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.

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!

The trip to Nanjing

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!)