“Quite a few farang musicians make a decent living in Bangkok.” – Interview with Peter Montalbano (2)

Peter Montalbano is an American Bangkok-based writer, musician and linguist, member of the Bangkok Writers’ Guild. In this interview, Peter talks about his novel project, The Lover with a Thousand Faces, and the Bangkok music scene.

MVS: Let’s move on to another subject that you favour: music. You play trumpet and sing around town. How that come about?

PM:  This goes back a long way. I’ve played trumpet since I was 10, and played with a dance band in high school. I kept playing all through college and grad school. On leaving grad school I couldn’t find any teaching jobs of the kind I wanted, and so eventually I ran away to play in a circus band, no joke! If you can stand stream-of-consciousness writing you can read about it here. One thing led to another (also see this), and eventually I ended up making a good enough living to support me and my family, though when the kids had to go to college I decided to add computer programming to the résumé, so cut back on the music. Now I’m divorced, the kids are grown, and my time is not so limited, so am freelancing around Bangkok and having a lot of fun. In Bangkok I play with the Lito jazz quartet on Fridays, with the Bangkok International Big Band, and with whoever else gives me a call.

MVS: What kind of music do you play?

PM: I’m a jazz player. I don’t have to play wedding music anymore, hooray! I play all styles of jazz, but you can catch a sample of the more fun and entertaining side of my music on a YouTube clip from a TV show my band did in the S.F. Bay Area a few years ago.

MVS: Where does you band usually perform?

PM: I work with Lito’s group every Friday night at Brown Sugar, over by Lumpini Park, but we’re finished by 11:30, so if you want to catch it, don’t come too late. Am making noises about putting my own group together, finding a quieter place, and having a little more control over the sound, but that may be a ways off. Meantime, a regular one night a week at Brown Sugar is fun.

MVS: What’s your take on the Bangkok music scene? Is there a place for farang musicians to make a living?

PM: Quite a few farang musicians make a decent living in Bangkok, though I don’t know anyone who’s getting what they could make elsewhere. Randy and Steve Cannon, at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, are good examples, as are Marat and the other great Russian players who make up most of the really fine jazz group down at the Oriental Hotel. However, one of my good friends, a piano player from the States and one of the best I’ve ever worked with, tried to move here and make a living and found the scene a little too “sewed up,” meaning that there were a limited number of well-paying jobs, and they were all taken. He’s now doing well in Hong Kong, though he’d love to come back here if things opened up.

MVS: What are some of the well-known Thai artists that you’ve met?

PM: I guess the only really well-known one I’ve met is Koh, “Mr. Saxman,” who was featured with the Bangkok Big Band when we played the Hua Hin Jazz Festival last June.

MVS: How about foreign musicians?

PM: Quite a few of those. I’m probably the only one in the world who has a Louis Armstrong-autographed copy of Virgil’s Aeneid. I went to a concert of his when I was in college, and when I went backstage afterwards, that book was all I had with me for him to write on! Then I was in Earl “Fatha” Hines’ band, I backed up and had a backstage hang with Ella Fitzgerald once, had John Fogarty give me some brotherly advice, Benny Goodman dropped some dollars in the box when I was playing with a street band, I chatted with Stan Getz on the phone, and my own big band backed up The Temptations at a convention show in California in the 1990’s, so I got to meet those guys. That’s for starters.

(to be continued)