"Even
though he rates as one of Singapore's most exciting young jazz
keyboardists, it's taken Kerong Chok nine years to come up with his
debut album. But what an album it is... Get this and you'll realize that
you're really in good musical company indeed."
- Christopher Toh, TodayOnline
When
people think of Singapore - the small island, city-state in Southeast
Asia - images of a well-ordered, literate, socially disciplined,
technologically advanced, multicultural entrepot easily come to mind.
Musically, the country is known for its brilliant classically trained
prodigies. Now there's another great musical talent coming from that
part of the world - jazz organist, composer, and bandleader Kerong Chok.
He's a graduate of the distinguished Manhattan School of Music and has
played with a number of jazz stars including Frank Wess, Steve Wilson,
and John Riley.
On Good Company,
his debut recording as a leader, this innovative organist delivers ten
original compositions in an engaging, impassioned quintet featuring
Brubeck Institute graduate, tenor/soprano saxophonist/flutist Lucas
Pino, the Parisian, New School alumnus guitarist Michael Valeanu, and
fellow MSM alumni, trumpeter Matt Holman, and
drummer/percussionist Jake Goldbas. The leader and his simpatico sidemen
are informed by classic artists in the sixties Blue Note Records mode,
particularly Larry Young's 1966 masterpiece, Unity.
"Young
is huge," Chok says. "I listened to that record so much. There's a
certain intensity in the music he plays that is so natural, and so
appropriate... Like Coltrane, he reflects the emotional connection he
has to the music. I first heard him when I was getting interested in the
organ. I heard about Jimmy Smith first, and then I heard about Larry
Young and a recording that had Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones on it. I
went to HMV every week and asked for Unity, and it would never be
there, but one day I found a Japanese import and took it home, and it
was one the most amazing things I ever heard."
Chok's
fleet-fingered, adventuresome styling distills the best of Young's
pioneering organ sound into equally provocative and propelling music,
tailor made for the twenty-first century.
"I
was writing music on a regular basis, taking note of pieces that would
potentially work as part of an album or live set," Chok says, "and also
waiting for the right band to come along. I wanted to make this more
about the ensemble and the compositions. It was about everybody working
as a team, presenting the compositions like songs as opposed to a
'blowing' session."
On
this album, Chok's nod to Young is aurally evident on the sizzling
opener "Black Ice," inspired by the hidden patches of ice one walks and
drives over in winter, which the leader metaphorically makes manifest.
"The bass line moves around in a way that changes the meaning of the two
chords in the guitar vamp," Chok explains, "it's like the ground
shifting under you." "Literacy" bounces with a Caribbean feel, inspired
by Chok's time in school where he "was learning a new language, and
learning how to expand musically." The foreboding "Sounds from the Back
Alley" and "Incessant," - originally named "Washy Cymbals" as a
reference to Tony Williams - both take their compositional cue from the
influential Miles Davis/Wayne Shorter sixties groups.
"The
First Day of School" is a briskly paced 4/4 composition Chok wrote
shortly after he matriculated at the Manhattan School of Music,
contrasted by "For Kenny," Chok's beautiful elegy to the late prolific
pianist Kenny Kirkland. "Kenny Kirkland was a great inspiration to me,"
Chok says. "I felt that it represented the way Kenny wrote tunes. And
the mood of the tune, the way it progresses - it goes somewhere but it
dies down at the end, and to me it's similar to how Kenny really could
have done so much more if he hadn't passed on so early." "Rill Son" is a
frenetic, neo-bop burner whose title is an anagram of the great
saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins' name, whereas the lilting "Samba
Number 1," which was covered by vocalist Rani Singam as "You'll Never
Have to Dance Alone" on her album Contentment, swings softly in the Brazilian manner.
"Free
and Easy" may easily be the band's hit single. "I did a lot of R&B
gigs in Singapore," Chok fondly recalls. "So, as a result, I'm really
influenced by D'Angelo and Maxwell, and I couldn't resist putting a tune
like that on the album. I'm also inspired by Michael Brecker, he wrote
tunes that were so accessible, but had all these challenging harmonies
underneath." The album's title track is a brushed-stroked waltz. "The
piece was inspired by people you're comfortable with," Chok says. "The
tune never really resolves, which is kind of what you want when you're
around the right people, and that also applies to the band."
Coming
from a country that stresses the values of cooperation, it's easy to
see how Chok's band swings with such unity, and how Chok intelligently
interprets Larry Young's style, the jazz organ tradition, and the jazz
aesthetic from half a world away. Born in 1983 to parents of Chinese
descent, Chok began classical piano lessons at the age of four; but it
wasn't until his teenage years, when an enterprising music teacher,
Eugene Dairianathan, sought ways to peak and maintain his student's
musical curiosity.
"He
was with me during my high school years," Chok says. "He was always
looking for ways to open me up, and the turning point for me was when he
brought in the score of Chick Corea's 'Spain.' He said, 'try playing
this,' and I struggled through it, but the sounds I was getting out of
the piano, I never heard myself play before. So that was the start of my
love affair with jazz. I went out and bought a Return to Forever
two-CD set which had a live version of 'Spain' that went on fifteen
minutes. I had no idea of what was going on, but I kept on listening to
it. And before I knew it, I was into Miles Smiles, Sorcerer...
things like that. I was conscious of the organ tradition when I was
about sixteen or seventeen, and I started playing organ a few years
later. Also, another prominent Singaporean musician who has given
immense support to younger guys like me: Jeremy Monteiro. When I got
into this music as a teenager, his live concerts were a very important
source of information."
Chok
gigged around Singapore in a variety of local bands, including a
ten-piece jazz ensemble and his first organ trio. He also worked as a
studio sideman and played with visiting jazz stars such as saxophonist
Eli Degibri and guitarist Eugene Pao. Originally looking to pursue a law
degree, Chok graduated from the National University of Singapore in
2008. And, that same year, thanks to a generous scholarship from the
Singapore National Arts Council, moved to New York, enrolled at the
Manhattan School of Music, and graduated with a Master's Degree in 2010.
Chok has performed in a number of varied venues including Smoke, The
Blue Note, and at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Which brings us to Good Company,
Chok's first recording as a leader. The album serves notice that the
jazz organ tradition is alive in the twenty-first century, in the hands
of an intelligent and probing artist who is writing the first musical
chapter of what will surely be a career to watch.
Kerong Chok · Good Company
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Release Date: April 3, 2012
For more information on Kerong Chok, visit: www.kerongchok.com
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-0501
Maureen McFadden · maureen@dlmediamusic.com
