Vancouver jazz vocalist Jeremy Wong dives deep into human connection
The fast-rising artist has a passion for vocalese in the style of American greats like Kurt Elling
Jeremy Wong. Photo by El Dunfield
Kay Meek Arts Centre presents Jeremy Wong Quartet on November 23 at 7:30 pm at McEwen Theatre in a Kay Meek Cabaret Presentation
JEREMY WONG REMEMBERS stealing a shoebox full of cassette tapes by the likes of Nat King Cole, the Rat Pack, and Elvis Presley belonging to his grandmother when he was in elementary school. He had become hooked on the music that his mom and her mother listened to around the house, that early exposure leading to a love of song. Wong is a fast-rising local jazz vocalist who has travelled the globe with his work and who’s making an upcoming cabaret appearance at Kay Meek Arts Centre.
After finding so much joy singing along to the “oldies” he discovered at home in Maple Ridge, Wong joined the high-school choir.
“I always hung around the music department; I was a nerdy band geek,” Wong says in an interview with Stir. “My social world was in the band room. One day the choir director came over and said ‘You’re with me.’ It [Singing] came pretty easy to me. It also didn’t hurt that as a 13-year-old I was getting positive female attention for the first time in my life,” he adds with a laugh.
During high school, Wong discovered barbershop harmony, deepening his passion for singing even more.
“I started singing in different quartets, and that’s where I really found my voice,” says the baritone. “There’s something about barbershop that’s very visceral, it’s an in-the-body experience. Recorded versions are very different than singing it live. You feel it in your bones; it makes your skin tingle.”
After working for a while at a lab taking blood samples, Wong decided to take the step toward a career in music, attending Capilano University’s jazz-studies program. That’s where he discovered vocalese, a style, it turns out, he has a knack and a passion for. He’s a fan of American greats like Jon Hendricks, Mark Murphy, and Kurt Elling, and of putting his own lyrics to existing works.
Winding up his formal studies in 2019, Wong has been busy ever since, including time spent working on cruise ships. Performing on the high seas is a completely different experience to the kind of show he’ll offer in West Vancouver.
“I just got back from Europe,” says Wong, 33. “Working on cruise ships is not for everyone. It’s very corporate. When I perform on my own, I get to band-lead and choose the music and do whatever it is that sparks joy for me. On the cruise ship, you’re fulfilling a role for them; you have to be a cookie-cutter guy to be in their band and do their thing. It’s not necessarily musically fulfilling, but it's a lot more fun doing that for bread and butter than sweating it out somewhere.”
After some upcoming local Christmas-carolling gigs with barbershop quartets, it’s back to sea: Wong will be doing a world cruise over the course of three months in the New Year, departing from Southampton.
Wong, who has performed at festivals as well as on TV and radio and in film, released his debut album, Hey There, through Cellar Music Group last fall. LA Jazz Scene described Wong as one who “ranks high among male jazz singers”.
When Wong performs at Kay Meek Arts Centre, he’ll be joined by a few Vancouver veterans: pianist Chris Gestrin, bassist André Lachance, and drummer Jesse Cahill. He’ll be offering up his best vocalese and then some. Without wanting to give too much away, he says audiences can expect his versions of songs by artists such as American jazz greats Sam Rivers and Cedar Walton and local stalwart Cory Weeds. “The second set will be an assortment of songs I just like, a good, healthy mix, with a little bit of French songs in there,” he says.
What Wong loves most about performing is the human connection. “You get to dive into it [music] and help other people do that dive,” he says. “It’s the human experience and helping people feel things. That’s the really cool thing about being a musician.
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