Life Inspired spoke to jazz vocalist Janet Lee has been performing for almost two decades, and continues to persevere through good and bad times, as well as sape musician Alena Murang, who has made preserving the culture and music of her people her mission.
Hearing Janet Lee sing will awaken something in you, and like the singing divas of old, her voice takes you on a trip down memory lane, reminiscent of the sounds of the 1920s.
Her singing abilities, however, are not limited to this era. The stage performer and vocalist specialises in vintage music, performing songs from the 1920s to the 1960s, with a diverse portfolio of music genres.
From Broadway show tunes to operatic arias, and Bossa Nova to Shanghai Jazz, Lee doesn’t limit herself and has the ability to switch effortlessly between genres.
Lee has a flair for languages and sings in a few tongues, making her a top choice to perform at various events.
For 15 years, Lee has been on stage since she left her job as a booker in a modelling agency and dove headlong into the world of performance.
As a theatre performer, Lee has appeared in stage productions such as Lulu in I Have A Date With Spring and Yin Xin in Butterfly Lovers by Dama Asia Productions, as the little mermaid in Pan Productions’ Always In Wonderland?, The Musical, M! The Opera by Saidah Rastam, The Magic Flute concert by KLPac, and The Merry Widow by Lyric Opera Malaysia, among other projects.
She has also appeared in films The Last Communist by Amir Muhammad and Red Street Diner by Fergus Ong.
The youngest of three siblings finds she is most at home while singing on stage, losing herself in live music.
“If you ask me who I am by nature, what I enjoy doing most is learning a piece of music and losing myself on stage. I enjoy that live experience of performing to an audience, ” says the 43-year-old.
Lee has also produced two studio albums: Restless Heart (2015) and Cinnabar Rouge (2017). She has had rave reviews written on her solo concerts, held in conjunction with her album releases.
Since the recovery movement control order was implemented, Lee has been gradually returning to live shows, after spending months performing online from her home.
“We live in an age where our connection with the outside world has become so crowded, so noisy, that in the beginning of the MCO I felt a disconnect with my audience, having lost the live gigs, ” recalls Lee.
“Seeing people doing live streams, there was this tinge of worry that I would become irrelevant, and I started my own live shows from Instagram and Facebook, which were really good. It was what my soul needed, and people responded really well.”
ALSO READ: Malaysian musician Alena Murang is out to preserve the 'sound' of Borneo
While it was nice to connect with the audience, it wasn’t paying the bills, so Lee tested the waters for earning money through livestreams by asking people to donate to the Gibbon Conservation Society, and found that her fans were willing to fork out cash for things they care about, her music included.
While she misses performing at big shows, Lee loves intimate settings.
“I like big shows, but my own projects at places like No Black Tie, the setting where it’s small... it’s easier to sell tickets but, the whole spirit of the jazz genre and that sort of music I do, they are usually the smaller and more intimidating setups. There’s a lot of storytelling, we let the music drive the narrative of the show, ” explains Lee.
“I am at my happiest when I feel motivated; and when I feel connected with my audience through live sessions where stories and reflections are shared, ” she says.
Lee’s onstage charisma is infectious, and there’s nothing like having a front row seat at one of her performances – she draws you into the music and time seems to go by in a flash.
Lee spearheaded a cabaret group in 2014 called The Shanghai Sisters, with fellow performers Winnie Ho and May Mow, who perform a trilingual repertoire of Old Shanghai, Grand Malaya and Romantic Hollywood, working closely with renowned Malaysian jazz ensemble WVC.
“I have a genuine enthusiasm, when I do a live show, my excitement to be with people is real, and people can see and sense that. That happiness is real.”
She will be performing in an upcoming show called Life is a Cabaret, on Sept 19 in Penang as part of the Jazz on a Jetty event, and hopes the festival will encourage people to go on “cuti-cuti Malaysia”.
“We are all living ‘la vida Covid’, ” she jokes, adding “The story of this show is whether life is a tragedy or a comedy, but the underlying thing would relate to a Chinese saying that goes ‘When the sky falls down, use it as a blanket’.”
In October, Lee will be performing at The Gardens Theatre’s first Jazz Festival, presented by the Malaysian Jazz Piano Festival.
This is her mantra, but of course, like many in her industry, the inner struggle is real, which is why she engages in a type of self-care that she finds really effective.
“Self care would be talking to people you trust, and just share, even if they don’t immediately give you an insight or solution. At least they are there to watch you cry or give you a perspective, ” says Lee.
Let’s Unite
For our upcoming Malaysia Day, Lee hopes Malaysians will step out of their comfort zones and try to discover more about the communities and cultures around them.
“I wish for us to be ‘positively curious’ about the ‘unfamiliar’ in our communities, and take small steps in new horizons to understand other Malaysians better. Small initiatives on my part – I enjoy spreading the joy of speaking Bahasa with other Malaysians on any occasion. For me, it is a language that can bind us closer in small, simple ways, ” she quips.
Lee believes music can unite people. “Regardless of culture and age, the ability to be moved by music and live performances – is engineered, innate in all of us, much more than we dare to admit. And through my personal journey of making and performing music, I have been blessed to connect with people I wouldn’t otherwise know, and to places I might otherwise never visit, and connect with stories of how music heals a person’s mind and heart.”
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