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!

If you haven’t heard yet, the 5th Annual Shanghai Jazz Festival is happening at Jing’an park this year from September 19-21.  This is the one JZ club puts on annually in the fall, known in previous years as “JZ Festival” or “JZ Fuxing International Jazz Festival”, as opposed to others like “Jazzy Shanghai” usually held in the spring, or the Toshiba Jazz Festival that never made it past the “first annual” in 2004, as great as it was.

This festival has always been interesting and eclectic, bringing in Chinese pop names, well-known jazz greats, as well as other groups from completely different genres.  This year the headliners include European diva Laura Fygi (backed by the JZ all-star big band!), legendary British DJ Gilles Peterson, and genre-bending UK band Incognito.  The entire foreign and local lineup, as well as all the other details can be found on the festival’s website.

My favorite year of all the festivals JZ has put on was the last one at Fuxing park in 2006.  There was a solid lineup, mostly good weather, and some great sunny afternoons on the grass enjoying the music–mostly everything a jazz festival should be.  I think they have got the right idea this year with JingAn park, as the district seems quite supportive of jazz compared to the others.  It’s also a very different sort of place, one that I would never have thought possible for a jazz fest.

In the past few weeks, Jessica Maurer and others have been performing intermittently at the club undercover style. Carlton has been in Shanghai already for at least a month, with the original plan of organizing a locally-based rhythm section, from what I understand. However, in the end they have flown out musicians from New York (including his drummer Joe who joined him on his last contract at B&J) and they will play for the next three months.

They had a private grand opening party last Friday to celebrate the occasion, and I got to hear the band. They’re quite solid, obviously these guys are very familiar with all the arrangements and have been playing with Carlton for some time. The German keyboardist does a great job covering the horn parts on the keyboard for all the soul tunes. The guitarist, also originally from Germany, has a good sound too. The bassist is from New Jersey.

The new place is huge, check it out if you haven’t made it yet! They’ve done a great job with the setup, so it’s great that finally it can go forward.

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.

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!

It’s been a long time since the (JZ All-star) big band went on its crazy adventure to Nanjing last October, but the story is too good to leave untold. Of course, it wasn’t scheduled to be a crazy adventure, but rather a simple big band gig in Nanjing for the German week festivities happening there. We knew it was going to be especially festive on our own return trip, as it happened to be E.J. Parker’s birthday during the drive back to Shanghai (after midnight the same night). The trip getting there was mostly uneventful, except for a sudden exploding tire sound and hasty stop to check it, and then after a pronouncement of “tire’s not blown, just lost the surface of one” an exceptionally slow rate of speed that caused the ride to take about 6 hours. Also Barry Wedgle (who was filling in for Lawrence Ku on the trip) fell asleep and Rolf took this classic picture of him just as a truck passed by carting a horse and carriage. As the bus pulled into Nanjing, we proceeded to get lost as nobody had thought to bring a map of Nanjing with us, and our driver received a stern talking-to by Coco for his oversight. We had initially departed from Shanghai with plenty of time to spare, but with traffic jams, the tire issue and the subsequent snail’s pace, we were already coming into Nanjing an hour after the originally scheduled sound check time.  We were all on edge, thinking we were going to miss the sound check completely, that everything was going to be a mess, and it was all the driver’s fault. At least we all thought so.

Now if you’ve ever received a stern talking-to by Coco Zhao, then you would probably feel wronged too. Our bus driver certainly did. But he didn’t say much just then, and we rushed off the bus as soon as we finally reached the venue hoping we hadn’t missed our chance to sound check, and already accepting the possibility that the whole big band performance was going to be ruined. Of course, we hadn’t remembered that the event company running the entire event was German–and so of course a sound check was promptly arranged, and it was lightning-fast, ultra-effective, and simply a breeze. In and out, boom. Not a problem at all. We were shown our dressing room, barbecued chicken dinner was served, and we played the show for throngs of screaming teenagers without a hitch. After packing up and getting another snack, the band got back on the bus and got ready to celebrate E.J.’s birthday for the bus ride back to Shanghai. The bus tire had been repaired while we played the gig so it should have taken only 3 or 4 hours to get back.
We had just passed around the second round of vodka-soaked gummy bears and had just cracked open some beers when the bus passed through the toll booth and suddenly pulled over. The driver stood up as we looked on and simply said, “who’s got my money?” He insisted that his boss told him not to drive one more meter until he’d been paid in full for the trip. We yelled and pleaded, begged and fumed, knowing full well that he was just bitter about receiving a Coco-yelling and wanted to delay us even more for hurting his feelings earlier in the day.  However, nothing seemed to work, and finally after at least half an hour one of the trombonists called the police. Meanwhile, James Danderfer in his sunglasses and black leather jacket was on the roadway trying to flag down another bus for us to hire and ride home in. The cop who finally showed up told the driver to get moving, and finally he did, grudgingly. And before we took off again, the cop pulled us aside and said, “when you get back on that bus you leave him alone. Poor guy has obviously been abused by you cruel jazz musicians.” So we did. We left him alone and we partied the whole way home. Except E.J. was the only one who lasted past 3 hours of warm beers, vodka gummy bears, and more warm beers.

I know it’s a bit late to tell you, but tonight at Blues and Jazz it will be your last chance to experience the current location. They’re having a huge party, and it’s also the send-off party for Theo Croker’s band who have been here for the last 4 months. Usually these parties are where we get to hear a taste of the new band coming in, but there is no new band yet as the new location has a month or so before it will be ready to open on Fuzhou lu near the bund. I’ll see you there (if you read this in time, that is!)

Here’s some more info about the improvisation workshops he’s giving over the next few weeks, as well as a special concert he will put on at the JZ Club next week.

I’ll be on the show myself at some point as well, as I just spent this afternoon getting interviewed about my musical experience, background, and inspiration over at the JZ School. All I can say is, I’m not very eloquent when speaking out loud…I just hope they have really good editors to take out all the “um”s and “ah”s. They also interviewed Theo Croker, so I imagine he’ll get featured on the show as well.