Suiting the room : A singer with a gypsy soul and a jazz piano in a cool location - it all makes sense

Suiting the room : A singer with a gypsy soul and a jazz piano in a cool location - it all makes sense.

MICHAEL WELBECK

In the days of the big bands and great singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, life on the road could be rough. But, says Sabrina Montgomery, the hardships of travelling imparted a gritty edge of passion and pathos to a singer's performance, and so it holds no fear for her; she loves the gypsy life, and it's part of the job.

As she says, "I'm trying to put my life into my singing, and travelling has always been part of it."

Sabrina touched down in Bangkok two months ago and is now at ThreeSixty, the atmospheric jazz lounge on the 32nd floor of the Millennium Hilton. It looks out with full circle vision on a scene one never tires of, the panorama of the city across the river. Lighting is low at ThreeSixty, with more illumination coming from the lights of the five-star hotels across the way and the brightly-lit river traffic. Outlined against the window, Sabrina, in a striking black ensemble, is like an elegant shadow, scarcely visible.

"I wear black because I'm sure people come here for the view and not to see me," she said. She is not usually so self-effacing, though she does like to be thought-provoking. Born in New York State, she grew up in Alabama when her family moved to the South, and she still regards that as home. Hers was a church family; her mother was part of a gospel singing group and her dad loved soul music whose roots are deep in gospel.

"Gospel, soul, blues, jazz - it's all Afro-centric music," she said. "Jazz is my forte, but I also studied operatic singing, and I've always liked Latin and flamenco."

Life changed at 17 when she moved to Australia and lived in Melbourne, a city that now means a lot to her.

"It's the jazz capital of Australia," she enthused. "There are so many good musicians there and I learned a lot from them. Jazz is in my blood so they couldn't teach me much about that, but they're more cerebral and I learned discipline from them. And I taught people how to sing gospel."

One of the musicians she met in Melbourne was jazz pianist Mark Fitzgibbon, who is accompanying her at ThreeSixty.

"We've known one another for about 10 years, and I always feel relaxed working with Mark," she said. "It's because each of us knows what the other's doing. That means we can each concentrate on our own performance without having to wonder what's going to happen next.

"We could walk into any room anywhere, create an atmosphere and do a show, but for me, the important thing is to suit the room you're working in. I do a lot of ballads here for that very reason: I think this is what suits this room."

Studying vocal technique for opera, she developed the power and range of her voice, and is conscious of having to control it when working in an intimate atmosphere. "If I let it go, it would be loud," she said. "People would tell me I ought to be singing in a stadium, so I don't use the full range of the voice as I was taught."

No, she did not exactly use the full range when she sang, but its promise was there in the firm, deep notes that sometimes underlined a phrase in a song. Mark was playing a medium-slow blues with rolling chords and a lot of decorative phrases as we spoke, and she joined him by the piano and made it her first song.

It had a kind of sexy bitterness: "My love is like a faucet, I can turn it off and on," she declares. It also carries a threat: "If you don't treat me right, Daddy - I'm gone!"

The voice is clear, the words precisely formed, with a mean, dark edge of conviction that lets you know she means it. She knows the background of the blues and jazz.

"I listened to them all, starting with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues," she said. "I love the great jazz singers, but if there's someone I can identify with it's Nina Simone - for her songs, her musical prowess and her political stance as an African-American woman."

Then, in complete contrast to the low-down blues, she followed with pure lightness: the breathless declaration of the Bacharach and David song, The Look of Love.

The voice was caressing, the feeling vulnerable, but without the emotional earnestness with which Diana Krall endows the song. They took the tempo up a little and raised it a notch higher for her next song, an evergreen from a Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein musical of 1928, Softly As In a Morning Sunrise.

She produces the notes with a percussive edge, and turns to a set of bongos beside the piano, rapping out the rhythm as she sings. "I use the drums to add a little spontaneity," she explained.

In the past five years Sabrina has pursued a demanding travel schedule, appearing in London at Ronnie Scott's, in New York, Dubai, Australia, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo to name, as they say, but a few.

"There are a handful of Melbourne musicians working in Asia, and wherever I have a gig I'll try to find them and book them to work with me," she said. "There was a lot of camaraderie when people were on the road, a family feeling, and I'm discovering it now. Everyone's been telling me about Alice Day singing in Bangkok, and out of the blue I get a call from her. She saw there was a new singer at ThreeSixty and said, let's get together."

She returned to Mark at the piano and opened her second set with a song from 50 years ago, Once I Had a Secret Love. It was a big hit for Doris Day, who once told the story that she almost fainted when she first heard it because it was so beautiful. It's simple and a little fanciful; it tells a story with a change of mood, and I'm surprised more singers don't bag it for their repertoire.

It was certainly ideal material for Sabrina as it has a soaring quality ending on a high note that demanded that she allow her voice a little more latitude.

Maybe she should be singing in a stadium, but right now, she is doing very well at ThreeSixty, and although people may go there for the view, there will still be plenty going for Sabrina Montgomery.

Sabrina Montgomery with Mark Fitzgibbon at the piano are at ThreeSixty Jazz Lounge, Millennium Hilton nightly except Sunday from 9pm until 1am. For reservations, call 02-442-2000.

Bangkok Post
Friday January 12, 2007