Saturday, April 27, 2013

Soul needs heart


Sarah Cheng–De Winne & the Soul Bros


Sarah Cheng - De Winne


Euntaek Kim Keyboards
Jase Sng Bass
Adam Shah Drums


To be honest, last night, I was initially not much captured by the happenings on stage at Blu Jaz Cafe. After my dinner at the “next door” Muzeum, where the garlic yoghurt sauce is almost like home, I bumped into some friendly familiar faces and was hanging out with them outside. In between I walked to the usually inviting doorway a couple of times. My first observation, it appeared the audience was more glamorous than the usually gang at Blu Jaz.
That could however not be the reason why I did not get drawn in. Could it??  Part of it, though, must have been the lovely people I was talking to outside. But there was also something missing. After my company left, I did look for and found myself a table inside. I had come this evening with my zoom lens and wanted to "practice" with that a little bit. 



It appeared the volume of the vocals had improved significantly, between the first and second set, so singer and band sounded a bit more balanced, live was looking up. 





Even for the pictures. Sarah, dressed in a fluorescent yellow dress, looked the role to attract the necessary attention!
 Occasionally there was some fire from the piano,

but my impression of the backup band remained, uninspired. 














 Once I decided to ignore that, I also found myself listening better to the singing and thought Sarah's voice more and more intriguing. Her higher pitch was crystal clear but it was when she dove onto the lower range, that package became really interesting. 




I personally appreciated it more when Sarah was lingering in that lower range of her voice, than going for the high pitch.To me that's more of a Bob thing.  That's really where I have to leave it, (not) reviewing last nights’ performance.


I really don't want this to be about critiquing, it's about showing there's more to life than channel 5. This morning after going through the pictures I took, and remembering the good moments, I realized there were plenty. In the end I had a good evening.


 If anything it raised my curiosity and would like to go see Sarah singing again, when the opportunity arises. I saw a good singer, had a good conversation with two very nice people, and got to enjoy my favorite garlic yoghurt sauce of which by the end of the evening the flavor and some of the memory was washed away by a couple of cold Duvels. Who's complaining in Singapore?



Jam guest Rizal

Added a bit of the missing show.


Thursday, April 25, 2013

SteveMcQueen - Papillon and other missing references

 
 
One rising star. No Constellations

 When my wife suggested to go chilling somewhere and listen to some music, I took the easy way out and suggested Sultan, knowing there is always something nice going on. And of course there was, although even after checking out on Sultan Jazz Club Website I still didn't really know what to expect. Something about SteveMcQueen??? The band was Marcus Szeto on guitar, Ben Poh on bass Bobby Singh drums, I was happy to see him doing a gig like this again, Joshua Wan keys and Eugenia Yip vocals. 




Marcus Szeto


 
Ben Poh
Bobby Singh


Joshua Wan
Eugenia Yip


 The music style, I guess, was mostly soul. I was not very familiar with the songs it seemed. This may be caused by the fact that I don't follow contemporary music that much anymore. If I do listen to radio it will be Internet radio, where you can choose for specific genres or eras. When I listen to pop music it is hits from 60's and 70's. Sort of Steve McQueen's era. When a lot of television was still black and white

It could also have been, that I did not recognize the songs much  because of the different arrangements, a skill that I very much admire Joshua for. I am not sure if he had any hand in it this time, but from previous projects where he was involved, e.g. the band Noir, I know he is a master at it.   





 




Eugenia was whipping up some cool vocals. I love that, sort of husky, kind of nasal, sound of hers. For extra special effects she was juggling two mics at the same time, each giving a different perspective to the tune
 


The occasional addition of Joshua's vocal, presented via some type of voice deforming technology made it all extra interesting and gave it a particularly contemporary dimension. 




We even had the pleasure of listening to two songs by a very much inspired Shiah Wi Ren aka Bob. 







We could stay around only for a couple of sets. On a weekday I usually leave around 12, before the last set. The evening perfectly matched my wife's requirement of chilling while listening to some music and I got to satisfy my other hobby. 













I don't know what the SteveMcQueen reference was about.  The low cut back of Eugenia's dress revealed several Tatoos but I did not see a Papillon. Maybe the meaning was explained in the last set, maybe there is none. It did however already triggered me to mention the 70's before. Maybe it did have something to do with the 70's, as the band insisted on announcing Joshua as uncle and also Bobby was honored with this title once or twice. I applaud them for this. I guess with ample credit for a lovely evening to the very young other band members, ....

respect must be given where respect is due!




Monday, April 22, 2013

Men In Golf

Men in Groove,  


Leonardo
Munir (for Casey)

Mohamed

MIG in short, is an all Singaporean trio of some very eclectic names from the growing Singapore cultural landscape. The fabulous drummer and percussionist Mohamed Noor, guitarist Casey Subramaniam and the colorful Leonardo Mendoza on "the instruments of wind", if I may steal that poetic phrase from Leonard Cohen's album "Live in London". The relationship has nothing to do with their names, I only realized that, when I wrote this down, but the phrase always pops up in my head when I see Leonardo play one of his instruments. They never look anything like the traditional sax or flute, and they make all kinds of unanticipated sounds including that of a baby grand, but I never know what these instruments are really called. I received a Facebook invite from Mohamed,
for this gig a couple of days before and figured, why not. These guys are individually and as a group a guaranty for some good time, if only to hang out with them between the sets and tonight, as a feature, they were adding Pravin Saivi to the mix,  who I saw jamming with Mohammed before, and can be good for some fantastic vocals. It will also take me away from my trusted Kampong Glam into Tanjong Pagar,  for a little change in scenery I thought.


Tanjong Pagar turned out to be dead as a door nail  when I walked down Robinson rd! Just like any down town business district in any big city. Urban Fairways,  the chosen venue, was equally dead at my arrival, I mean, I was the only guest. The staff of, among a couple of others, 3 all blond  waitresses, and the Pure Blond draft were extremely welcoming though. 


I thought it could be because they finally had something to do, but later on when more people started to turn up, the attitude did not change. All staff was genuinely nice! That included my surprise bartender Karen Xavier, herself a contender of the live music scene. As the Men In Groove had no intention to start at 9 PM, I took the opportunity to have a quick chat with Karen. I had seen her around, but we never officially met. She told me she had a regular gig Friday's at OCF (Artshouse), a still to be discovered restaurant above Timbre at the arts house with a lovely ambiance perfectly suited for a pianist and a singer, to perform some mellow tunes. 


As the band started tuning in, I moved over to the stage, which was actually the first bay for the indoor golf, which on weekdays is the main entertainment at the Urban Fairways. It was still quiet so I perched myself right in front with a table and a bar stool and started doing what I enjoy most, listening to music and snapping away with my camera. The music was as to be expected quality, Munir Alsogoff, who was subbing for Casey, brought a soulful character to the evening with his guitar as well as his expressions. To most of you who will read this, none of the  band members will be a stranger, so what can I tell you. I did have a question though, where was Pravin? Not that I badly missed him, the night was young, the grooves were lovely, and company started slowly growing. Live was good.




It turned out that Pravin was to join after his CD launch at an undisclosed location. So it was only after the second set, and a couple of more Pure Blonds, that the vocal star of the night showed up, with quite a few, what looked to me to be, groupies? from that point onwards the place got excitingly animated. Singers often seems to have more opportunity or need to pull the crowd in. 




 








The tempo increased and the audience had gotten bigger and had become more visibly and audibly engaged. 









After that last set, they stuck around with the group spilling out onto the sidewalk into the quiet night. It brought a bit of life to this part of the, otherwise so empty, Robinson Rd and to Urban Fairways. A good choice for the owner Dilip Ghosh to arrange this and for me to join to enjoy it.