js
The newest installment in my ongoing attempt to feature incredibly talented musicians you may have never heard of goes to veteran pianist Jeremy Monteiro. In the West his talent may be somewhat of a secret to many, but in his homeland of Singapore he is well known, having garnered their top artistic recognition when he received the Cultural Medallion. Getting back to the US scene, back in the 80s Jeremy replaced Ramsey Lewis in his trio with Eldee Young and Redd Holt to become Monteiro, Young and Holt. Back in the day, Young and Holt took Jeremy to the African American congregational church and the powerful emotions of that music have stayed with Jeremy for his entire career. Jeremy’s latest album, “Live at No Black Tie”, is of course a live album recorded at the Malaysian club mentioned in the title and features Jay Anderson on bass and Lewis Nash on drums.
Monteiro’s playing is a force of nature, his ability to take the piano from a soft whisper to a thunderous roar in a split second is admirable, so also is his ability to turn individual songs into suite like extravaganzas full of interesting twists and turns. Jeremy’s playing is rooted in older pianists who used the keyboard in a more orchestral approach. He cites Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson as influences, and it shows, I also hear a lot of Art Tatum and McCoy Tyner as well. Although Jeremy displays his interest in the bop virtuosos, his playing is hardly old fashioned as he is hip to any of today’s tonalities or modern jagged rhythms which he uses liberally in his solo workouts. As mentioned earlier, all of these songs are lengthy and feature unpredictable arrangements in which any of the three musicians might solo or duet at any time. We have all seen the boring club band that features the exact same rotation of solos on every song, there is none of that on “No Black Tie”. Some songs might open with a bass solo, while others might feature a rhythm solo after a piano solo, only to have the piano return and play another solo with a very different feeling.
There is a nice variety of music on “No Black Tie”, a couple modal jams, several ballads, two gospel flavored soul jazz numbers and plenty of swinging hard bop. Jeremy includes a couple of well known standards and balances that with his originals which all sound somewhat familiar.