guys get exposed to the best from overseas. Either they quickly improve out of sheer necessity or else they get out of the business due to the tighter competition. In my opinion, too many of our local musicians are lazy otherwise. They never practice their instruments; instead, they just sit around and play mah jong all day and then go to the same old jobs night after night."

Behind the drums with the Monteiro group at Jak Jazz is Singaporean Tama Goh. They've been working together for four years. A newer member is Belinda Moody, the Australian bassist who appeared at last year's festival as part of the quartet called Four of a Kind. After hearing her at Jak Jazz '93, Jeremy phoned her and invited her to live and work in Singapore for awhile. The newest member of his working band is a young tenor saxophonist named John Ellis. How he ended up in Singapore involves another serendipitous tale.

"I spent three days hanging out in New Orleans a couple of months ago during a business trip to the U.S. I went for the atmosphere rather than for the music, which is often pretty touristy. But one night I walked past a small bar down near the river and heard the sound of some great tenor playing drifting out the front door. When I went in, I found John up on the bandstand. He had been working with this local band for only a short time after coming to New Orleans from a university arts program in North Carolina. We met and eventually I invited him to come over to Singapore and play with us for a few months. We all really like his assertive musical style. And with the addition of Terumasa Hino this week, we're swinging even more."

Hino

Hino, a New York resident for the past nineteen years, is performing in Jakarta for the first time since 1962, when he was just twenty years old. He came to Indonesia then as part of a Japanese tour group that also included some dancers. He well remembers hanging out with Bill Saragih, playing for audiences in Senayan, Chinatown, at the top-floor supper club in the then new Hotel Indonesia and even for a party at President Sukarno's home.

"Bill organized a big band made up of Japanese and Indonesian musicians. He taught us all to play Tanah Airku Indonesia, which I still remember."

"When I lined up Jeremy Monteiro for the Jazz Aid band a couple of years ago, he suggested Embong Raharjo as the saxophonist. Embong was out of town when I was here recruiting but fortunately we added him anyway on Jeremy's recommendation. Eugene Pao, the Hong Kong guitarist, was also part of that Asian group."

"After coming home to Tokyo from Jakarta in 1962, I realized that the level in jazz playing in Japan wasn't yet as high as it was then in the U.S. and Europe. I would hear visiting groups from New York and say to myself, 'Oh, so that's what going on in New York these days.' Then a different group would come to perform and I'd say, 'Wait, maybe that's what's happening!' Now I'm in a pretty good position to learn for myself firsthand."

Tonight's Jak Jazz '94 program begins at 6:30 p.m., with the music scheduled to last until 2:00 a.m. Other artists and groups performing include The Percussion Orchestra (whose members come from Switzerland, Iran, India, Ghana and Senegal), the Antoine Herve trio from France, accordionist-singer Eddie Monteiro from the U.S., British singer Georgie Fame, the Krzysztof Scieranski trio from Poland, American singer Coco York, the Austrian band named ITSLYF, Claudio Ragazzi's two-guitar quintet from the U.S. and several Indonesian bands including Sparkle, the Indonesian All-Stars with Margie Segars, Krakatau and Bubi Chen & Friends. Among the headliners tonight are American guitarist Randy Bernsen at 8 p.m., Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer at 9:30 p.m. and Casiopea (from Japan) at 11:15 p.m. Phill Perry sings with the Jakarta All-Stars beginning at 12:15 a.m. All-inclusive tickets are Rp. 25,000 each and readily available at the festival entrance gate.