shanghai jazz scene .com

I got to go check out the new location of the House of Blues and Jazz the other day on Fuzhou lu just near the bund, right across the street from the Captain hostel. It looks like the new space is going to resolve all the issues the last place had while also adding a few nice new features to the entire package. The entire space is quite large, as they’re planning to use a bigger room towards the back as a dining room, where they will serve lunch and dinner. They are planning to be open from lunchtime straight onward through the late night showtime, quite an extension compared to before. Also the new place doesn’t have a big column in the middle of the stage blocking your view of half the band.

Lin Dongfu and Song Lan have spent an extra-long time (and extra-huge amount of money) making the new space just right, using the same wood paneling decoration concept as the last place–in fact much of the paneling came directly from the old building. They have 2 levels again, but this time the second level has a whole section where you can look down onto the band. They had to rebuild the frame holding up the second level, as the original framework was rickety and unreliable. They have replaced all the windows and installed a central gas heating system so as not to have to use air conditioners blowing air to heat the place in winter. The stage is just big enough for a normal-sized band, certainly larger than the last one but in a bit of a strange shape I think. It’s an even square, but because it’s facing both into the bar area in one direction as well as the main music listening seating area, no one side can be considered the front. Instead, the front seems to be the corner that faces both the seating area and the bar area. I suppose we’ll just see how the shape works out once people start playing on it.

Jazz lives again on the bund

I think the bund has nearly come full circle and its time as THE nightlife spot of Shanghai is returning. Number five may have come just a tiny bit too early, but even already then it wasn’t lack of business that shut it down. More and more great spots are opening at every part of the bund as well as on the streets set back from the bund. I’m convinced that it’s going to be the best place to hang out in town once they finish the underground tunnel for cars and get the pedestrian thing happening along the riverfront.

Live jazz has had a hard time maintaining anything on the bund, with number five lasting only 7 months as a full-on jazz club, and other places only featuring live jazz for limited amounts of time. Right when bund 6 opened, Tiandi on the 3rd floor had regular jazz for a good chunk of time–but didn’t seem to get the punters in with much consistency. Glamour bar and New Heights have always had jazz shows now and then, but neither have ever been “jazz clubs” per se, and they’re not trying to be. Now JG has started semi-regular jazz parties, but it doesn’t seem to be trying to become a full-on jazz club either. And of course CJW has been open for a few years now at its Bund Center location, but I would argue that it’s not close enough to the bund to be really considered “at the bund”. Even if the building is called the Bund Center.

So with one of the earliest mainstays of live jazz in Shanghai moving to the bund, it feels to me like a pretty significant symbolic event. Jazz is making the return to its earliest location in town once again, and this time it seems like it can’t fail.

The Speakeasy parties had taken a break over the holidays but now they are back, with a regular twice-a-month appearance at the Jean Georges bar. The party will, as always, feature live 1920s jazz from Five Below (the quintet who first got their name from the time they played regularly at the now defunct number 5 just across the street) featuring vocals from Aussie songstress Marta Taylor.

Five Below, in this incarnation, will consist of JQ Whitcomb on trumpet, Joao Sylvestre on drums, Mark Bai on piano, and Willie Blair on bass. The next Speakeasy after this one will be on March 28.

Jean Georges Bar (Bar JG), 3 on the Bund 4F — Friday, March 14

Much more successful than yesterday all around

I’m just back from the penultimate day of the Jazzy Shanghai festival at Fuxing park, and boy what a great set of shows!??  Opening the day’s festivities was Scottish vocalist Carol Kidd, who really got the whole thing off to a wonderful start with a few standards and some less well-known stuff as well.??  She really created a nice vibe right from the start with her positive stage presence, her band was tight and all the playing and singing was all top-notch.??  An interesting thing about her band was the guitarist played a nylon-string acoustic guitar, something you don’t often have in jazz…in fact the only other jazz guitarist I know who plays a nylon string acoustic is Barry Wedgle, who used to play with us back in the early days of number five on the bund.??  In fact, Barry recently contacted me and he is planning to return to Shanghai for the month of June this year.??  Anyway back to the festival: Following Carol’s group was the JZ All-star Big Band, who played a mighty fine show as well (if I don’t say so myself).??  I have to finish this post quickly because the big band is back on in about an hour at JZ club for our regular Saturday night show in fact.??  Following the big band was the band from last night, Vienna Tony and his jazz quintet. ??  They played a good show, better than last night I think, probably because there was a much larger crowd who was more responsive.??  One thing I didn’t mention yesterday was that their guitarist had quite a bluesy electric sound which brings a fusion feel into the music.??  So even though they played quite standard material it was much more lively than I might have made it out to be.

The final group tonight was Cuban pianist Omar Sosa’s trio.??  This group brought quite a different sound from earlier groups to the festival’s listeners, perhaps a bit challenging and esoteric for many of the audience members.??  It was likely because of this that some audience members left early on in the set.??  The beginning of their set was quite gradual and arhythmic, with the bass player singing and chanting for a good chunk of time before he even picked up his bass.??  He also played lots of small percussion instruments.??  Eventually they broke into various grooves, but I would say they didn’t really play any “songs” per se.??  The entire set was really a set of segues between different soundscapes, at times excited and upbeat and at other times subdued and evocative.??  I enjoyed it quite a lot, as it was so different than not only the rest of what I have heard at the festival so far but from what I ever get to hear in town ever.

There’s one more day yet to come in the festival, that’s tomorrow with the Bruknahm Project.??  Looking forward to it.

shanghaijazzscene.com to open comments to everyone, no need to register

On other news, I’ve had a suggestion from the owner of shanghai club scene.com to open up comments to anyone instead of making everyone who comments register.??  She says this discourages a lot of people from commenting.??  I think it’s a good idea, as I’ve never had very many comments on my blog and this could be why.??  I’m going to give it a try, but I’m afraid it might invite spammers, so if it does, I’ll reinstate the registration requirement.??  I’d like to do this now because I think it is especially important to get comments from people who have also been to the festival.??  I’d like to know what you all think of the festival, and what you think of my review of it.??  Cheers!

Well, it’s pretty much finalized, the jazz club that was Number Five on the bund is a jazz club no more. Actually, its jazz days already ended over two months ago when the inability to obtain a performance license for the venue dropped business down to almost nothing, just as the owner ran out of operating capital. So he has brought in new investors who intend to turn the place into a sushi bar. [Update: I thought this was nearly finalized but apparently it was not to be. He is now trying to sell the place to interested parties. Partied interested in investing in number 5 can contact them through the number five website]. Apparently they haven’t decided yet what they will do with all the equipment, or whether they might want to have occasional live music performances or not, but it’s not too likely that even that will happen, according to the owner. I’m hoping they sell the piano to JZ, because it’s really nice and JZ’s piano is in pretty bad shape.

But I digress from the bang part of it- I’ve been told that there will be a big party/jam session with free drinks for musicians (within reason, he said) to celebrate the memory of what could have been the best jazz club in town. It should happen on the last couple days before the new guys start ripping the place apart to install the new sushi conveyor belts and puke-green marble paneling (just kidding, I don’t have any idea what they intend to do). Once there’s a date set I’ll post it…