There was a time when Singapore’s king of swing Jeremy Monteiro couldn’t stand the sound of music. It was the late '80s when the jazz pianist refused to step foot into a jazz club.
“Can you imagine someone who loved music so much, and was doing it for a career, reached a point where (he) couldn't stand the sound of music? That's how burnt out I was,” he told CNA Lifestyle.
Jeremy, who is turning 64 in June, released his 50th album just this March. The veteran musician entered the industry in 1976 when he was only 16. He has since become a producer, the head of registered charity Jazz Association and a recipient of the Cultural Medallion – just to name a few.
It’s sobering to hear that even Jeremy, someone who has been thriving in the music scene for almost 50 years, once felt distaste for the sound of a single note. But considering how much he worked in the '80s, it was only a matter of time.
Jeremy playing for his colleagues when he was with the Music & Drama company in the Philippines in 1980. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
Back then, Jeremy was producing jingles for companies, ranging from Kentucky Fried Chicken to pimple cream brands. He was also the music director and arranger of National Day songs, including Count On Me Singapore and We Are Singapore. On top of that, he even worked on his own music and jazz gigs.
Unsurprisingly, his schedule extended far beyond a typical nine-to-five.
Jeremy recounted how he would start his day with his administration work in the morning before he’d head down to his studio to record in the afternoon.
“I would then run back, have a quick dinner with my family, pat my son on his head, rush off to my jazz gig, play from 9pm until midnight, and then go back to my studio to mix the jingle I recorded in the afternoon.
“I was just burning the candle at both ends,” he said.
Jeremy’s jam-packed schedule only came to a standstill when he collapsed on stage after drinking from a dirty glass during his gig’s intermission.
He shared that the doctor told him he had exhausted himself to the point he had “zero immunity”.
“I could get really sick from anything, even a glass that was not washed properly,” he said, adding that he was hospitalised for a week.
“(Since then), I promised myself that whenever I see the amber lights of pushing myself too hard, I would just back off – sometimes to the consternation and annoyance of my colleagues.”
KNOWING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN YOUR JOB AND YOUR WORK
Jeremy is no stranger to the media, having done hundreds of interviews throughout his career. Notably, he consistently emphasises one point: There is a difference between our job and work.
While our job is something we do to pay the bills, our work is our life mission, he explained.
Jeremy at Club 392, where he was pianist and band leader, in 1977. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
“In the beginning, it might be pretty detached – your job and your work. But as you continue your journey… you may find that they merge more. And then after a while, maybe your work can support you, so your work also becomes your job.”
At least, that was the case for Jeremy, who gained enough recognition in his prolific career. Given the overlap, he believes it’s up to him to differentiate the two and know his limits. He also added that doing his job gave him more time to do his work.
But when asked if he feels the need to draw a firm line between the two, he said it isn’t necessary to compartmentalise everything. Instead, we can “blur, sharpen, or bolden the lines” as we see fit.
1. Try your best not to spend too much money and to save as much as you can so that you can move away from earning money and work on what's actually important to you, whether it's writing new compositions or working on your craft and not worry that you will not be able to pay the bills.
2. Be friendlier when you're younger. I've been doing this for 48 years now, as a professional musician, but I only started to really understand networking just under 30 years ago. If I learned to make friends and meet people, who would then introduce me to other people, I would have enlarged my network and also built my own personal community at a much younger age.
3. To be a musician or an artist, you have to get really, really good because it's so competitive today. And the way to do it is just practise really hard and do all the hard work that you need. As a jazz musician, usually you need to have a large repertoire. You have to learn as many songs as you can and commit them to memory before you turn 40 because after 40 years old, you'll find that you cannot remember things as well.
4. Make sure you spend enough time with family and friends even if you’re obsessed with being a musician and an artist. I only learned to give more time to family and friends in the second half of my career so this is very important.
5. Whatever your chosen path is as an artist, you should inform yourself on all the other art forms. So even if you're a musician, go to art galleries, look at paintings, just spend a lot of time going to theatre plays. Go and watch other musicians. Always allow a lot of input because if you work in silo as an artist or a musician, your art will not be well-informed. Art is a representation of life so you must live life and part of living life is to ingest as much of normal human situations as well as other art forms.
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THE HIGHLIGHTS OF JEREMY'S CAREER
He was seven when he received his first piano. “The brand was Blessing, and what a great blessing it ended up being for me.”
Jeremy recalled how he decided to pursue jazz professionally when he was 14.
He was listening to a Quincy Jones album when the song Brown Ballad, performed by “probably the greatest jazz harmonica player in the 20th century” Toots Thielemans, started playing.
“It was so beautiful and touching that I started to have tears streaming down my face,” he shared. “I was standing in the middle of the living room and my mother came up to me to ask, ‘What's wrong with you? Why are you standing here and crying?’
“I said, ‘No, mum. I have never heard anything more beautiful than this.’”
This came full circle about three decades later when he found himself on stage, performing with Toots Thielemans at the Singapore Arts Festival in 2003.
In fact, Jeremy has performed with almost all the musicians he dreamed of playing with.
When asked which performance was the highlight of his career, he quipped that it was hard to pick just one because he’s a Gemini. Nevertheless, he believes the highlight for the public would be the time he became the first Singaporean to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.
He affirmed that while he loved the performance and the “rapturous applause”, he wouldn’t say it was his personal highlight.
Jeremy before he played the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1988. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
“Sometimes, my favourite peak moments are to do with the attainment of a particular musical peak – almost a near Nirvana experience. And it can sometimes happen in the empty jazz club with only five people there, (or in one) that no one saw.”
LEARNING IS A LIFELONG JOURNEY
To put it simply, Jeremy’s journey can be described as a road less travelled. Right after getting his O-Level certificate, he dove head-first into the professional music scene.
Of course, that wasn’t the original plan. He shared that his father wanted to send him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA but when his business took a downturn, that idea went out the window.
As for whether he thought education would’ve helped him when he was starting out, he said: “I ended up having a career that the others who went to Berklee don't have, you see, so who's to say? Although I'm not a particularly religious person, I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that the universe kind of helps you with your path.”
Jeremy (left) jamming with his father, Abner (right), at their home in Seletar Hills in 1975. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
In 2006, Jeremy – a non-degree holder – became a professor and visiting chair of jazz of Lasalle College of the Arts’ jazz programme.
He explained that even though he was equipped with technical skills and industry experience, he didn’t know how to articulate them to his students. So at the age of 46, he pursued his fellowship diploma at the London College Of Music.
That’s not all. Almost 20 years later, Jeremy is now working towards a postgraduate diploma in film scoring at the Film Scoring Academy Of Europe.
The online diploma, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, consists of nine assignments, including a 52-piece symphony orchestra.
He shared that there will be musicians who’ll record his work for him in Bulgaria, and that he will leave the course with not only a diploma, but also a full portfolio.
“In this course, I'm learning from teachers who are 30 years younger than me,” he said.
“So you have to approach it with what I call a ‘don't know mind’. If you go in with ‘don't know mind’, you can actually receive information, and the teachers will not be intimidated that they're teaching this professional who's been around for so long and is older.”
Jeremy affirms that he has no reservations about taking advice from those who have less experience than him. As long as they’re well-informed on the subject and have his best interests at heart, he is more than receptive.
He also advised aspiring musicians to get as much training as possible as the bar has been lifted, citing examples like English singer-songwriter Jacob Collier and Indonesian jazz pianist Joey Alexander. Collier, 29, is a six-time Grammy-award winner while Alexander, 20, is a three-time Grammy-award nominee.
Jeremy Monteiro turns 64 in June 2024. (Photo: CNA/Kirby Tan)
“One thing I've learned to do, and I think it doesn't matter what profession you're in, is to learn to truly be able to live in the moment… because our thoughts are often in regrets about what we've done in the past, or (we’re) very anxious about something that's not yet to happen,” he added.
“Like the song My Way says, ‘regrets, I've had a few’. I've actually got very few regrets in my career.”
"The (past) is only a memory. It's not real. And anything that I'm going to do (in the future) is only an imagination. The only thing that is real is the present moment.”
Continue reading...
“Can you imagine someone who loved music so much, and was doing it for a career, reached a point where (he) couldn't stand the sound of music? That's how burnt out I was,” he told CNA Lifestyle.
Jeremy, who is turning 64 in June, released his 50th album just this March. The veteran musician entered the industry in 1976 when he was only 16. He has since become a producer, the head of registered charity Jazz Association and a recipient of the Cultural Medallion – just to name a few.
It’s sobering to hear that even Jeremy, someone who has been thriving in the music scene for almost 50 years, once felt distaste for the sound of a single note. But considering how much he worked in the '80s, it was only a matter of time.
Jeremy playing for his colleagues when he was with the Music & Drama company in the Philippines in 1980. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
Back then, Jeremy was producing jingles for companies, ranging from Kentucky Fried Chicken to pimple cream brands. He was also the music director and arranger of National Day songs, including Count On Me Singapore and We Are Singapore. On top of that, he even worked on his own music and jazz gigs.
Unsurprisingly, his schedule extended far beyond a typical nine-to-five.
Jeremy recounted how he would start his day with his administration work in the morning before he’d head down to his studio to record in the afternoon.
“I would then run back, have a quick dinner with my family, pat my son on his head, rush off to my jazz gig, play from 9pm until midnight, and then go back to my studio to mix the jingle I recorded in the afternoon.
“I was just burning the candle at both ends,” he said.
Jeremy’s jam-packed schedule only came to a standstill when he collapsed on stage after drinking from a dirty glass during his gig’s intermission.
He shared that the doctor told him he had exhausted himself to the point he had “zero immunity”.
“I could get really sick from anything, even a glass that was not washed properly,” he said, adding that he was hospitalised for a week.
“(Since then), I promised myself that whenever I see the amber lights of pushing myself too hard, I would just back off – sometimes to the consternation and annoyance of my colleagues.”
KNOWING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN YOUR JOB AND YOUR WORK
Jeremy is no stranger to the media, having done hundreds of interviews throughout his career. Notably, he consistently emphasises one point: There is a difference between our job and work.
While our job is something we do to pay the bills, our work is our life mission, he explained.
Jeremy at Club 392, where he was pianist and band leader, in 1977. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
“In the beginning, it might be pretty detached – your job and your work. But as you continue your journey… you may find that they merge more. And then after a while, maybe your work can support you, so your work also becomes your job.”
At least, that was the case for Jeremy, who gained enough recognition in his prolific career. Given the overlap, he believes it’s up to him to differentiate the two and know his limits. He also added that doing his job gave him more time to do his work.
But when asked if he feels the need to draw a firm line between the two, he said it isn’t necessary to compartmentalise everything. Instead, we can “blur, sharpen, or bolden the lines” as we see fit.
5 THINGS JEREMY MONTEIRO WOULD TELL HIS YOUNGER SELF
1. Try your best not to spend too much money and to save as much as you can so that you can move away from earning money and work on what's actually important to you, whether it's writing new compositions or working on your craft and not worry that you will not be able to pay the bills.
2. Be friendlier when you're younger. I've been doing this for 48 years now, as a professional musician, but I only started to really understand networking just under 30 years ago. If I learned to make friends and meet people, who would then introduce me to other people, I would have enlarged my network and also built my own personal community at a much younger age.
3. To be a musician or an artist, you have to get really, really good because it's so competitive today. And the way to do it is just practise really hard and do all the hard work that you need. As a jazz musician, usually you need to have a large repertoire. You have to learn as many songs as you can and commit them to memory before you turn 40 because after 40 years old, you'll find that you cannot remember things as well.
4. Make sure you spend enough time with family and friends even if you’re obsessed with being a musician and an artist. I only learned to give more time to family and friends in the second half of my career so this is very important.
5. Whatever your chosen path is as an artist, you should inform yourself on all the other art forms. So even if you're a musician, go to art galleries, look at paintings, just spend a lot of time going to theatre plays. Go and watch other musicians. Always allow a lot of input because if you work in silo as an artist or a musician, your art will not be well-informed. Art is a representation of life so you must live life and part of living life is to ingest as much of normal human situations as well as other art forms.
Collapse Expand
THE HIGHLIGHTS OF JEREMY'S CAREER
He was seven when he received his first piano. “The brand was Blessing, and what a great blessing it ended up being for me.”
Jeremy recalled how he decided to pursue jazz professionally when he was 14.
He was listening to a Quincy Jones album when the song Brown Ballad, performed by “probably the greatest jazz harmonica player in the 20th century” Toots Thielemans, started playing.
“It was so beautiful and touching that I started to have tears streaming down my face,” he shared. “I was standing in the middle of the living room and my mother came up to me to ask, ‘What's wrong with you? Why are you standing here and crying?’
“I said, ‘No, mum. I have never heard anything more beautiful than this.’”
This came full circle about three decades later when he found himself on stage, performing with Toots Thielemans at the Singapore Arts Festival in 2003.
In fact, Jeremy has performed with almost all the musicians he dreamed of playing with.
When asked which performance was the highlight of his career, he quipped that it was hard to pick just one because he’s a Gemini. Nevertheless, he believes the highlight for the public would be the time he became the first Singaporean to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.
He affirmed that while he loved the performance and the “rapturous applause”, he wouldn’t say it was his personal highlight.
Jeremy before he played the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1988. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
“Sometimes, my favourite peak moments are to do with the attainment of a particular musical peak – almost a near Nirvana experience. And it can sometimes happen in the empty jazz club with only five people there, (or in one) that no one saw.”
LEARNING IS A LIFELONG JOURNEY
To put it simply, Jeremy’s journey can be described as a road less travelled. Right after getting his O-Level certificate, he dove head-first into the professional music scene.
Of course, that wasn’t the original plan. He shared that his father wanted to send him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA but when his business took a downturn, that idea went out the window.
As for whether he thought education would’ve helped him when he was starting out, he said: “I ended up having a career that the others who went to Berklee don't have, you see, so who's to say? Although I'm not a particularly religious person, I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that the universe kind of helps you with your path.”
Jeremy (left) jamming with his father, Abner (right), at their home in Seletar Hills in 1975. (Photo: Jeremy Monteiro)
In 2006, Jeremy – a non-degree holder – became a professor and visiting chair of jazz of Lasalle College of the Arts’ jazz programme.
He explained that even though he was equipped with technical skills and industry experience, he didn’t know how to articulate them to his students. So at the age of 46, he pursued his fellowship diploma at the London College Of Music.
That’s not all. Almost 20 years later, Jeremy is now working towards a postgraduate diploma in film scoring at the Film Scoring Academy Of Europe.
The online diploma, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, consists of nine assignments, including a 52-piece symphony orchestra.
He shared that there will be musicians who’ll record his work for him in Bulgaria, and that he will leave the course with not only a diploma, but also a full portfolio.
“In this course, I'm learning from teachers who are 30 years younger than me,” he said.
“So you have to approach it with what I call a ‘don't know mind’. If you go in with ‘don't know mind’, you can actually receive information, and the teachers will not be intimidated that they're teaching this professional who's been around for so long and is older.”
Jeremy affirms that he has no reservations about taking advice from those who have less experience than him. As long as they’re well-informed on the subject and have his best interests at heart, he is more than receptive.
He also advised aspiring musicians to get as much training as possible as the bar has been lifted, citing examples like English singer-songwriter Jacob Collier and Indonesian jazz pianist Joey Alexander. Collier, 29, is a six-time Grammy-award winner while Alexander, 20, is a three-time Grammy-award nominee.
Jeremy Monteiro turns 64 in June 2024. (Photo: CNA/Kirby Tan)
“One thing I've learned to do, and I think it doesn't matter what profession you're in, is to learn to truly be able to live in the moment… because our thoughts are often in regrets about what we've done in the past, or (we’re) very anxious about something that's not yet to happen,” he added.
“Like the song My Way says, ‘regrets, I've had a few’. I've actually got very few regrets in my career.”
"The (past) is only a memory. It's not real. And anything that I'm going to do (in the future) is only an imagination. The only thing that is real is the present moment.”
Continue reading...