The clinking of glasses, hushed murmurs of guests who mill around the dim cavernous St. Regis Bar, and the discreet tinkling of piano keys set the mood for tonight’s Jazz At The Mansion here in balmy Langkawi. The weather outside is erratic, with the smell of rain carried by the night breeze, promising a cool shower to take the edge off the steamy island nights.
A tall leggy woman clad in a midnight gown strides towards the stage at the corner of the bar, and before long, her strong confident silky voice rings out: “Someday, when I'm awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you… and the way you look tonight...” Accompanied by the grand piano, double bass and the acoustic guitar, Frank Sinatra’s popular jazz standard couldn’t sound any better.
It’s always a good sign when a performance is opened with an iconic jazz number. The Way You Look Tonight was written by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It was first brought to the spot light by Fred Astaire in the 1936 hit film Swing Time. This brilliant composition was quickly adapted by jazz musicians and has been known as a jazz standard for years. The most popular and imitated version was recorded by Frank Sinatra with the Nelson Riddle orchestra in 1964.
The murmurs die down, and the audience sway to the swinging music, with the singer holding court. There’s something innately magical about jazz music. The history of jazz and American history are inextricable -- the nation's triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows have all found echoes in the music. The great melting pot of New York soon became the mecca of jazz music – the swing in the 1920s, bebop in the 50’s, avant-garde in the 60s and the loft scene of the 1970s – creating world-famous venues such as The Cotton Club, Birdland and The Village Vanguard.
At the height of the jazz age in 1927, The St Regis New York expanded its presence by opening a magnificent ballroom known as the St. Regis Roof. On opening night, 500 guests gathered for a gala featuring the 18-piece Vincent Lopez Orchestra. This performance marked the beginning of jazz becoming an indelible feature of the hotel, where such jazz luminaries including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Buddy Rich enraptured guests with their brand of music.
The Jazz Connection
“It started in our first property, The St Regis New York, which opened in 1906. During that time, music was very important to the Astor family, John Jacob Astor specifically and his mum Caroline Astor,” explains Marcel Kloet, the executive assistant manager at The St. Regis Langkawi.
He’s referring to the original owner of The St. Regis chain of hotels, John Jacob Astor IV, who was one of the richest men in America at that time. Astor perished when the Titanic sank in 1912, after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat. More than a century later, the legacy of Titanic’s wealthiest and most famous passenger continues to live on at the luxury hotel he built in New York City. At The St. Regis all around the world, the aristocratic sensibilities of the Gilded Age remain intact.
“When The St. Regis evolved, that was the one of the few remaining heritages that we really wanted to keep. All The St. Regis around the world have a close relationship to music and jazz, specifically. It’s really in the DNA of the hotel,” says Kloet.
When Astor built The St. Regis in 1906, it overlooked Fifth Avenue's row of mansions and, at just 18 stories high, was the tallest skyscraper in the city. It was modelled after the extravagant hotels of Europe that hadn’t yet become ubiquitous in America during that time.
During the Gilded Age, Caroline Astor, also known as The Mrs. Astor, reigned as the queen of New York society—and her parties were equally as famous. The Astors, and specifically Caroline Astor, built what we now know as The Knickerbockers, the upper crust of New York’s society in the Gilded Age. From the 1870s until the 1900s, Mrs. Astor presided over thousands of parties at her opulent mansions on Fifth Avenue, only open to those she deemed worthy (later known as "The 400").
“They would throw the most amazing parties – rooftop parties, ballroom parties where ‘The 400’ would be invited to, and they really enjoyed these soirees. The Astors and their exclusive list of guests were real connoisseurs of music, jazz music in particular,” says Kloet with a smile.
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The Voice of Jazz
The music drifts on, “At last my love has come along… My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeahhh…” Songstress Poova’s voice soars into the night, and the room is enraptured. Not quite a jazz standard, but this signature song, ‘At Last’, by rhythm and blues singer Etta James has been an evergreen favourite for most people who enjoy the pop-tinged ballad made popular back in the 60s. And it suits Poova’s powerful pipes just fine.
“I don’t know how much you know about me,” she begins with a laugh. The star of The St. Regis Jazz At The Mansion is seated across me in between rehearsals for a chat. Just who is Poova? The singer, songwriter embarked on a professional career in music back in 2009 but as she says with another laugh: “I’ve not looked back since!”
It’s surprising that she’s a little under the radar of the music scene, given the fact that she’s won both local and international independent VIMA awards, and the prestigious ‘Best New Artist’ at the 2014 Malaysia’s Anugerah Industry Musik (AIM) Awards. Poova has also performed across Malaysia and internationally, and even represented the country at the Hong Kong Asian Pop Music Festival in 2015, competing against the Asian region’s award-winning best new artists.
“It’s a tough industry to survive,” she concedes of the music scene. Shrugging her slim shoulders, she adds: “But this is exactly what I wanted to do. It’s my passion.” In the flesh, Poova, who’s 36, looks pretty much as she does when blown up as a poster promoting the hotel’s jazz series: a first-rank glamour puss straight off slick advertisements. Her shades still on, she glides into the restaurant. She apologetically explains later that “…it’s my security blanket. I’ve had very little sleep last night!”
Music has always been an integral part of her life. “It’s in my blood,” she exclaims, adding: “I’ve always known I could sing!” Born Poovanesvary Sri Rama, she reveals candidly that being part of the quintessential Indian family where education was the primary focus, “…music wasn’t really considered a viable career move. I mean, it’s a typical orthodox view that you must have a ‘proper’ job!”
Her father is a law lecturer while her mum, a former nurse, now lectures in nursing. No one else shares her talent in music? I ask incredulously. “My great-grandfather,” she replies. “He came to Malaya from Jaffna, Sri Lanka back in the early 1930s/40s and taught Indian classical music.”
Conforming to expectations came to an end one day after a challenging day at the office. “I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she recalls. “I came home and wrote the song Slaves which was about slaving for someone else, not wanting to be confined and be liberated to pursue my dreams.” She pauses and remarks drily: “I know it sounds corny but that’s exactly how I felt at that moment in time.”
She confides that her parents finally relented. “They knew I could sing, and they wanted me to be happy,” she says. That marked the beginning of her musical journey and one she’s not looked back with any regrets. The early years of singing in smoky pubs in front of small audiences built her confidence to perform on stage. “It was a remarkable learning curve,” she recalls, smiling.
She kept writing her own music. “I’ve been writing songs since I was a little girl,” confides Poova. Her debut album Ticket To Faketown was a significant step in her musical career. “It’s a deeply introspective album about my journey as an artiste,” she says. Describing her album as “R&B with a tinge of funk” Poova isn’t averse to exploring other musical genres.
Not one to play by the rules, she confides mischievously: “I’m more of a soul singer than a jazz performer.” But perhaps that’s what’s most exciting about her performance – the sense that there’s a new generation of singers who are wresting jazz from its gatekeepers and making it their own. With this evolving scene, not everyone is classically or formally trained, and as a result there’s an accessible anti-hero energy that feels like sweet vindication for a music that should be for everyone, but has felt locked away and preserved only for a few. Singers like Poova have helped liberate the sound.
The music shifts and from the smooth sounds of jazz, Poova sashays and shimmers in her midnight gown to belt out: “There have been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long, But now I think I’m able to carry on. It’s been a long, a long time coming… but I know a change is gonna come… oh yes it will!” It’s her story of pursuing her passion in a tough industry and the story of a remarkable musical connection that’s lasted for decades.
Within the darkened room, I imagine the ghosts of the Astors along with their exclusive list of ‘The 400’, mingling amidst the crowd tonight as the music plays on. Breaking down barriers is what jazz is all about – music that continuously evolves and lives, taking on new forms, collaborating and changing both instrumentally and culturally. John Jacob Astor IV would have surely approved, with his foot tapping to the sound of great music and wonderful island vibes.