New charity jazz concert to benefit migrant workers

SINGAPORE — A group of performers here are taking matters into their own hands in hopes that they can help benefit a minority group.

Singapore-based singer-songwriter Dru Chen is teaming up with local musicians bittymacbeth, and Shak and the Baits for a new charity jazz concert.

Co-organised by marketing and advertising professional and Chen’s partner Melyssa Goh, beCAUSE aims to raise at least S$10,000 for HealthServe, a local non-profit organisation that seeks to meet the needs of migrant workers here through the provision of medical care.

Goh said they chose to work with HealthServe because they wanted to work with an organisation that was not often in the spotlight, and that benefitted a minority group in Singapore.

She added that they hoped the concert, which will be held at the Singapore Jazz Club on Dec 2, will attract audiences that are not already fans of local music and musicians.

“We’ll be harkening back to the old days, in the 1940s and 1950s, when people would just come to a jazz club and listen to music. And if you want to dance, you can get up and dance. If you don’t want to, you can sit there and enjoy yourselves. It’s a social thing,” said Chen. “Soul music, jazz music and all these forms of music were originally intended to be social music.”

Chen added that he, bittymacbeth, and Shak and the Baits will be performing songs by various jazz and soul giants such as Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye and James Brown.

“The singers and songwriters that we have for this performance write songs about wanting change, about compassion and about breaking down social constructs,” Chen said. “We want to remind people that the world is bigger than ourselves.”

Goh added that she hoped beCAUSE will become an annual charity event. As it stands, the duo plan to team up with The Gig People for another charity concert in the first quarter of next year. They also hope to work with regional performers next year, and to potentially take their charity concert to other countries in the region.

“(People should come down) to empower themselves, to be part of a movement,” Chen said. “I am going to ensure this is a memorable night of music that people won’t forget.”

“Everything we have done up until now (such as getting sponsors to come onboard and getting performers to perform pro bono) ... was done through getting people inspired by the cause. We want people to come down for the same reason — (and we’ll do so) one conversation at a time,” Goh said.

beCAUSE will be held on Friday, Dec 2 at the Singapore Jazz Club. Tickets are priced at S$50 and are available at http://becausehealthserve.peatix.com/.