The Lobby Trio
Tuesday night I decided to hit the Westin to see my friends who play in the lobby before their performance contract finishes on the 15th of this month. I’d been hearing from other friends about it for a while already so I finally dragged myself down there, and I’m glad I did. What a great band! The trio, normally made up of Tinho on acoustic guitar and vocals, Jessica (pictured) on vocals, and Kentin on saxophone, does lots of beautiful arrangements of jazz, funk and classic pop tunes. That night Kentin, unable to come due to some prior engagement, was replaced by Jay Lasry on bass.
They played a couple jazz standards in a funky syncopated style coming from Tinho’s Brazilian rhythmic sense, and also a few Stevie Wonder classics. Tinho has that rich, full acoustic guitar sound where he plays both bass notes and chords, which gives the rest of the band a solid foundation to play over. He also fills in vocal harmonies under Jessica’s lead vocals, making the overall result even richer. Even though the room has a very strong hotel lobby lounge feeling to it, the acoustics work nicely with the sound this group has developed. Very open and relaxing.
The “Jazzy Bund Quartet” at Niche Bar
After listening to a set, I went to check out the band upstairs in the second floor “Niche” bar for a drink and part of a set. They have a vocal quartet called “The Jazzy Bund Quartet” playing, and it’s a much more intimate, jazz club sort of vibe compared to the massive lobby space where Jessica and Tinho play. 
James, the guitarist/saxophonist, hails from Singapore and travels back and forth between Shanghai and Singapore for performance contracts. The vocalist, Sonia, as well as pianist Jerry and bass player Morris all come from Shanghai and have played at Niche already for 3 months of a half-year contract. They have some nice arrangements of jazz standards, and have obviously rehearsed together a reasonable amount; but generally there is not much feeling or excitement in the music. It’s really a nice space for jazz, I think it could be a good venue for a sweet club again but it probably doesn’t pay enough to get really good groups. Before SARS they had a really great band from the States playing in there led by guitarist Greg Chako, featuring vocalist Deedee McNeil. Donald Jackson (who now plays at the Portman) and pianist Jack Holland filled out the rest of the band, and they had jam sessions every monday night. That was the main regular jam session happening around the time I first moved here in 2003. Then, when SARS hit that year in the spring, the hotel cut off the band’s contract and sent them all away. What a walk down memory lane it was for me to go in there again!
To finish off the evening I popped up to CJW upstairs on the 50th floor to catch their last set. It had been a while since I’d taken in the view from there and caught up with my buddies who play there. They have just been joined by a new vocalist last week from the US, whose name is the same as the Niche bar’s singer–Sonia. She is a great dancer, she’s got some really nice moves on stage. The rest of the band is Al Gordon on drums, Carol Chang on piano, Eric Wyatt on saxophone for just a few more days, and Dave Lowe on bass. They have a solid sound, as they are all good players but the way the room is set up they are all rather far away from each other; the stage is one long thin strip. So it must be a bit uncomfortable for them sometimes. The bass and drums don’t go through the sound system at all, so if you’re right in front of them, you hear a balanced sound. From anywhere else in the restaurant area or back of the bar, though, you can only hear vocals, piano and saxophone.
Also I think this new singer is just getting to know the band, so things are not totally tight yet. Being miles away from each other doesn’t help that situation either, obviously. However give them another few weeks and I’m sure they will all be more comfortable with each other and have some more interesting arrangements happening.
Who would have thought there’s a whole evening of live jazz to be heard in one building? One-stop shopping for all (er, well at least some) of your jazz needs, almost every night of the week in the Westin/Bund Center building. One drawback for some is that all these bars have among the highest drink prices in town, being part of a 5-star hotel complex; also it is not clear yet who will replace Jessica, Tinho, and Kentin in the lobby after they finish in another week and a half. We can only hope it’s even half as good, which doesn’t seem likely since I’ve been told they already auditioned ten bands for the position but haven’t accepted any of them.