Critical Listening ( MC328 ) Assignment 5

Book Review

Wong Woei Jwo

11411701
BAJCMP Y3
Late Night Thoughts Of A Jazz Musician

Release Date : 5th September 2018

Publisher : Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited.

Personnel

Jeremy Monteiro - Author

Being in a career which requires you to constantly work with other people, especially those who
comes from a totally different social background as yours, always bring you memories worth
reminiscing even decades later. In his newly released Late Night Thoughts Of A Jazz Musician,
Jeremy Monteiro brings us down the memory lane of his career as a professional jazz musician
and composer in the past 40 years.

Jeremy Monteiro is a jazz pianist, composer, producer, vocalist and educator, and has been a
professional musician since 1976, with more than 40 solo albums recorded under his name.
Jeremy has performed with many great artists, which includes Tooth Thielemans, Michael
Brecker, Paul Simon and many other great artists to be named. Jeremy has also performed in
many jazz festivals around the world, some of which includes the Montreux Jazz Festival and
Copenhagen Jazz Festival. In his native country, Singapore, Jeremy was crowned as
“Singapore’s King of Swing” by the local press and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 2002,
making him the first jazz musician to win the highest form of honour in the arts industry of
Singapore. Jeremy also runs his own production house, Showtime Production, and is the director
of Composers and Authors Society of Singapore, a company which administers music
copyrights.
Jeremy is also a keen observer and deep thinker. He would often tell stories on stage at his many
packed concerts and jazz club shows, keeping his audiences in rapt attention. Besides that,
Jeremy would often post his stories, his encounters and his thoughts on jazz and the role it plays
in the music industry of today on his Facebook, attracting thousands of likes and shares. Many of
Jeremy’s acquaintance had then suggested him to write his stories into a book so that it would
reach to a larger group of readers as Jeremy’s stories benefits more than just those who are
working in the music industry.

Although the contents of the book are not written in chronological order, it does follows a main
theme that involves several incidences that are some how similar that happened at different phase
of Jeremy’s life. One of the aspects that makes this book a worth reading one was that Jeremy
was not afraid to share incidents where he flopped miserably, giving his readers an insight to the
struggles of a highly achieved jazz musician. Some of the interesting stories includes Jeremy’s
first encounter with jazz, the time when he was already performing professionally but was
criticised by his dad for not being able to play ‘real blues’, his encounter with Freddie Hubbard
at the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in 1996, his thoughts on how to play swing and the importance of
solidarity in the creative arts field. Also, given the bright personality of Jeremy’s, the book was
written in a rather joyful manner which are perceived through his choice of words.

‘Silence is the wellspring of creativity’, one of the most interesting quote from the many quotes
of Jeremy’s in his book. Late Night Thoughts Of A Jazz Musician does not only bring invaluable
lessons to both aspiring musicians and non musicians, but also give it’s readers a good laugh
from the many amusing encounters of his life revolving around jazz.