Archive for the ‘upcoming events’ Category

JQ’s big 30 birthday concert this Thursday

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
March 12, 2009 8:00 pmtoMarch 13, 2009 4:00 am
JQ playing at JZ

JQ playing at JZ

The Shanghai Jazz Scene is making a comeback post with a shameless plug for my own concert!  Oh well, please agree that it’s better than no comeback post at all.

This Thursday, March 12, 2009, I will turn 30.  I’m holding a big concert that night at JZ to celebrate, and to give some new music to all my wonderful friends and family here in Shanghai.  Here’s a basic rundown of what the show will consist of:

Set 1 will feature The Magnificent Seven, a septet that premiered in a slightly different configuration back when the Atomic Bombshells (a burlesque group) first came to the Glamour Bar early last year.  It will be a light-hearted set of jazz standards and original tunes, with lots of excellent arrangements by the great Rolf Becker, the man who started the JZ all-star big band.  In this set a very special birthday arrangement will premier as well, a tune of mine that the illustrious guitarist Lawrence Ku has arranged for the group.

Set 2 gets a bit more intense with the addition of 3 more brass instrumentalists, which will bring the total number of horns up to 7.  This is the real meat of the show, featuring some of my favorite arrangements originally played by Edison Machado, an amazing Brazilian drummer who revolutionized Samba on the drum set back in the 1950s and 60s.  His music has been among my favorite for years, especially the amazing horn arrangements on his album “E Samba Novo”, from which the tunes we’ll be playing come.  This set will also feature more original tunes written and arranged by myself, but also another special birthday premier arrangement Rolf Becker has done of one of my tunes.  Coco Zhao will join us for the final piece of this set after he runs over from his gig at the bund that night. This will be a very climactic and dramatic piece, in true Coco style.

Set 3 will see the Cotton Club band come over to play a few tunes with me, featuring Sugar Mama on the vocals as well as the long lost Terrence Bowry who is back in town for a while.  After they play a couple of tunes, I intend just to play with all my friends together in a wild jam session that never ends.  Or see what else happens.

I hope you can join me there for some or all of this special show!

Bob James in Shanghai this weekend

Thursday, November 20th, 2008
November 21, 2008
7:30 pmto9:30 pm

JZ Club has started hosting concerts at the Shanghai Center Theater (the one in the Portman Ritz-Carlton building) and the next one is tomorrow.  This show is featuring Bob James, the smooth jazz pianist who recently recorded his album “Angels of Shanghai” here in town with a number of local traditional intrumentalists.  There’s more information about the project on Bob James’ website.

leaning on the piano

leaning on the piano

Performers:
LI li – pipa
LIU zhen – erhu
LU cong – dizi
MA jiajun – erhu
Gene JACKSON – drums
Bob JAMES – piano
Tetsuo SAKURAI – bass
Jack LEE – guitar
XIA tao – gu qin

Tickets are available at JZ Club or through Smart Shanghai, and are 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500 kuai.  There will also be tickets for sale at the door.

Start time: 7:30pm (2 sets of approx 1 hour with 15 minute break)
Friday 21 November 2008
Shanghai Centre Theatre
1376 Nanjing Road West, Suite 710
Tel: 6279-8600

If you can’t go tomorrow or would rather see Bob James in a more intimate (read: crowded) setting, you can also see him on Saturday night at JZ Club.  However, for this show he will only be performing with his quartet and not the “Angels”.  I don’t know why not, if the big band can pack 17 people onto the stage every other Saturday night why can’t they fit a couple of guzhengs and pipas up there?

Saturday 22 November 2008
Jz Club
46 West Fuxing Road
Tel: 64310269
Start 9:30pm (2 sets of about 1 hour with 20/30 minute break)
***Please note the unusual start time***

Bob James Quartet

Gene JACKSON – drums
Bob JAMES – piano
Tetsuo SAKURAI – bass
Jack LEE – guitar

twocities in tune for Halloween

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
October 31, 2008
7:30 amto9:30 am

This Friday there are plenty of parties happening for Halloween.  But for those of us who want to enjoy some live jazz, one of the best parties to hit will be the twocities in tune concert, the next installment of the excellent series featuring the musical adventures of Steve Sweeting and various vocalists.

They say in the City Weekend listing: “Free with costume. Well, free anyway, but why not have some fun?”

Fri, Oct 31 at 7:30PM
At: Two Cities Gallery, 50 Moganshan rd bldg 0
Shanghai
http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/events/32222/

Jazz Piano Recital by Franck Amsallem, France

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
September 28, 2008
7:45 pmto9:45 pm

Was browsing the culture.sh.cn site and happened across this jazz piano recital coming up at the Oriental Arts Center at the end of the month.  Sounds interesting, judging from the pianist’s bio it should be a good concert as he has played with many great musicians and lived and worked in New York for many years.  Hopefully he will come jam at the club after his gig, then we can hear him really tear it up with a rhythm section.

Details:

Jazz Piano Recital by Franck Amsallem
Sept. 28th, 2008 19:45 (Sun.)
Venue:
Shanghai Oriental Art Center – Performance Hall
Ticket Price (RMB):
300, 180, 120, 60 Yuan