Jacqueline Teh says that she needed to let go of her ego to become an improvisational jazz singer. She also had to lose her fear of making mistakes.
“I remember when I was first starting to improvise, it felt almost embarrassing,” the Toronto-based Teh tells Pancouver over Zoom. “Almost like when you get up to do a class presentation and everyone is watching you—and you’re feeling the sweat and your face is turning red!”
When she was a jazz music student at the University of Toronto, Teh would transcribe solos by singers and instrumentalists. Or Teh would learn them by ear so that she could repeat them back. Over time, improvising began feeling like second nature. As she puts it, she became “comfortable with the uncomfortable”.
In a similar vein, Teh feels it’s essential to shed her ego as a University of Toronto music educator. She thinks about what her students can teach her in her vocal jazz classes. She carries the same attitude forward as the director of the St. James Children’s Choir Outreach Program and the U of T Small Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
“I want my students to feel comfortable enough sharing with me their insecurities and the things that they want to improve,” Teh states.
Moreover, she lets them know that they may not succeed at everything they try to do.
“Even for me, as a professional artist, there will be many failures along the way,” Teh insists. “So, if I can provide a safe space for a student to fail, I think that’s really great. It gives them a chance to learn and grow.”
Jacqueline Teh recently released “Like U” with some Mandarin lyrics.
Teh writes songs in Chinese dialects
It’s this down-to-earth attitude—as well as her enormous talent as a singer and songwriter—that has endeared Teh to her peers. She co-wrote three songs on Sammy Jackson’s EP “With You”, which won the Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year in 2021. Grammy winner Anderson .Paak has described her writing style as unique.
Teh is also a member of the Toronto-based jazz and R&B band Moodset, which released its debut album, Let’s Talk, earlier this year.
As a solo artist, Teh recently put out a song called “Like U”, which includes some Mandarin lyrics. She grew up speaking another Chinese language, Hokkien. Now, she’s also incorporating this into her songwriting.
“I was worried that it would be very challenging because it’s not something I’ve ever done or thought of doing in my entire life, despite having this language around me all the time,” Teh reveals. “But it felt surprisingly natural.”
She points out that Hokkien has nine tones.
“It’s almost like the language is dictating where your melody should go,” she continues. “That’s been kind of a cool experience to play around with.”
At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday (November 6), Teh will sing some of her Chinese-language compositions in her set at the Jade Music Fest in Vancouver. The concert on Granville Island will also feature Vancouver musicians Van Lefan and Tze, and Taiwanese American Scott Hsu. The festival encourages people to book free tickets through Showpass.
Making connections at Jade Music Fest
This will mark Teh’s third appearance at the Jade Music Fest, which aims to make Vancouver a hub for Chinese-language music. Her debut came last year at Vancouver’s Hollywood Theatre. In late April, she performed at the Jade Music Fest in Asia, which was held in Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
Teh has been thrilled to make strong connections with other Jade Music Fest artists.
“It’s very fast paced but even within that very short period of time, we were able to build lasting connections,” she says. “These are people who’ve become some of my very close friends just after meeting once or twice at the festival.”
Much to her delight, the Jade Music Fest has demonstrated to Teh that she can be Asian and she can be an artist. Furthermore, these two parts of herself can co-exist and lead her to greater success.
Her trip to Taipei carried a special resonance. Even though she had no tangible connection to Taiwan—her dad is from Myanmar and her mom is from Vietnam—Teh speaks the same Hokkien language as many Taiwanese people. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education now refers to the Hokkien language-proficiency exam as “Taiyu” [Taiwanese}, signifying its deep roots in the island nation.
In Toronto, Teh speaks Hokkien with family members and family friends. In Taipei, young people and musical artists were speaking her mother tongue.
“It was just such a feeling of acceptance and validation,” Teh says. “It’s hard to explain with words, but it was very special.”
Dad was a jazz musician
She’s come a long way from her childhood and youth in Scarborough and Markham. Her father is a jazz musician from Rangoon. Her paternal grandfather, whom she never met, had a family band and impressed upon his children that they all had to learn to play an instrument or become a singer.
“My dad, being Chinese, was prohibited from pursuing a career in medicine and in other professional fields,” Teh says.
He studied chemistry in Myanmar, but because he couldn’t become a doctor, he went into music.
“He used to play at North American and European embassies,” she states. “I remember he would say he would be allowed to go through the crates and find different records. That was the only source of external musical influences for him.”
Her mother wasn’t a musician but her maternal grandfather loved music. He encouraged Teh as a young girl when she sang for the family.
Scarborough was very diverse, which meant she grew up with lots of Black, South Asian, and Chinese people. Markham, on the other hand, was predominantly Chinese Canadian. She points out that her friends could tell that she wasn’t from the same Chinese background as most of them.
“I didn’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin at home,” she acknowledges. “I went to Chinese school for Cantonese and Mandarin, but it wasn’t something I was very fluent or comfortable with. So, I always felt a little bit on the outside because my family wasn’t from Hong Kong or China.”
Listen to Jacqueline Teh’s “Did”.
An unusual break-up song
By the time she was in the fourth grade, she was already writing songs with her friends. They would sing the lyrics and the melodies, even though they weren’t playing instruments. As Teh’s piano skills improved, she started layering lyrics on top of music.
“I was just sort of finding sounds that I liked,” Teh relates. “But it was such an enjoyable process to me that it’s just something that I kept doing and kept doing.”
Her passion for songwriting has resulted in some amazing compositions. Last year at the Jade Music Fest, she performed “Did”. It’s a break-up song told from the perspective of the person ending the relationship.
“It’s like a letter that you write but you never send,” Teh says. “It’s filled with all the things that you wish you could say. But you know that there will ever be a right time to say it or the right circumstance to express those things.”
She also performed another original song last year called “Fever”. It’s a stinging message to men who loudly proclaim their “yellow fever” for women of Asian ancestry.
“I had a lot of, like, pent-up rage around dealing with people who felt emboldened and comfortable with fetishizing me as an Asian woman—objectifying me,” the songwriter discloses. “They felt almost entitled to that sort of behaviour or language.”
She adds that in these moments, it’s not possible to respond in the moment if it will place her in harm’s way.
“This song was a place for me to transfer all of that,” Teh notes. “And it felt very empowering for myself to write at the time.”
Teh defines success by connections
When writing lyrics, she doesn’t aim for something far-fetched. Nor does she want to embellish.
“What hits the most is when the lyrics feel like it could be someone talking to you,” Teh maintains. “That’s when we really feel that connection.”
It’s no coincidence that she uses the word “connection” in this context. That’s because connection is something that drives her musically.
“My success is defined by the connections that I get to make, and getting to build these new connections,” Teh declares. “I feel such a wealth of friendship and artistic collaboration. So, I’m excited to see what the New Year will bring.”
Watch Toronto Spark editor Charlie Smith’s interview with Jacqueline Teh.
The Jade Music Fest takes place in Vancouver from November 6 to 9. For more information on Jacqueline Teh, visit her website. Follow the Toronto Spark on X @TOSparkOfficial. Follow Charlie Smith @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social.
