Jazz Performance

Dr Tony Makarome teaches an elective course called Materials of Jazz Music to students majoring in classical music, sound recording and composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore. Once a semester, he brings his students on a “field trip” – one jam session that is supervised – to perform at the Asian Civilization Museum. Last Friday’s performance was very exciting for Dr Makarome because he had his “first real drummer” and everything worked out fine because at such outings, the students do not know beforehand the actual line-up of the performance.

This lunchtime concert began with a piece by Dexter Gordon (American, 1923-1990) called “Number Four”, comprising the bassoon (in the lead parts), the piano (with lots of one-hand improvisations), double-bass and percussion. Unlike previous concerts, Dr Makarome did not play the double-bass (he is one of the most eminent double-bass players in Singapore).

The French Horn led in “Moon River” by Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer (Americans, 1924-1994; 1909-1976), supported by the piano, double-bass, drums and guitar. It was the first time I saw a French Horn player performing so close in front of me, and my admiration for all French Horn players increased manyfold).

The popular song “L-O-V-E” made famous by Nat King Cole and composed by Bert Kaempfert (German, 1923-1980) & Milt Gabler (American, 1911-2001) was next. The voice was the first to be featured, followed by the French Horn, then the piano, then the double-bass taking turns to showcase their solo parts, supported by the guitar and drums.

The great saxaphone player, Charlie Parker’s (American, 1920-1955) “Billie Bounce” was next. This time, to my delight (and the rest of the audience, I’m sure), Dr Makarome joined the group playing the double-bass. The French Horn took centrestage, with drums and another student on his double-bass.

Alex Kramer’s “Candy”, made famous by Manhattan Transfer in 1975, featured another student (a violin major) on vocals, with the bassoon and the piano taking turns to play the main melody, and supported by the double-bass and drums.

Erroll Garner’s ( American, 1923-1977) ubiquitous “Misty” was sung by a voice major. This time, the double-bass and the piano were featured at different stanzas, while the bassoon and drums lent their support.

The bee-bop“Cherokee” by Roy Noble (British, 1903-1978) was played at a “semi-ridiculous” tempo, with the drums stealing the centrestage. (Before the start of the piece, Dr Makarome revealed the drummer was a recording arts major who also played the mandolin and guitar in addition to a slew of percussion instruments.) The guitarist here provided a solid rock rhythm and harmony, like a “quiet warrior”. Dr Makarome also joined the other students on the piano and the bassoon which played the main melody at times.

A “surprise” item (not in the programme) was the Brazillian song, “A Day In The Life of a Fool” from a movie called Black Orphia. This was an interesting performance by the piano, guitar, drums, double-bass, bassoon, French Horn and other percusssion instruments like the woodblock and the shaker. Dr Makarome played on a fascinating mouthpiece that I’ve never seen before! All these on top of the very pleasant and competent vocalist.

Alas, the concert had come to almost an end. And as Dr Makarome reiterated, there would be no encore as “this was a jazz class and this song was not thought-through”. The finale was Billy Strayhorn’s (American, 1915-1967) “Take the A Train” . Dr Makarome opened the number with himself singing! (What a treat! I’ve seen his double-bass performance in many ticketed concerts but I’ve never heard him sing!) He sang for almost a stanza before he began to change the lyrics, including “It’s good that I’m not singing the rest of the song”, before two students took over the vocals (one of whom did good improvisations with da-deh-do-da-dee) while he went back to play the double-bass. The bassoon and French Horn also took turns to play solo passages, while other students played the guitar, drums, double-bass, shaker and woodblock. The four pianists took turns on the piano without any break in between.

All in all, it was a wonderful one hour of music. The students displayed ample enthusiasm,  especially the drummer. His body language and facial expressions showed he was immersed in pure joy and enjoyment of what he was doing. His energy and happiness was contagious. I look forward to more such lunchtime concerts.

Piano Performance : Joja Wendt

I was one of the thirty or so fortunate people to be invited to this performance by Steinway Artist, Joja Wendt at the Steinway Gallery at Palais Renassance. He is my favourite German jazz pianist and I’ve attended three of his previous concerts in Singapore. His ‘mission’ tonight was to introduce to us the new SPIRIO model; but the bigger treat for the audience was his consummate playing!

Joja Wendt began with Rachmaninoff’s’ Prelude in C sharp minor, Op 3 No 2. It was several bars before I recognised it, for he had not played it as it was written. He had played it in his own style – with lots of jazzy elements and improvisations. He apparently loved playing the piano, but maybe because this was the opening piece and he did not know how receptive the audience would be, he could have been a bit jittery and missed a note or two but managed to camouflage it well. I might not have realised it and thought it was part or his improvisation had I not been sitting practically next to the piano and saw him grinning sheepishly.

It was only after the piece that he spoke to the audience. Naturally, he was pleased at the warm reception and found out that many of us have been to his concerts before. He then went on to relegate a childhood experience of how he was ‘tricked’ by his sister to play the piano at double the normal speed (“from 33rmp to 45rmp”); and that was how he ended up playing the way he does today. He then went on to illustrate what he meant by playing pieces he composed in various styles, incorporating elements of rock & roll and boogie-woogie. It was marvellous the way he could make the piano stool tilt to one side while playing like a maniac! This is the fourth time I’ve seen this ‘trick’, but because I was so near, I was very sure it was no trick. It was fascinating to watch him play with his right fingers’outside’ the keyboard and literally hit the keys with his nose! He could also play like he had four hands.

When he played his Rain Song, inspired by the perpetual rain in Hamburg, he became a conductor who instructed the audience what actions to do to create the various sounds made by the pitter-patter of the raindrops or a heavy downpour, all the while playing the piano without pause.

It was at this point that he decided it was time to carry out the obligation of promoting the Steinway SPIRIO piano. This he did by showing us a video of George Gershwin playing I Got Rhythm in a 1931 concert. He moved away from the piano and we saw for ourselves the keys playing simultaneously exactly what Gershwin was playing. So this is the wonderful thing about the SPIRIO: we can have any great pianists like Joja Wendt himself playing on our Steinway in our living room without inviting him to our house!

At this point, Joja Wendt said he would take requests. When someone said The Flight of the Bumble Bee, he replied: “Nah, that is very difficult to play.” He then went one to regale us with another childhood experience he had with haunted houses and how this inspired him to composed a piece called Haunted House, which he played.

Next, he talked about Art Tatum, whom he considered the greatest jazz pianist ever. He told a story of how, during Art Tatum’s era, pianists were paid by drinks and not money. And then went on to do exactly that. I have never witnessed any pianist who could continue to play the piano while sipping a drink from a wine glass.

His next piece sounded familiar in that it contained many scales, arpeggios and repeated patterns as in a study or technical exercise; it sounded Baroque at times, and jazzy at others. His enjoyment was apparent. Without much pause, he launched into Elephant Song. I’ve tried playing this piece a while ago, and I found it tricky; but the way Joja Wendt played it, it looked deceptively easy.

Though the audience did not request this next piece, inspired by the Wuacken Village, Joja Wendt said he must play it and let us know that he had a standing ovation after playing it in front of more that 80,000 European heavy metal fans. It is a piece in one of his CDs that I have, and I never knew that it is a piece meant for two pianos four hands. Watching him play it up close, I was in awe and amazement.

Eskimo is a piece requested by an European lady, and this he obliged (because it’s one of his compositions). It is a nice and soothing piece. The amazing thing is that he played it with clenched fists throughout (“imagine the Eskimo has forgotten to wear his mittens”). Only black keys were used throughout, and the last note was played by the tip of his nose.

Because it was going to be his final piece, Joja Wendt decided he would play a mesh-up of The Flight of the Bumble Bee with a new, cool New Orleans rhythm. Well, if Rimsky-Korsakov’s original was deemed “too difficult”, this special version is beyond difficult. When this ended, the audience roared with repeated calls for an encore.

The encore piece was also Joja Wendt’s own composition, inspired by the helix of DNA. This was a world premier. We were very honoured that Joja Wendt would choose to play this brilliantly composed, very complicated and very difficult piece for us.

The 75 minute performance was absolutely delightful, enjoyable, entertaining, engaging and engrossing.

What a wonderful way to spend an evening!