ABOUT THE MENTORS
Dubbed "Singapore's King of Swing", Cultural Medallion recipient, jazz pianist, composer and producer Jeremy Monteiro has garnered critical acclaim all over the world since helping to put Singapore in the world history of jazz in 1988, when he became the first Southeast Asian to play and lead a band of established international jazz musicians on the main stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival, performing as "Monteiro, Young & Holt and Friends"
Jeremy has performed and/or recorded with the likes of James Moody, Michael Brecker, Bobby McFerrin, Lee Ritenour, Hernie Mann, Paulinho DaCosta, Ernie Watts, Charlie Haden, Carmen Bradford, Matt Monro, Toots Thielemans and Simon & Garfunkel, to name a few. He has also played on the main stage of the EFG London Jazz Festival and is the only Southeast Asian jazz musician to have had an album released on the iconic Verve record label, "Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marsico - Jazz-Blues Brothers."
Jeremy has also released several albums through the years, including "Brazilian Dreams," "Montage," and "With A Little Help from My Friends." He released the album "Yesterday Once More - A Jazz Tribute to The Carpenters," in 2018. In September 2019, Jeremy released "Jeremy Monteiro and Friends: A Jazz Tribute to the Music of Stevie Wonder" with an album launch concert. In January 2021, Jeremy released “Live at No Black Tie Kuala Lumpur,” by Jeremy Monteiro, Jay Anderson & Lewis Nash.
Jeremy Monteiro
JASS Music Director,
Mentor (Piano)
From 1984 thru 1993, John Lee was Dizzy Gillespie’s bassist. Performing and recording in the trumpet master’s various bands including the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, and Dizzy’s Grammy Award winning United Nation Orchestra. After Dizzy’s passing, his family asked John to create an ongoing tribute to the great man and his music—and the concept for the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars was born. John is the bassist and director of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars, Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience. John has worked in the bands of Gary Bartz, Larry Coryell, Jon Faddis, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Gambarini, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, Gregory Hines, Miriam Makeba, James Moody, Claudio Roditi, Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner. John is also a Grammy Award winning record producer and audio engineer. He has produced over 100 recordings and is the co-founder of the record label JLP, Jazz Legacy Productions.
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Watch John Lee's performance video:
John Lee
Chief Mentor - US
Weixiang (“Wei”) is one of the young lions of the Singapore jazz scene. A latecomer to jazz, Wei started piano studies at 15, and jazz at 21 when he was in law school. A protégé of Thelonius Monk alumnus Victor Gaskin, Wei’s musical career skyrocketed after his first gig at a hotel lounge in Singapore two decades ago.
Wei’s piano-performance credits span major cities around the world, with the biggest names in jazz, including Grammy Award nominees and winners Brian Lynch, Stanley Jordan and Dave Samuels, to name a few. His playing has been lauded by piano virtuoso Jean-Michel Pile as “ruthlessly inventive.” Wei’s music is informed by a lifelong commitment to jazz knowledge and history, while being inspired by all things interesting and meaningful in life.
While Wei’s work takes him around the world, he is deeply committed to community work. He has supported in depth many charitable associations with interests ranging from helping elephant orphans in Kenya, to supporting children and youths with special needs in Singapore. Wei was named “New Yorker of the Week” in 2008, by news channel NY1, for his performances in homeless shelters.
As an academic, Wei taught as an adjunct professor in New York University and was a full-time lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts.
Weixiang Tan
JASS Senior Associate Music Director, Mentor (Piano)
Pianist Cyrus Chestnut can do it all. Equally adept playing with trios, small groups, big bands, vocalists, or alone, he tackles a broad range of styles with both taste and intelligence. He is highly-regarded as the greatest jazz pianist
of his generation and universally recognized as one of the leading jazz pianists in the world.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, his many credits include work with Kathleen Battle, Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Chico Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Bands, Donald Harrison, Jon Hendricks, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, The Turtle Bay String Quartet, and Joe Williams among many others. He is also a noted jazz educator and is currently professor of piano at Howard University in Washington, DC. Cyrus has released over 30 solo recordings to date.
Watch Cyrus Chestnut's performances:
Cyrus Chestnut
Mentor (Piano) - US
Chok Kerong is one of Singapore’s most versatile talents. Traversing the numerous genres under the umbrella of popular music with equal finesse, he has distinguished himself as a swinging, harmonically inventive pianist and organist, and has also emerged as a composer of extraordinary clarity and depth.
Kerong’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by luminaries like maestro Jeremy Monteiro, celebrated singer Rani Singam, the critically-acclaimed T’ang Quartet, and the Singapore Wind Symphony, to name a few. In 2018, his compositions for an 11-piece chamber ensemble were featured in Hong Kong as part of ‘Departure’, a project helmed by guitarist and composer Teriver Cheung. Commissioned by Jazz Association (Singapore) that same year, Kerong wrote ‘Sketches of Miles’, an episodic work that showcased his fresh approach to orchestration and complex harmony. The premiere featured Grammy Award winning trumpeter Randy Brecker, saxophonist Antonio Hart and veteran bassist Jay Anderson. Together with the Jazz Association (Singapore) Youth Orchestra, they mesmerised the audience with their hard- hitting, no-holds-barred interpretation of the score.
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​Kerong’s creative output has continued to evolve over the last few years. In 2019, he presented ‘PITCH’, a hybrid ensemble project featuring new compositions that meld 20th-century chromaticism, soul, swing and Brazilian music. More recently, he was commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2021 to write a chamber work, ‘The Light Behind Us’, performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, in collaboration with Singapore Dance Theatre. His latest work, ‘Waves: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra’, was commissioned by flutist Rit Xu, and released in March 2022.
Chok Kerong
JASS Associate Music Director, Mentor (Piano)
Kerong has performed as a leader of his own group at internationally renowned music events such as Tokyo Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Singapore International Festival of Arts and Macau Jazz Week. Additionally, he performs regularly as organist/ keyboardist for singer-songwriter Charlie Lim, where his many stylistic influences coalesce with his foundational sensibility as a pop musician. With Charlie & his band, the Mothership, Kerong has performed at festivals such as Summer Sonic (Tokyo), BIGSOUND (Brisbane), Wanderland Music Festival (Manila) and Singapore Inside Out (London). Most recently, he served as music director for the inaugural concert by Charlie Lim and The Great Wave, a tech-based artist collective, which featured the Mothership alongside Aisyah Aziz, Dru Chen, KEYANA, Kittypurrnaz, Ng Pei-Sian, Umar Sirhan and Yeo.
Kerong’s latest album, ‘Spiral’, is a collaborative project with singer-songwriter Vanessa Fernandez. Released in Feb 2023, the record is a seamless blend of hip-hop, soul and gospel, and was described as a “triumph of both artistes’ musicality” by The Straits Times.
Kerong is a Mosaic Associate Artist, whom the Esplanade has committed to providing tailored, intensive support.
Freddie Hendrix
Mentor (Trumpet) - US
Over the past two decades, Freddie Hendrix has become one of the most in demand trumpeters in Jazz, and beyond. Also an accomplished composer, arranger and educator, the Teaneck, New Jersey native's skill and versatility has resulted in him working with a wide array of performers that range from the Count Basie Orchestra, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, the Christian McBride Big Band, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, and the Heath Brothers, to Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys. A product of the esteemed Jazz program at William Paterson University, with a Masters in Jazz Studies and Performance from New Jersey City University, Hendrix also shares his knowledge and passion for the music. He has served as a faculty member at the Hartt School of Music at The University of Hartford, Connecticut, The New School in New York, and Jazz House Kids, in Montclair, New Jersey.
Whether leading his own groups, or lending his talents as a lead or section player in much larger ensembles, Freddie Hendrix continues to flourish as one of the most exciting trumpet voices on the music scene.
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Watch Freddie Hendrix's performance video:
Trumpet master Frank Greene, is considered the greatest lead trumpet player of his generation. He attended the University of North Texas, playing lead trumpet in the famed One O'clock Lab Band. Prior to graduation, Frank joined the Woody Herman Thundering Herd Big Band and later had a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream: Playing lead trumpet and recording with the great Maynard Ferguson. Frank has played lead trumpet with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Christian McBride Big Band, Clark Terry Big Band, Roy Hargrove Big Band, McCoy Tyner Big Band, Frank Foster Big Band, Jimmy Heath Big Band, Dave Brubeck Big Band, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Bob Mintzer Big Band, Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra), Lou Rawls, Dianne Reeves, John Williams, Natalie Cole, as well as being the regular trumpet player on the David Letterman show.
Watch Frank Greene's performance video:
Frank Greene
Mentor (Lead Trumpet) - US
Sharel Cassity
Mentor (Alto Saxophone) - US
Saxophonist, flutist, and educator, Sharel Cassity, is prominent on both the New York and Chicago jazz scenes. She was voted the 2023 "Rising Star Alto Saxophone" in Downbeat Magazine, is in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. Sharel has performed with the NEA Jazz Masters Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, and Gary Bartz.
She also has appeared frequently alongside many Grammy-winning artists including Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Lewis Nash, Joe Chambers, Michael Dease, and Darcy James Argue. An original member of the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience, Sharel is also featured in the All-Star Big Band, and as a bandleader, has released five solo albums. A passionate advocate for jazz education, she is professor of jazz studies at DePaul University & Elgin Community College.
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Watch Shares Cassity's performance video:
Born in Philadelphia, Vince Ector is one of the leading drummers on the jazz scene today. He has performed with Ron Carter, Joey DeFrancesco, Lou Donaldson, Charles Earland, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Freddy Hubbard, Hank Jones, Gloria Lynne, Pat Martino, James Moody, Houston Person, Claudio Roditi, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Grover Washington Jr., Bobby Watson, Randy Weston, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Bands.
His recordings as a leader include, "Theme for Ms. P”, "Organatomy”, ”Renewal of the Spirit” and ”Rhythm Master”. Vince has performed at many of the world"s leading jazz festivals, theaters and jazz clubs and is highly active in the music education field. Mr. Ector is a Lecturer of Music at Princeton University and The Founder and Executive Director of Arts For Kids Inc.
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Watch Vincent Ector's performance video:
