It doesn’t look like my planned excursion tonight is happening, so I thought I’d look to see what’s on at the cinema next door. Its website handily includes details of the film classification system used over here in Malaysia. Which is:

U - General viewing for all ages

18SG - For 18+ with non-excessive violent/ horrifying scene

18SX - For 18+ with non-excessive sex scenes

18PA - For 18+ with political/ religious/ counter-culture elements

18PL - For 18+ with a combination of two or more elements

Guess what Sweeney Todd is? 18PL. Presumably ‘two or more elements’ could include ’singing’.

And come to think of it, isn’t ‘two or more’ a little vague? What if you’re really offended by sex and violence, but not counter-culture or religious, elements? How do you know that the movie you’ve chosen is going to include the two you’re offended/not offended by?

Re-reading the classification list, I also think they mean ‘excessive’ as opposed to ‘non-excessive’. Otherwise, presumably, films which feature non-excessive sex and violence - such as Bambi, say, and The Sound Of Music - would be rated 18PL. Or are films in Malaysia usually sexual and violent, so they only have to warn you about the ones that aren’t?

It’s all very confusing. Maybe I’ll just stay in and watch Night At The Museum on the TV instead.

I’ve finally uploaded the pictures I’ve taken so far onto Flickr. They include pictures of the jazz club, Georgetown at night, and the views (as in: same view, looking different) from my room.

Many of them are snapshots, just sharing the things I’m seeing over here - but there’s a few that I like, including these ones below. The first of which was taken one afternoon just before a rainstorm, when the view looked like a watercolour painting. A split second after this picture, a bolt of lightning appeared in the sky. See, I’m great at timing:

(Btw, the annoying Flickr uploading tool puts the photographs on their site in a completely random order. The correct order is here in the ‘Penang’ set. To see them with captions explaining what some of them are about, choose ‘Detail View‘).

It’s the Grammys tonight - so I thought I’d take a look at who’s been listed in the Jazz Vocal category. And the nominees are…

Avant Gershwin - Patti Austin
Red Earth - A Malian Journey - Dee Dee Bridgewater
Music Maestro Please - Freddy Cole
Nightmoves - Kurt Elling
On The Other Side - Tierney Sutton

I don’t know any of these albums apart from Nightmoves, which I only discovered this week and which I absolutely love (Kurt Elling - he one clever guy).

To my possible shame, I’d never heard of Freddy Cole. Turns out he’s Nat King Cole’s younger brother - and as I worked through his website, I found this gem of an album from 1956 (Freddy Cole - he one old guy):

Isn’t that fantastic?! The tracks have titles like ‘I’m All Alone’, ‘Joke Is On Me’, ‘Rain Is Such a Lonesome Sound’ and ‘This Life I’m Living’. And, well, I’m no gambling woman - but I’d put good money on that life possibly not being a very happy one.

Just a handful of tonight’s requests. Note the penultimate one:

That’s it. Tomorrow, I’m learning ‘Sway’.

I was released from captivity today by S, a local bass player and all-round nice guy who, with his friends K and J, had invited me out to lunch.

We drove to a sea-food restaurant down by the water’s edge, at the end of a dusty little road full of ramshackle, shack-like little bungalows (a typical Penang residence, I’m finding) - and right next to a temple. In front of which there were enormous, pink incense sticks burning:

The restaurant itself looked like this:

And this:

And we ate this:

(Alongside clams in their shells, some sort of egg dish, baby pak choi, rice and spring rolls).

To avoid acting like Darryl Hannah in Splash, I took advice from the guys on how to eat the giant prawns. Those of you who know me will know that I have embraced fish-eating again after an 18-year hiatus; and so I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to the art - nay, skill - of sea-food consumption. I learned that basically, with giant prawns, you pull their head off, remove their ’shell’, and eat the rest. I tried not to look as I pulled the heads off. It’s one thing to start eating fish again - it’s quite another to embrace decapitating an animal. Small steps.

(Incidentally, I’ll blog properly about the food in Malaysia when I’ve experienced more of it - ie. not just the buffets in the hotel restaurant. Marvellous as they are.)

I think today marked a turning point. I’ve felt slightly guilty for not exploring much beyond the hotel in the first 10 days or so that I’ve been here; but I think it’s been due to a combination of jetlag, rehearsals, getting used to the climate (trust me: it’s too hot to ‘just pop out for a walk’), getting used to this rather bizarre lifestyle, having those down days, and knowing that I’ve got two months to explore this place. I think also that it’s taken me a full week of work - tonight will be our sixth straight night of performing - to get used to the true musician’s lifestyle: namely, doing other stuff in the daytime and not going to work until 9 or 10pm. At first, I was clock-watching during the day, and would find myself sitting in my hotel room in my Little Black Dress, twiddling my thumbs, far too early. Now I’ve got used to it; and plan to go out exploring during the daytime, go take photographs, go on day trips, and not return to my hotel room until it’s time to put on that Little Black Dress and head down to the bar. Just like the pros do with their residencies, I’m sure. (I’m thinking Celine Dion, Tony Bennett and Jane MacDonald, here).

Today also marks a turning point because I spent time, erm, socialising. Like, erm, properly. And I’m going out tomorrow too, with another group of people. Short of that first supper out on my first night performing - and any chatting to people in the bar after my gigs - all my downtime has been spent alone. Which is fine in many ways - as I said before, I’m used to being alone, and often love and crave it - but now that I’m starting to go out with people, I feel like I’ll be getting a new, happier balance between social time and solitude. And of course, it will be great to start getting to know the people I’m meeting better, as I did today with S and his friends. Otherwise, as I told someone the other day, being out here risks feeling like one long party: full of introductions and smalltalk.

It’s quite a nice venue for a party, though. Here was the view at lunch today:

Not too shabby, eh?

Well, except for the bits that look like this:

Still, that’s the charm of the place.

Maybe we *are* meant for one another:

Look at us, reaching out to each other through the power of t’interweb!

So stop looking at me with those puppy dog eyes. And why are your arms outstretched like that? Are you saying I’m fat?

Now… where was I? Ah yes, there was a point to that introduction. And it all centres around this question, which has been milling around in my little head the past few days:

To what extent do I bring my music to Malaysian audiences, and to what extent am I dictated by their musical tastes?

Obviously, there’s a crossover - and one look at this early set list here shows you what it is. I brought my pad of 130+ songs over here, and our starting point has been the tunes in it that they know and like. That’s also been pretty much the case ever since as we’ve added more and more songs (10 more in the past few days of rehearsals, for instance). But I’m also becoming aware, through both the band and the audience, of just what songs are Malaysian favourites - and wondering whether I should sing them.

The way I’m learning which songs are well-known and loved in Malaysia is through a) the tunes the band play during their instrumental sets; and b) the songs the audience request via the ‘Song Dedication’ cards.

Basically, they have this great little system in the bar whereby people can fill in one of these little cards and hand it to a waiter, who then hands it to you. Or rather: me.

I am quickly learning, through these requests, that Malaysians like:

‘Autumn Leaves’
‘I Love You For Sentimental Reasons’
‘Besame Mucho’
‘Something by Norah Jones’

Any of the above can, alternatively, be replaced by ‘Sway’, ‘Home’ or anything else which has ever been sung by Michael Buble.

Did I mention that Michael Buble is very, very popular over here?

Oh yes, I did.

In fact, I’ve realised through these requests, and by talking to the band about the songs we’re doing, that Malaysians tend to know these standards just as most of us know them - ie through famous recordings. And for the younger generation that means Michael Buble, Norah Jones, Diana Krall or Rod Stewart. But surprisingly - as far as the musicians go, at least - it seems that that’s exactly how they see them: recordings by these artists, songs which are somehow ‘owned’ by them. So even when you’re talking to jazz musicians they’re still thinking of these songs in terms of Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra, say - even if plenty of other people have recorded them. As a result, I’m finding myself talking a lot to the trio and the audience about who wrote these songs, and trying to put them in context somehow.

This liking for specific recordings and not wanting to delve much deeper could go hand-in-hand with another phenomenon I’ve noticed: namely, that Malaysians like a nice sound. You find compilation CDs in the shops here called things like ‘The Beautiful Female Voice’, ‘Women Voices’ and ‘Arias’ (which surprisingly features Sting). I wonder if this is anything to do with English not being the first language of many people over here: they don’t really know what someone’s saying, so what matters is that it sounds nice when they’re saying it. Whatever the reason, I do know that the recording you’re most likely to hear being played on entering any music store in Malaysia is ‘Starry Starry Night’ by A Random Woman. And that there is a real statistic.

But back to my quandry: or rather, not so much a quandry as a quandry-I’ve-already-worked-through. But it was a quandry once.

Which is/was: do I take on board all the music I’m finding out that they love, and perform that (in brief, play to the crowd)? Or do I stick to my musical tastes and bring that music to them?

In brief (again): I’ve decided on the latter.

In not so brief: as far as I can see, that’s sort of the point of me being here. If they want to hear all the old Malaysian favourites, they could have hired any old Malaysian singer. And taking this approach also helps me to get something out of this gig which I really wanted to do - which is using the fact that I’m singing six nights a week to add lots of standards I’ve had my eye on to my repertoire.

Obviously, I’m not actively going to spite my audience. And of course there are plenty of songs that they love here which I like too, and have started to sing as a result (’Route 66, ‘Sunny’, ‘Unforgettable’). I may even attempt ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life’ and ‘Just The Way You Are’… provided I take a deep metaphorical breath before doing so. But I do draw the line at ‘Copacabana’, ‘Brazil’, and ‘Home By Michael Buble’. Did I mention that he’s very popular over here?

Lost my heart/But what of it?

It’s just occurred to me that ‘If God Will Send His Angels’ by U2 is cover-able.

Is it? Am I mad for thinking that this could be done by a jazz trio? Or even beautifully with just voice and piano?

That was me in the pool earlier, yes siree. I was doing the whole ‘look at me, I’m walking upright through water!’ trick and everything.

I’m not sure why, but I was happy as Larry, or indeed Flipper, in the water today. Perhaps it was the absence of kids. Perhaps it was the absence of builders working on the construction site - this being a national holiday - which made the place much quieter than usual, despite the Chinese pop tinkling away through the tannoy system.

Whatever it was, I was leaping about and jumping through hoops and balancing beach balls on my nose; and trying to swim as far as I could underwater because I once read that Frank Sinatra used to do this to improve his breathing.

(At least one of these is true).

Goodness knows how I’m going to adjust to Dulwich Public Swimming Baths when I get back.