Jazz piano guru Monteiro brings back the organ

SOME fans of local jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro get riled up whenever they see him getting behind an organ. It's not something he does very often - on average, the local music legend does it only about 20 per cent of the time he performs - and he's not bothered by the sometimes-negative reaction he receives anyway.

"Some people love it, some people don't. It's a different sound, and some people have a thing about the piano being a natural instrument and the organ being an electric instrument. But I don't care, because I'm committed to play them both," says the bi-instrumental musician.

Not only that, he most recently teamed up with two other jazz organists, Alberto Marsico from Italy and Tony Monaco from the US, to tour three Asian cities with his latest project called The Jazz Organ Summit. The tour starts in Bangkok tonight, and will continue in Hong Kong next Monday before making its way to the Esplanade Recital Studio next Wednesday and Thursday.