Last week I had the pleasure of spending 4 days in beautiful Hangzhou, playing with the regular band at the JZ club there right next to West Lake. It was nice to get back to that town, as I think it had been a year or more since I last went. And the JZ club there seems to be doing quite well, the manager Joey does a great job running the place. I could only stay for the four days this time because I had to get back into Shanghai for my saturday funk gig, no way I’m going to miss a Red Groove Project show! If I can help it.
But it was good to do a bit of the tourist thing again, renting bikes one day with another friend who happened to be in town for a wedding, later hiring a boat to show us the natural side of the lake (where ironically there’s major construction happening to build some sort of stage).
I got to catch up with Dwight Dickerson as well, to learn what his upcoming gig in Dubai is all about. Turns out he’s signed a 2-year teaching contract there, running the brand-new music department at a college. So he’s pretty happy about it, and I’m happy for him. What a great opportunity.
Playing at the JZ there currently is Dwight on piano (center), Mike Carr on bass (right), and Carlos Vieira from Portugal on drums (left). They were my rhythm section for the days I went, and they’re a solid bunch to play with so it was an easy gig for me. They had Holly, an Australian singer, joining them before but had some sort of issues. So they asked me to come play for a month or two, which of course I could not do, so I did the couple days I could.
It’s a nice space, good sound, etc. so if you’re in Hangzhou check it out. It’s located across from the Qing Teng Cha Guan (Qing Teng Tea House) that’s in the back side of Yuan Hua mall. The address is Liu ying lu, Nan shan lu.