Tonight I went to two different shows. First it was off to Rene Marie at the Oriental Arts Center, which was the second concert of the Jazzy Shanghai festival; afterwards I, JQ, went down to the club, JZ, to check out the band, JR. Hmmm….:)
Jazzy Shanghai concert 2: Rene Marie, vocals
with Quentin Baxter (dr), Kevin Bales (pno), Rodney Jordan (bs)
This second concert in the series of four was a sharp contrast to last night’s in a few ways. Even though it was the same instrumentation and setup, Rene Marie’s singing style and repertoire were totally different than Salena Jones, as one would hope. This diva was quite a bit more physically lively on stage, and her fun zebra-stripe outfit was more on the African wild side than the sleek short dresses of last night’s singer. There were a lot more original compositions in tonight’s show. The band backing her up was also a major contrast to last night’s Japanese rhythm section; these three were all from the States and had a much more laid-back and free sort of vibe to their sound.?? Besides a couple of lead sheets the pianist glanced at, there were no piles of charts being fastidiously followed top to bottom, and they still seemed to have internalized all the complex arrangements quite well. I don’t know if this is a regular band of hers but it sure sounded like they’ve been touring with her for no short while. There was a strong communication and awareness on stage between all of them.
As far as the sound quality was concerned, the seats we ended up with were much worse than last night’s, so it was not nearly as enjoyable in that respect. We were relatively close to the band, but positioned on the far left side where the speaker mix was awful.
Also interesting to note was that I noticed more people walking out of the show early, and that is in a house that started out maybe only 2/3 as full as it had been the night before! And they played one long set tonight, instead of the two sets played the previous night. I personally enjoyed the show tonight a bit more than I did last night’s, not only because of the depth of musical interaction and interesting original tunes, but also because there was more highlighting of the band members’ individual talent by having room to stretch out on solos. But as a jazz musician myself it’s only natural that I would enjoy these aspects more, and that the average local audience might enjoy them less, as most people in China still have a pretty shallow knowledge of, and interest in, jazz music.?? And the Burt Bacharach tunes Salena Jones finished her show with last night might have had me yawning, but they were a familiar ending to a show that was overall much more accessible to the local crowds who nearly all stayed till the end last night.
then, JQ hears <<JR>> at JZ club…
For the second time ever! The first time I heard this band was when they played at JZ last October, opening for Cui Jian, the Godfather of Chinese Rock. They’ve been playing for nearly two years now, and have recorded an album already (What a Wonderful World). However, this is only the second chance I’ve had to hear them live. And it’s not just because I happen to be working every night they perform! It’s actually because they haven’t been performing very much at all, and what shows they have done are often at private events anyway.
For you see, ever since they signed onto a Taiwanese record label, which happened at the same time the band was formed, they have been playing only a select few public performances. Even though I have played with and heard all four of these guys (Feng YuCheng, tpt; Scott Dodd, bs; Zhu Mang, pno; and Nicholas McBride, dr) in different bands and contexts quite a bit since coming to Shanghai, I have only heard them play together as this band twice now. And these days they aren’t allowed to play any other gigs while under contract, so their only option is to rehearse and write music together all the time.
So they’re pretty darn tight! It was a good show overall, and talking to the guys I gleaned that they were mighty happy to have played in good ol’ JZ again. Besides having been a while since playing ANY show, it had been an even longer time since they’d played a gig lasting three entire sets…so they played not only tunes from their album, but also some choice standards arranged in a funky JR style, as well as some new things they’ve been working on. The tunes from the album were the cleanest and most impressive, the most deeply internalized of the repertoire. Some of the newer original compositions were also quite well executed, with some nicely varied solo forms. Others were a bit shaky, getting their “trial by fire” being played live for the first time.
This show is apparently a turning point for the band, which might possibly start playing occasional dates at jazz venues around town a bit more often. Stay tuned for more show dates as I learn them…