I’ve just arrived back from a short trip to Beijing, a three day whirlwind trip just to get out of town for the last bit of the holiday break. Had a great time, doing some touristy things that I had never done before in previous trips (like the Temple of Heaven) and playing some music with buddies up there. Only some of the musicians I know up there were around, as many had returned home for Spring Festival, but we managed to get a few together for a bit of a jam session still.
My first night there I had a good hang at East Shore Cafe with trumpeter Gaber, alto sax player Nathaniel, and bassist DaHuai. The East Shore usually has live music 4 nights a week, but the bands were resting for the holiday time so the stage was empty for us to jam away upon. It’s a great club, I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Beijing and want to check out the jazz scene up there. It’s owned and run by saxophonist Liu Yuan, known by many as the godfather of Beijing’s jazz scene, who many of Beijing’s best jazz players have played with at some point.
Also I hadn’t seen Mauritian drummer Johnny for a while, who came out for the jam as well. He is the drummer who played with Cece and Natural Jazz here in town at the House of Blues and Jazz a couple bands ago, and continued playing with them since for a subsequent contract in Guangzhou and then most recently Beijing for the last few months. Also got to jam with their chopsy new Mauritian bass player, Fred, which was lots of fun. Johnny and Fred have a strong musical connection and sense of fun in the music. When they finish their contract in Beijing later this month, the two of them are planning to head down this way to play some music for a while. Cece and pianist boyfriend Sam weren’t at the jam that night, but I caught up with them last night at their own gig over at the JW Marriott and had a great time jamming with all of them there.
After we had all finished playing music together, Cece was telling me about a ski area about an hour outside of Beijing that is quite cheap and pretty fun. So some of us decided to wake up early this morning and ski a half day together before catching our evening flight back to Shanghai! It was pretty fun, but much smaller than what I’m used to…but very affordable at a total of 155 RMB for equipment rental (I snowboarded), ski clothes rental, and lift tickets for a half day. Pretty fun, I recommend it if you’re in Beijing and need a ski fix.
Anyway, hope you have enjoyed Chinese New Year and feel rested and rejuvenated, ready to listen to lots of great jazz this year of the rat!
Tags: Beijing, jazz, Natural Jazz, Skiing