I wrote this a while back but forgot to post it, so it is a little late but that is better than never I guess… We have recently had one of the organizers, Lalla, arrive in Shanghai to visit us, inspired to check out the Shanghai jazz scene from what she heard from Afro Sonic during their visit there-
The Shanghai jazz scene has gained added momentum this year. A landmark event for one of Shanghai’s groups was their performances at the “Blues to Bop” Jazz Festival in Lugano, Switzerland in late August. The second Shanghai group, after Coco Zhao’s Possicobilities, to be featured at an international festival, which possibly represents a growing interest in the constantly expanding music scene of Shanghai.
The Afrosonic Orchestra is a “party band” with a focus on grooves from the entire breadth of the African diaspora, from US funk and soul to African Afrobeat ala Fela Kuti. Bandleader Theo Croker’s description of the ensemble follows, “Afrosonic Orchestra is a twelve piece Afro-Funk-World-Soul-booty shaking-genre bending-mind blowing-barrier crossing-dynamic explosion of sound and energy. Its very existence defines the 21st century, defying musical, ethnical, stylistic, and racial barriers. The Shanghai-based collective features members from around the globe on five continents including the US, China, Brazil, Norway, and Australia.”
The twelve members of this group represent some of Shanghai’s most exciting players such as Steiner Nickelson, Alec Haavik, Irwin Hall, Leonardo Susi, EJ Parker, Alex Ritz, Willow Neilson, Lawrence Ku and representing China in very fine form are Erica Lee and Hu Dan Feng. American vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater’s daughter China Moses also joined the band for the last two shows of the festival.
The crowd response to the band was enthusiastic to say the least, the fun onstage antics that had been developed by the band over their many performances in Shanghai elicited joyous reactions from the Swiss onlookers. The horn sections dance moves were echoed in the crowd whilst Theo’s ode to Dizzy Gillespie’s mock African ‘Abakua’ call and response to the audience had them screaming back to us. Towards the end of each show the entire crowd was jumping up and down along to Theo’s composition “Realize” and an encore was always guaranteed.
There is rumor that the band will be invited back to Lugano to perform again next year. Afrosonic’s previous performances had people dancing on tables in Hong Kong and has been rocking Shanghai clubs regularly, hopefully the Lugano performances will mark the beginning of a new series of performances for the group, taking their individual blend of Afro funk to the rest of the world. Please see the links below for videos from the festival-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdxyt9UWhnA&feature=youtu.be