Great Book..



I am reading this book, my buddy Roger Gebhardt gave me. It's called "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It is a rough guide to all the questions I have always wanted to ask about Science but was too afraid to ask. The way he breaks down things like the Big Bang and the origins of our Solar System and our our Earth, makes it really easy to understand...plus he does it with humour. I tried reading that Stephen Hawking book before, which was supposed to be simple to understand...but I got a headache.

Bill Bryson's book has suddenly made me a fan of Science again....something to do in between playing music. Check it out!

 

Fri - December 16, 2005

In the middle of Blue Canyon, Phuket



Here I am in Phuket, alone in my service apartment, after playing a gig with my sister Claressa for the 15th year annivessary of Blue Canyon Golf Resort, writing in my blog for the first time in months. As I said in one of my earlier entries, I am terrible at writing in a diary, but there is something about being alone in the middle of two golf courses, with nothing to do :-)

I have been reflecting on what a wonderful year it has been for me. I started out the year after another successful Christmas concert at the Esplanade. March came along and together with my International trio of Shawn Kelley and Belinda Moody, we played the 80th Birthday Concert with jazz living legend, James Moody. It was the first of many 80th birthday concerts he played this year, all over the world.

In July, I played with my dear friends from Chicago, Eldee Young, Judy Roberts, Greg Fishman, Paulinho Garcia, Chris Varga, my Singaporean colleagues Tan Boon Gee and Andrew Lim and the phenomenal Harmonica player, Howard Levy.

I now look forward to my Christmas Show on Dec 23rd together with my int'l trio and special guests Leroy Jones and Craig Klein (from the Harry Connick Jr band) and my friend Charlie Gabriel.

But I guess the biggest fulfillment for me this year is the fact that I played a number of charity shows which raised a little over $900,000 in total. That is what makes it more special than previous years. I could never donate that kind of money, but I was so grateful that I could play a small part, along with my musician colleagues, to do that.

My personal website passed the 4,000 visitor mark, so thank you all for visiting.

I wish you all a Holy Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and abundant 2006.

peace & love,
Jeremy Monteiro

Posted at 12:31 AM    

Mon - June 6, 2005

More than 2,000 visitors!



At the end of May 2005, my counter registered more than 2000 visitors to my personal website. This means I get about 200 visitors a month. Thanks so much for your interest in my music and my work. I appreciate all of you :-)

Posted at 01:29 AM    

Wed - March 30, 2005

Jazz workshop at Harrow International School - Bangkok



This afternoon, together with my international trio members, drummer Shawn Kelley and bassist Belinda Moody, we conducted a jazz workshop at the Harrow International School in Bangkok, at the kind invitation of Mr. David Gorodi who teaches music there.

We worked with a jazz quintet and a big band made up of students. A few teachers also turned up and it was a very enriching experience for my colleagues and I. The student musicians showed a lot of promise. The big band will go on a performing tour in Beijing in early April and I am certain that they will do very well at the 9 shows they are doing there. The students showed much interest and were ever willing to learn. What was particularly gratifying was how we saw immediate results from the students when Shawn, Belinda and I made suggestions to them. Their openness willingness to learn will help them make huge strides in their music playing.

I was also very struck by the enthusiasm shown by Mr. Gorodi. He has obviously been teaching music for a long time, yet, his enthusiasm and interest in music and in teaching music has retained it's vigor and energy after all these years. Teachers like these are hard to come by and the students studying music are very lucky to have him as a teacher.

In the school bus going back to the hotel (just travelling in the school bus with my bandmates made us recall our school days....I even had my water bottle with me), we all felt very gratified to have had the opportunity to share our experience with all those who attended the workshop and for what we learnt from working with the students.

I will sleep particularly well tonight.

Posted at 02:43 AM    

Tue - January 25, 2005

Over 1000 visitors!



I was so happy to note that I have had more than 1000 visitors since set up my new personal website. I started my counter at 000 unlike some folks who start their counter at 2000...so it means that between 150 and 200 people visit my site each month. This is GREAT! It makes me curious as to who visits my website, so feel free to click on the 'Email Me" links and drop me a line so I know who you nice people are. All the best for 2005!

Posted at 01:49 AM    

Wed - December 8, 2004

Secondary/High School Classmates



At the party to launch my new label, Jazznote Records, at Jazz@Southbridge on the night of the 6th of Dec., I was pleasantly surprised by the presence of 4 of my classmates (two of them came with their wives). Martin Marini, Frederick Lim, Patrick Tseng and Imbert Theodore. I couldn't believe my eyes. I have bumped into them on rare occasions, but many, many years pass in between those chance meetings. I had not seen Frederick for 10 years or maybe even 20....so it was an interesting syncronicity when I bumped into him on Orchard Rd. the next morning...less than 24 hours since our first meeting in yonks! They all look well and happy.....seeing those guys was a really nice bonus to a wonderful night.

Posted at 12:25 AM    

My friends Anne & Rani launch their debut CDs



On 6th December 2004, my good friends and very talented singers, Rani Singam and Anne Weerapass launched their debut CDs on my new jazz label Jazznote Records. I am so excited for them and so proud of their stellar performances on the recordings, which we recorded in Los Angeles in June 2004. Anne's album is called "Out Of Nowhere" and Rani's album is called "With A Song In My Heart". Please check them out. More at www.jazznote.net

Posted at 12:16 AM    

Sun - October 10, 2004

Earthquake & Typhoons



I arrived on the night of the 6th of October in Tokyo. At about 1.30am, just before I went to sleep, my room and my bed started shaking and kept on shaking for almost a minute. I thought, "oh no....is this it? Did I choose to be in Tokyo when the Big One hit?" The next day I heard that an earthquake had centred around 200 + km away with a magnitude of 5.8. A big one there, but no one was hurt. Here in Tokyo, the magnitude was about 3 on the Richter scale.

Then last night, a typhoon started to hit central Honshu (where Tokyo is) then after it hit for a couple of hours, it veered away rather than go through Honshu Island. Luckily for me, my singer friend Charito came to guide me on how to take the train to my gig. This proved to be a very good idea because the typhoon caused two subway lines to stop running and we had had to take different lines to get to my gig...I would have been lost in the sauce if not for Charito's guidance. At least now I have an idea on what to do if trains get stopped or diverted.

Last night, the 9th of October, I played with Cecil Monroe and Belinda Moody at Naru Jazz club (which was established 36 years ago). They expected nobody because of the typhoon, but we were all so pleasantly surprised that on the second set, the place filled out and was about 3/4 full. It was a great, listening and appreciative audience and they gave us a long ovation at the end of the gig and we obliged with an encore.

Belinda (on bass) played really great and Cecil on drums sounds like he's been playing a long time with me, eventhough it was only our second gig together.

Ah...the jazz life....after many years of frustration, it is now exactly as I wished for it to be.

Posted at 12:32 PM    

Thu - September 30, 2004

Heckler....



This week I had my first big time heckler in a long time. There was this guy with two local ladies, who I guess he thought were high class hookers....that was their schtick anyway, until the girls got really drunk and one of them screamed from her seat....."hey why can't you play something nice? This is boring, jazz isn't supposed to be booooorrrrriing!' This is after we did some sizzling bebop tune like Oleo or something.

This kind of serious heckling happens to me once every 5 years or so...and what amazed me is that in previous situations like this, I would cuss back or say something clever, which in the end made me win the argument, but still made me look like an arrogant prick ('xcuse my French). This time, I looked at their table, smiled, turned back to the piano and started playing 'For All We Know". The guy who was with them was so embarrassed, he quickly paid his bill and the three of them left and took their act somewhere else.

Posted at 07:32 PM    

Wed - September 29, 2004

Sad state of affairs...and what we can do about it



I feel sad at the suffering that is going on the in world nowadays. The genocide in Sudan and all those tens of thousands of of displaced people there and also the people suffering in Haiti after hurricane Jeanne hit them. I always wondered how I can help...even in the smallest way, by sending a little money, because I feel helpless at not being able to do much more. One good way is to make a small donation at www.mercycorps.com

They impress me me because they only use about 9% of the money they collect for admin and the rest actually gets to the less fortunate. I guess we all sometimes say to ourselves...when I get rich I will donate to charity, but I think it is more important to give a little as we go. $50 or $100 bucks every once in awhile goes a long, long way in the poorer areas of the world and may not make a huge difference to us, but if we all do that from time to time, we will be doing our part in helping to relieve some of the suffering in the world. We have the power.

If we earn about SGD$4,000 a month, it may note seem like much, but we are among the top 40% income bracket in the world.....a world where tens of millions have never seen a phone or TV set...things we take for granted.

God Bless all of you.

Posted at 01:10 AM    

Wed - September 22, 2004

'Round Midnight



There is a new club 'Round Midnite' at the site of what used to be 'Swing On Cuppage' at Cuppage Terrace. Very nice, there's a real piano and the club has a vibe which reflects what it was in it's previous incarnation and also what it is and can be in the future.

Great...yet another jazz venue for Singapore! plus, with it's late opening hours from midnite till 6am, it will give us a place to hang and listen and play music all night long.

Posted at 04:08 PM    

Sat - September 18, 2004

Welcome to my iblog



Never done this before.....I am usually terrible at keeping up diaries. But hey, what the heck, let me me just try this for fun. Hopefully I can do this not less than once a week....but no promises. I am still in Bangkok at this time, playing a couple more gigs with singer Vanessa Rubin...she's been here almost 2 weeks. After that, I play here another 2 weeks before heading home for a couple of days on the 3rd then heading out to Japan & Korea...you can click on my schedule page on my website at www.jeremymonteiro.com

You all have a nice weekend.

Posted at 01:20 PM    

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