From page to stage
A jazz group turns to Shakespeare for inspiration in a bookshop gig series.
IN his play Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare wrote: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
For those who like their food of love with a strong jazzy flavour, then Lit Books in Selangor has just the thing for you.
At the WVC Live: Give Thy Ear event at Lit Books on March 5 and 6, an acclaimed KL-based jazz group joins forces with two local performing arts regulars to present the power and beauty of William Shakespeare’s poetry delivered in a jazz music format.
Expect an intimate session of original musical compositions and improvisation by the WVC Jazz Ensemble, with tenor performer Aaron Teoh lending his vocals, as well as theatre actor Lim Soon Heng providing narration.
This same team of collaborators worked together for a Bard-meetsjazz show at KLPac in 2016.
The upcoming show is set to take place in an independent bookshop. Talk about a comfortable and casual night out.
“To be given the opportunity to perform Hamlet’s proverbial soliloquy To Be or Not To Be over Julian Chan’s wailing saxophone in a Tay Cher Siang composition is to die for,” says Lim, a veteran member of The KL Shakespeare Players.
WVC’s line-up features composer/pianist Tay, AJ Popshuvit on bass, KJ Wong on drums and Chan on saxophone.
The show’s music will be lifted from its sixth album Give Thy Ear released last September. It contains music inspired by Shakespeare.
There will also be a rendition of Duke Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder Suite, a piece the jazz great co-wrote in 1957 based on a line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Fun fact: WVC originally stood for West Virginia Connection as Tay started his band while studying in West Virginia University with two of his course mates. Upon his return to Malaysia, Tay recruited new band members and decided to retain the name.
“Jazz is a flexible art form that can be a vehicle to address different thoughts and ideas. It is definitely possible to interpret and re-imagine Shakespeare’s stories and words from some 400 years ago into today’s context via jazz expressions,” says Tay, who has led the band through many adventures since 2006.
It has toured extensively, including clubs shows in New York, a trek through China and several jazz dates in the region.
Last year, WVC even found itself as jazz musician extras in a party scene in the Hollywood movie Crazy Rich Asians.
But Tay is more interested in furthering WVC’s jazz outreach.
Last month, it performed at the DPAC Spring Festival, a free admission open house event.
Be it the big stage or a bookshop “live space”, WVC is never a group to take things lightly.
“A gig is a gig. People have come to watch you and you have to give your best,” says Tay.
In creating the songs for Give Thy Ear, Tay spent months reciting Shakespeare’s words and listening to actors perform them, trying to get the ebb and flow of the words, the ideas and the rhythm.
“I also took the liberty of re-imagining Shakespeare’s scenes into a modern context. For instance, Lady Macbeth summoning the devil ... how would that sound in a videogame?” he adds.
“This combination of Shakespeare and jazz is done in our own unique way, we improvised, we deliberated. It’s a homage to the creativity of the Bard through jazz,” he adds.
Tay hopes jazz music fans and Shakespeare readers will find something to relate to in this gig series. The idea of having Lim narrating classic verses and Teoh singing gives this performance a unique and accessible storytelling reach.
“What’s not to like about Shakespeare? Most people who fear the Bard were poorly or wrongly introduced to him, his language and his plays,” says Lim.
This will also be the last show here (for now) for singer Teoh before he heads off to play Prince Chulalongkorn in the British touring production of The King And I, which starts in late April.
At his WVC show, Teoh will be performing an excerpt from
Twelfth Night as well as a performance of Sonnet 18.
“Cher Siang’s compositions have made the transition from page to stage very smooth and accessible ... not only for audience members but for myself as well. Most people’s reaction to Shakespeare is that it might be too wordy or difficult to understand.
“But the music really goes right into the heart of Shakespeare’s sonnets,” says Teoh.
WVC Live: Give Thy Ear is on at Lit Books, P-01-11 Level 1, Tropicana Avenue, 12 Jalan Persiaran Tropicana, Petaling Jaya in Selangor on March 5 and 6. Showtime is 8pm. Tickets are RM48 (excluding processing fees). More info: www.ticket2u.com.my.