Sam, Akira, and Jordan

It’s been a few years since Sam’s last stint at Blues and Jazz, and now the Boston-based guitarist and singer is back with the “classic trio” (plus one more) to rock the new location.  The rest of his classic trio I speak of, in case you weren’t around when they played either of the two stints at the old House of Blues and Jazz, around 2 and 4 years ago, are drummer Akira Nakamura and bassist Jordan Scannella, famous for laying down extra-solid grooves in many styles all night, every night.  And as a bonus, they’ve added keyboardist Todd Marston to the mix this time, who arrived this week to give Sam some extra chordal support.  Sam is a solid guitarist, but having a keyboardist should leave him a bit more space to focus on the vocals sometimes.  I have to get back down there soon to check them out as a quartet, because I’m guessing that it has compounded the greatness of this already amazing group.

Sam and his band play the hell out of blues, rock, funk, and soul, but I might be leaving something out because they are pretty darn versatile.  If you’re lucky, you might be able to get Jordan to show off his mad freestyle skills, for example.  And don’t be surprised if they bust into some reggae grooves or drum n’ bass.  And I believe there’s plenty of original music getting performed by these guys, though they don’t hesitate to pay homage to the greats of these genres.

The group is doing a 3-month contract I believe, finishing out the end of the year before something else happens in there.  When I went to hear them early last week, there were at least a few dozen people in there, so I guess that means the new location of the club is starting to catch on pretty well.  Not to mention they’re hiring groups that really know how to get the crowd going, like Sam Hooper and the hard-working showman who just finished his contract, Carlton J. Smith.  Hooper’s band has quite a different sound than his predecessor Carlton, but both have been invited back to the House multiple times so they’re all doing something right.

They are also keeping the Sunday night jam session tradition alive, so bring your axe down on Sunday if you like to play funk, soul, blues, jazz or something else you can jam with other people on!

This past weekend, the Shanghai Jazz Festival held in Jing’an park for the first time was an overwhelming success, with tickets selling out for each of the three days. Enough hype was created to make the entire thing a highly desirable destination, with hundreds being turned away at the gates expecting to be able to buy tickets on the day of. Luckily, the water stage offered some free music for the unlucky souls who weren’t able to get into the main festival grounds, with bands playing all afternoon Saturday and Sunday.

The water stage had a great mix of styles, as did the entire festival; generally it featured smaller groups and locally-based favorites like Abraham Carmona, Coco Zhao, Erica Li, and perennial visitors from Japan–the band called YAA (Yokohama Artists Association).

Of course it was the main stage’s eclectic mix of local and foreign jazz, funk, blues, rock, and pop groups that managed to draw such massive crowds all weekend, and listeners stayed around even through the (luckily short-lived) rainstorm Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s hot and humid weather didn’t keep anyone away either, and in the evenings the temperature was ideal.

Highlights

Friday night’s opening ceremony was just that, the symbolic gesture of cooperation with the JingAn district to put the entire thing together. The bands that night played short sets, with just a few tunes from Rolf Becker’s JZ All-star Big Band before and after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a few tunes from the Shanghai Latin Project, and then a longer set from Tian Square, a Beijing jazz group. But of course, the main draw Friday night was Gilles Peterson’s DJ set, which didn’t disappoint. He got the crowd dancing through his hour-long set, and it felt too short when it ended. I guess it’s always good to leave everyone wanting more.

Saturday was packed full of shows, and the rain only managed to interrupt the water stage’s schedule. I’m sure I missed some great bands during the time I was playing on the water stage Saturday afternoon, so please leave comments if you caught the bands on the main stage at that time. That would have been the Rhythm Junks, Xiao Juan, and Tuan Jie Hu Groove.

I did get to hear Bai Tian’s sextet start the day off on the main stage, which was excellent. Bai Tian, or Mark Bai, has been establishing himself in town as quite a skilled composer and arranger in recent years, and his set at the festival got the day started right in spite of the quick but heavy rain that hit during his set. That evening, after the 3 bands I missed, I witnessed Joanna Wang hypnotizing the packed field of fans with her gorgeous singing before Incognito rocked the house with their funky soul grooves. Incognito’s show was probably the most fun I had all weekend. But it didn’t end there, because the after party at JZ club saw plenty of musicians jamming together late into the night. After Andy Hunter and I got the show started with one sextet set, Alec Haavik and Toby Mak continued with another set which segued into a crazy jam. I saw some musicians from the Rhythm Junks jamming, as well as most of Alexandre Cunha’s band at one point (who played at the festival the following day) and then later on most of Incognito played a few long, rocking funky jams. That pretty much capped the evening, however I couldn’t keep my eyes open to stay any longer but I believe more jamming ensued subsequently. There was also a killer trumpet player jamming with them at the end, a woman who must have been playing with a band whose set I missed because I didn’t recognize her from any of the sets I saw. Anyone know who that was?

Sunday was generally a bit louder, though it started with a low-key set from Lawrence Ku’s guitar trio. Things got rolling when Sugar Mama and Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges each did a half set with Greg Smith and the Cotton Club band, doing some rockin’ down home blues. Zhang Ling’s band from Beijing followed with an even more rocking set, and then things turned a fresh direction when Alexandre Cunha’s band came on with their tight, rhythmic Brazilian jazz. Cunha’s group was my favorite among those who played on Sunday, perhaps because it was such a nice contrast to all the other groups that played that day. Li Quan, a local favorite, followed with some better-than-average jazz-pop songs before Laura Fygi did her festival-closing set backed up by the JZ all-star big band led by Rolf Becker. She brought down the house with her solid voice, voluptuous dancing, and suggestive commentary. I have seen her perform at other events to a CD backing track and always been disappointed, but she really was fantastic with the live big band. That band creates some intense energy onstage.

Now what?

As great as the festival was, there were plenty of problems. Since most of them were small, it didn’t detract much from the overall great vibe; however I hope that they manage to set up some ways to receive feedback about it so that many of the issues are resolved for next year’s event. As I understand it, this year was really a sort of test year for the Jing’an district government to see how it went so they can perhaps increase the scale for coming years.

I’ve already put together a list of suggestions I’d like to give them to improve for next year, including things like selling food inside the festival grounds (or at least letting you re-enter the gate to buy the food outside!  To their credit, they did in fact finally allow re-entry on Sunday), not running out of beer at the drink stand, more trash cans around the field, etc.  If you have suggestions, leave them in a comment and I’ll pass them on to the right people also!

The Core at Glamour Bar

First of all, I made it down to the bund to listen to The Core on their final night in Shanghai a few nights ago. It was an enjoyable show, one of the few jazz groups that is perhaps a perfect fit for the Glamour Bar in terms of both style and the sound filling the space effectively. As I mentioned in the post before this, they were channeling John Coltrane’s second quartet sound, and hearing them live it was apparent that they draw quite a lot of inspiration from that particular group and its members in many ways. But thankfully they do so while maintaining their own individuality, creating their own unique group sound as well. But the influence of the members of Coltrane’s most famous quartet is unmistakable in most of these players, with a strong dose of McCoy Tyner apparent in the pianist’s sound, Elvin Jones’ characteristic fullness in the drummer’s playing, and of course late-era Coltrane in the saxophonist’s quick vibrato and powerful tone. So for me the general effect was that the melodies of songs were quite original and the arrangements interesting, and then the solo sections had the effect of Coltrane’s spirit entering the room. It was intense!

I think it fit the club because the Glamour Bar tends to have great attendance for things like this, whether edgy avant-garde or other jazz groups, yet oftentimes people who come might only listen for a short while and talk the rest of the time. Of course, the hard core jazz listeners usually turn up on time, while the socialites come a bit later, so the prime listening time for all these shows is the first set before too many people are talking. However, this group was a good fit for the social tendencies of its audience that day because they had the raw power to reach all corners of the room no matter how loud the conversation level was.

The music itself was lots of fun to listen to, with a nice amount of tunes in odd time signatures (they opened the show with the tune in 7 that I heard on their website) and a few with characteristically Scandinavian harmonies (lots of major triads changing in quick succession). The players all have mad skills and are well-rooted in the jazz tradition (especially the tradition of Coltrane’s second classic quartet–did I mention that already?) while also expressing something unique and interesting individually.  So I was glad I went.

Lawrence Ku trio at the Oriental

I’d be cheating if I said I went to hear Lawrence Ku’s trio at the Oriental Arts Center yesterday afternoon, so I won’t claim that I did. However, I heard from others that it was a good show, featuring Shanghai’s favorite Australian drummer Nicholas McBride and bassist Peter Scherr who is up from Hong Kong for a few shows. They played a program of mostly Thelonious Monk tunes. Did you happen to catch the show? Liked it? Hated it? Leave a comment!

ETH Big Band at JZ last night

A few different things have been happening at JZ in the absence of some of the regular bands who play Sundays and Mondays while the regular players are on tour in North America. Coco Zhao’s band is playing a few shows in Canada and the States, so his regular Sunday night slot has been filled this week by a student big band from an institute of technology from Switzerland (ETH). The regular Monday night band is usually run by EJ Parker, who plays in Coco’s band. Replacing that group has been a band run by trumpeter Theo Croker playing lots of great original music. Anyway, back to the topic at hand–the ETH big band.

What struck me first about this band was the strength of their lead trumpeter. Also their percussionist was pretty great. The arrangements the band played were mostly pretty modern-sounding and interesting, I didn’t recognize most of what they played. Generally speaking, this was a pretty solid band, but some of the members were not as solid as others, which made it clear that it was a student band. Still nice to listen to anyway.

I’ve listened to sound samples from their website, and the music is all impressive. Definite references to Coltrane (they’re definitely channeling the second quartet in the tune I’m listening to now) but not in a copycat way, but rather in an energetic way, which I have a feeling is going to make their live show amazing.

RMB 50
Wed May 7, 9pm
Glamour Bar: 5 on the Bund, 6F
(021) 6350 9988, 6329 3751

The two mainly performed pieces from their album twotet/deuxtet including Wash Away (inspired by a dream in which Chopin meets Ray Charles), Huevos Verdes Y Jamon (a springy tune with a Latin feel featuring percussive cello playing), Sniffinâ?? Around, and Spirit Dance.

One listener I interviewed felt that Matt Brubeck (who is actually American, but is now based in Toronto) had an uncanny resemblance to Samuel Beckett.  However it is unverifiable currently due to the lack of pictures online of Beckett in his youth.

Three point strike is playing three days every week: Thursday (from 10pm to 1am), Friday and Saturday (11pm to 2am), and I believe they have ditched the Southern soul food menu and are serving the same food as the City Diner upstairs.

The Blues Room. 146 Tongren Lu.

Live music now every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

For the hour-plus long first set, the trio (made up of Burnett, Chris Trzcinski on drums, and E.J. Parker on bass) was joined by Alec Haavik on tenor and soprano saxophones. I missed the first couple of tunes, but got to hear the last 4 or 5 in the set, which were nearly all original tunes of Burnett’s. His own compositions ranged in styles from straight-ahead jazz to funky rock and 12-tone free stuff.  He also played or sang the occasional jazz standard.

Peppered throughout the night were songs from original jazz suites of his, the â??Creation Jazz Suiteâ? and the â??Planet Suiteâ?, which included a number of pieces named for various planets. A tune from the “Creation Jazz Suite” called “Heaven”, which was the one I joined the group on, was a 12-tone piece that was quite “out-there”, a listening challenge posed to the audience. I also heard “Neptune”, which was a fantastic tune played by the trio alone. There were plenty of other great tunes I also got to hear that I didn’t remember the names of.

He also was joined by the great Flamenco guitarist/vocalist Abraham Carmona for 2 tunes, one or both of which were compositions of Abraham’s own. Abraham sang and played guitar for one that was a sort of Flamenco-style rumba, and the other he was featured on vocals only–a passionate, fun Argentine-style Tango.

The illustrious Coco Zhao came up to finish the second set with the group, doing the old Shanghai classic “?????” (I want your love) in the great arrangement from Coco’s own album “Dream Situation“.

Unfortunately, I had to leave after the second set, but I understand they played some more original tunes in the third set.  Were you there?  Leave a comment about we missed.

I know he’s meant to be quite a bit more brilliant in concert than we saw the other night, but it seems as though a few things conspired to make Harry Connick‘s Shanghai show this past Sunday less great than it really should have been. I thought for one that the rest of the band played way too small a role, it seems that I heard more from Bjork‘s brass section the week before! And when they were playing, you could barely hear them as the piano and voice were so much higher in the mix the horns got drowned out. I fell asleep at the beginning of the show, with all the solo piano and mellow vocals happening early on. Then it was the same 2 or 3 players taking horn solos all night, and there was only one trumpet solo in the entire show! It makes you wonder what the heck was going on for this to happen, after all the hype about this great big band.

But then it dawned on me what the Ministry of Culture said in response to Bjork’s political outburst at her concert the week before, right at the end of the press release: “From now on, stricter controls will be placed on performances by foreign artists in China to prevent similar incidents from happening.” Bingo! Sure enough, players in Connick’s band told us that the government people showed up an hour before they were to play and went to town on their set list, crossing off a number of tunes they disapproved of (what was Harry thinking, trying to play all that counter-revolutionary garbage anyway?) and replacing them with “safer” tunes. Tunes, of course, which the band did not happen to have charts on hand for. Thus explains the extraordinary number of solo piano-with-vocals tunes heard throughout the show.

However, it doesn’t explain the lack of trombone sound coming out of the speakers when we could see they were obviously chugging away on their horns at times. Or does it? Maybe the Cultural Bureau had a representative sitting at the soundboard as a condition of letting the show go ahead. Somehow I doubt it though…from where I was sitting the sound guys all looked like Westerners.

Also slightly annoying was some lights onstage shining directly into our eyes for some tunes. I wouldn’t feel it a reasonable complaint if we’d bought the cheapest seats, but we were a notch up at 500 a pop.

I also can’t say I was particularly impressed with Lucien Barbarin‘s trombone playing on all those tunes where he was a featured soloist, but maybe I’m overly critical of trombonists after knowing and playing with Andy Hunter for such a long time.

But how about the Canadian guy he invited up on stage to chat with about food!? He sure didn’t do a very good job of representing China! He was also getting pretty touchy-feely right up there. Anyway, he lost the opportunity to easily win the “who eats weirder foods” contest as he didn’t even mention things like dog, snake, bees, all the various animal heads we eat here in China, etc. after Harry brought up things like chitlins, alligator and raccoon.

We were fortunate to have Jeff Bush, who plays trombone in Connick’s big band, join the JZ all-star big band last Saturday night though. He brought a solid and stable power into what is our local big band’s weakest section. I was disappointed that he didn’t get to improvise on any tunes at all for Harry Connick Jr’s show, since he sounded fine blowing on a couple tunes Saturday.

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!

I got to check out part of jazz pianist Burnett Thompson‘s show last night at JZ Club, a trio night of fun standards that he played with EJ Parker and Chris Trczinski.  He also invited Coco Zhao to join the group for a couple of tunes from Coco’s album that the two of them had played together when Coco was in Washington D.C. last summer.  It was a nice couple of sets, and it was good to hear him again since the last time he was here.

I missed the beginning jazz piano workshop he gave over at the JZ School last Saturday, but he’ll give one more next weekend that I’ll try and hit–and you should too if you missed this last one too.  It’s free and I heard good things about it from some of the people who did attend.  Apparently in his master classes he uses drum equipment to get everyone involved continuously throughout the workshop, whether it’s on piano or drums or other stuff.  Sounds like lots of fun.

Next weekend’s free master class takes place on Sunday, January 27 from 2:00-3:30pm.

Similar to last time he was here, he’ll also be collaborating again in a performance with erhu soloist Ma Xiaohui and clarinetist Kiera Thompson on Jan 26, 2008 2:00 p.m. at the Oriental Arts Center in Pudong.