shanghai jazz scene .com

You might know that I am a great proponent of original music as opposed to jazz standards, or at least jazz standards done the same old way. So I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by Burnett Thompson’s piano trio show last night at JZ, as he played tons of cool original tunes. As promised, he was joined by a few special guests, including myself briefly, which made the whole experience even richer.

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.

This piano man, who has been gracing Shanghai with his musical and educational presence increasingly over the last few years, will return to Shanghai next week. He’ll run two more jazz piano master classes at the JZ School, as well as performing at JZ Club for a Monday night trio show on the 24th. He will have a few special guests joining the trio as well, so come check it out, especially if you missed him last time he was around.

Here’s the entire schedule of Burnett’s clinics and performances:

March 23, 2008, 2:00pm: Jazz Piano Master Class at JZ School, 270 Wuyuan rd near Yongfu rd. Admission: free (but call 5403 6475 to reserve a seat beforehand)

March 24, 2008 10:00pm: JZ Club. Burnett Thompson, Pianist; EJ Parker, Bassist; Chris Trzcinski, Drums. Performing original works from the “Creation Jazz Suite” and the “Planet Suite”. Admission: free

March 30, 2008, 1300h Jazz Piano Master Class at JZ School, 270 Wuyuan rd near Yongfu rd. Admission: free (but call 5403 6475 to reserve a seat beforehand)

A last-minute add to the program over at JZ, the Copenhagen-based group called Jazz Kamikaze who have been getting rave reviews will be playing this thursday night at JZ Club. In fact, when I was in Copenhagen last February, I didn’t hear the band but I got to jam a bit with some of the players in it. They were great, very creative and vibrant musicians. And killer players! So I’m expecting a great show from them.

Their myspace page has a selection of their tunes from the two albums they have already recorded and there’s a nice amount of variation between the tunes. Some of them have a very rock-fusion sound, and others are more funky, but they all are lively and very tight. Very progressive sound these guys have. And all the tunes have an evocativeness that fits their entire cartoon-story idea. It’s easy to imagine superheros having adventures to this music.

Apparently, the shows they were scheduled to play in Chengdu (and elsewhere on the mainland?) as the China part of an Asian tour were canceled at the last minute, so JZ came through with some gigs for them. We’ll all be the better for it, as we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hear them in Shanghai if it hadn’t happened! They will continue on to play in Thailand after leaving China.

Not that free jazz hasn’t landed plenty of times already here in Shanghai, in fact all too often jazz bands that come through town are a bit too “free” for most audiences.  But such is the nature of that beast called free jazz…it’s certainly not for everyone.  But in any case now it has begun to have its own regular performance by a locally-based group, so those of you who do like this unique musical genre can come support it.  The group, called Blue koi collective, is led by Italian pianist Gabriel Meirano and performs every other Sunday night for the first set at JZ Club.  That’s starting from 9pm, and playing for about one hour.  The group’s next performance will be this coming Sunday, February 24, and after that the next one is March 9th.

The group is usually a trio, featuring Meirano on piano as well as Alec Haavik on saxophone and Joao Sylvestre on drums.  However, sometimes the group will be inviting more musicians to join them.

What is free jazz? you ask.  Well, in short, it’s complete freedom.  Anything goes.  Honks, squawks, squeals, and screeches are often heard in free jazz sessions, but the essence is not as simple as making farting noises on your horn for an hour while someone else pounds as many notes on the piano as they can with their elbow.  Rather, it’s about group communication, creation of new combinations of sounds, as well as releasing one’s conceptual boundaries and feeling the raw energy of each vibration.  At least that’s my understanding of it.  If you want some more insight into the subject, look here or here.