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Jeremy Monteiro

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."

 

He started his career in 1976 at a local hotel and then as a pianist & bandleader at the famed BClub 392 jazz club in Singapore in 1977 where many artists such as Nancy Wilson have performed. 2021 marks the 45th year of his career. 

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Jeremy has performed and/or recorded with the likes of James Moody, Benny Golson, Michael Brecker, Bobby McFerrin, Randy Brecker, Lee Ritenour, Herbie Mann, Paulinho DaCosta, Ernie Watts, Charlie Haden, Terumasa Hiro,   Carmen Bradford, Matt Monro, Toots Thielemans and Simon & Garfunkel, to name a few. He has also played on the main stages 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 10 albums in as many years, including "Brazilian Dreams," "Montage," "With a Little Help from My Friends," and "Yesterday Once More - A Jazz Tribute to The Carpenters," with an album launch concert in September 2018. In September 2019, he released "Jeremy Monteiro & Friends: Overjoyed - A Jazz Tribute to the Music of Stevie Wonder." 

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His latest album, "Live at No Black Tie - Kuala Lumpur" with bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Lewis Nash, is his 45th jazz album as leader. The album has reached the Top 20 of the Jazzweek Charts, the most respected jazz charts in the United States. He has also played on more than 300 pop albums in the Asia region and receive the Silver Medal for Best Music Score in 1991 at the International Radio Festival of New York for his Classical-Folk Piece Overture in C Major - the Story of Singapore. 

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Jeremy is also a writer, with a volume of essays titled "Jeremy Monteiro: Late-Night Thoughts of a Jazz Musician," published by Marshall Cavendish in September 2018. The book received two literary awards from the Golden Door Awards in 2020, a 3rd Prize in the main category and a Bronze Medal in the Rex Karmaveer category for integrity in writing. 

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Since 2012, he has served as the International Arts Ambassador for EFG Bank, headquartered in Switzerland and sponsor of one of the most prominent jazz festivals in the world, the EFG London Jazz Festival. In addition, he is a Fellow of the London College of Music and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in the UK, and Visiting Professor of the University of West London. 

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Jeremy received the pinnacle award in the arts in Singapore in 2002, the Cultural Medallion. 

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He is also a co-founder of the Composers & Authors Society of Singapore Limited (COMPASS), an organisation responsible for the protection of music copyrights in Singapore, and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. 

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In 2016, together with a few jazz-supporter friends, he established the Jazz Association (Singapore) (JASS), to bring jazz to people in all parts of Singapore, help raise its level of excellence, especially in the area of youth development and work towards making Singapore a leading jazz city of the world. 

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Today, Jeremy continues to bring jazz to all corners of Singapore, and Singapore jazz to countries all around the world with his musician friends and with the JASS orchestras. 

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