shanghai jazz scene .com

So last night I decided it was time to make the trek across the river and see what some of the hotel jazz lounges out that way have to offer. There’s actually some good stuff going on out there, probably even more than the two I checked out tonight. Unfortunately, all hotel gigs come with their challenges, namely a general lack of interested listeners so get out and support them if you find yourself in the lujiazui neighborhood.

Genevieve Marentette at the Shangri-La

We took the subway to lujiazui around ten before it shut down, and walked first over the Shangri-la hotel where Gigi sings on the ground floor jazz lounge. It’s a pretty strange room, with no stage; the band is sort of just set up near the bar in the back center of the room.

She’s got a pretty ok Chinese rhythm section backing her up, all pretty young guys that read everything they play intently even though they’ve been playing the same tunes for months already. They get the job done: they stay together and even get the arrangements mostly right. I don’t get the sense that any of them really listen to jazz much though, the pianist David has a distinctly pop flavor going on. The bass player Lou does manage to stay in tune, and drummer Sean has a pretty good feel actually.

Gigi herself sounds great in the circumstances. She’s got serious skills, but in this context they don’t get highlighted well. It’s too bad that hotels get these great singers but then won’t pay for a quality band that could really make a special thing happen…but I guess that’s the nature of the beast. Having a jazz lounge is just another service for guests, it only has to be good enough. I’m sure it’s just as much about having a beautiful woman to gaze at as it is her musical and audience engaging skills. But I digress…Genevieve would rock the house with a tight band behind her. She doesn’t just have the minimal skills needed to work with easily (sings in tune, comes in at the right spot, has positive attitude), she also has style and finesse and draws you into the music. Especially if you listen and clap, which wakes up the band.

Trebeka and Oliver von Essen at Pu-J’s

After the Shangri-la we went over to the Jin Mao building where the Grand Hyatt is, but not into the main (tall) part of the building. Pu-J’s is one of the jazz lounges in the building, part of an entire entertainment complex which is the short building connected to the side of the Jin Mao. It says “J-life” on one side of it. It can be quite tricky to find if you don’t know how to get there, because you have to negotiate a virtual maze just to find the elevators, especially difficult if you come through the hotel to get there. Luckily I was already familiar with the place since I used to work there sometimes with Coco when he sang there a long time ago.

It’s another strange room, this time with a stage in the center of the room, partly surrounded by the bar. Psychedelic computer visuals dance neurotically on one wall and glass encased wine-rack-columns line the walkway on the other side, and the stage is pretty high so it feels like you’re playing on a narrow platform. Not an easy gig…especially with the multitude of distractions competing for customers’ attention (and business…need I say more?). So again, if you’re in the area and like good music come down and check these two out because they’re solid.

Oliver is an amazing pianist who has worked with tons of great musicians and produces a lot of original material of his own as well. I’ve had a few chances to jam with him in different contexts and he is top-notch. His extensive experience playing organ gives him ample left-hand walking-bass skills which he uses a lot for this gig. He starts each set with some solo piano tunes, including some originals.

Trebeka is a gorgeous London-based vocalist who has a passionate yet soothing voice. She’s very professional and sounds great, and has the added advantage of a sexy French accent in her lyrics. And you know these musicians are really great because when it’s obvious that people in the audience are paying attention the players respond with some exquisite music.

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Sunday’s Steve Koven trio show at number 5 was pretty bad ass, these guys are definitely tight. The club had booked them in for this date months ago, and figured that the risk of having them play while the club still had no performance license wouldn’t be a problem on a sunday afternoon. So they decided not to cancel the show. Luckily there were no problems.
They have a strong band cohesion, probably not in small part to the strong lead of Steve’s own playing and ideas. There were a few times when he dropped a beat here and there, but because the band was always right with him it never caused any problems. The three sets they played consisted of mostly standards arranged by Steve, lots of different directions and ideas happening. There also seemed to be a good number of original material as well, all in a wide range of styles.

The band split town right after the show, headed for the capitol city to play some more shows up there. Then they will head back to Toronto early next week.

Performance license still not ready, club in search of new investors
It’s still not clear when jazz club number five on the bund will see the return of its house band Five Below.??  The licensing process is taking much longer than originally expected,
the two-week processing period already stretching to nearly a month now.??  Of course the club could bring the band back in to play without a license, but it would risk thousands of dollars in fines as well as possible deportation of musicians.??  Plus the musicians would have to miss the earlier world cup games in order to play music, which would be simply inappropriate.

During the World Cup many local bars have seen a decrease in business, except for the major sports bars of course.??  And the sales of TVs and video projectors went up before World Cup quite a bit, so that during this time every bar can be a sports bar.??  It’s the one time of year that even some of the hard core jazz clubs put up a big screen TV to show the games (in a separate area from the stage at least).??  JZ has been showing the games in the roof garden and I hear CJW Xintiandi has a screen outside in front.??  However Cotton Club and House of Blues and Jazz both remain purely music venues, not sure if business is holding up ok or not.

Number five has always been part sports bar anyway so it’s surviving on World Cup business for the time being, however it’s hard to say how things will go after the music license does actually come through.??  The club’s operating capital has run out and it is courting new investors to put in what it needs to make the final push into profit land.??  Until then, World Cup might win priority over jazz until it’s over, and even then without the necessary capital the band can only play as much as business can directly support it.??  And if an investor puts down the dough and doesn’t want to have jazz anymore, well that’s how it will be.
So if you want to invest in number five (and promise to keep the band) send me an email.??  Stay tuned for the next episode of the saga.

The Canadian Consulate is helping to bring these guys out to China to play in Shanghai and Beijing, and besides this show at number five on the bund, they will also do shows at the Shanghai conservatory and some private event.

Even though the regular band is still not able to take the stage at number five due to license issues, this isolated afternoon event will still happen. It should be a good one too, I checked out the video on Steve Koven’s website and these guys have lots of energy but also musicality. There’s a 50 RMB cover at the door, but once inside all standard drinks will be only 30 RMB each. They will serve from the special sunday brunch menu as well as the regular lunch and dinner menu all day.

3-6pm, sunday june 25 at number five (20 Guangdong rd)