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!

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

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

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/

Sam, Akira, and Jordan

It’s been a few years since Sam’s last stint at Blues and Jazz, and now the Boston-based guitarist and singer is back with the “classic trio” (plus one more) to rock the new location.  The rest of his classic trio I speak of, in case you weren’t around when they played either of the two stints at the old House of Blues and Jazz, around 2 and 4 years ago, are drummer Akira Nakamura and bassist Jordan Scannella, famous for laying down extra-solid grooves in many styles all night, every night.  And as a bonus, they’ve added keyboardist Todd Marston to the mix this time, who arrived this week to give Sam some extra chordal support.  Sam is a solid guitarist, but having a keyboardist should leave him a bit more space to focus on the vocals sometimes.  I have to get back down there soon to check them out as a quartet, because I’m guessing that it has compounded the greatness of this already amazing group.

Sam and his band play the hell out of blues, rock, funk, and soul, but I might be leaving something out because they are pretty darn versatile.  If you’re lucky, you might be able to get Jordan to show off his mad freestyle skills, for example.  And don’t be surprised if they bust into some reggae grooves or drum n’ bass.  And I believe there’s plenty of original music getting performed by these guys, though they don’t hesitate to pay homage to the greats of these genres.

The group is doing a 3-month contract I believe, finishing out the end of the year before something else happens in there.  When I went to hear them early last week, there were at least a few dozen people in there, so I guess that means the new location of the club is starting to catch on pretty well.  Not to mention they’re hiring groups that really know how to get the crowd going, like Sam Hooper and the hard-working showman who just finished his contract, Carlton J. Smith.  Hooper’s band has quite a different sound than his predecessor Carlton, but both have been invited back to the House multiple times so they’re all doing something right.

They are also keeping the Sunday night jam session tradition alive, so bring your axe down on Sunday if you like to play funk, soul, blues, jazz or something else you can jam with other people on!

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!

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

The next in the series of concerts put on by JZ at the Pudong Oriental Arts Center, the David Friesen show promises to be quite a bit different than the others.  Solo bass, especially upright bass, seems like the most difficult sort of instrument to perform solo on.  Let alone entire concerts!  But I have faith that it will be good, since he is known as a master of the instrument and his solo concerts are purported to be phenomenal.

Plus he’s got Lawrence Ku joining him, so that should change things up a bit as well.  If you didn’t know, Lawrence Ku is Shanghai’s jazz guitar guru whose skills are unparalleled in China.

Friesen will also be performing at the Shanghai Jazz Festival the following weekend, and will give a master class at JZ School. More on that once the times are announced.

For more information, check the JZ Club website or call 021-5403-0187.  For tickets, call 962388.

David Friesen solo bass concert
Sun, Sep 14 at 3:00PM
At: Shanghai Oriental Art Center
Tickets from 100-200 RMB

George Benson and Al Jarreau this Saturday

If you haven’t heard about this concert yet, then you probably don’t ride in taxis, watch TV, browse any of Shanghai’s bigger magazines or websites, and don’t have friends who are into this kind of music. Either that or you’re really good at ignoring advertising and your friends. In any case, it’s likely to be a good show since either of these two individually put on a great show as it is, at least according to everyone I know who have seen either of them live before.

I’ve got my tickets already. You can get yours from a few places, including mypiao and Smart Shanghai. Or call mypiao at 400-620-6006.

George Benson and Al Jarreau
Saturday, September 6, 8:00pm
YunFeng theater, 1700 Beijing Xi Lu near Jiaozhou Lu
ticket prices: 480rmb-1280rmb

And of course, the Shanghai Jazz Festival

This jazz festival, great as it’s going to be, won’t actually feature so much jazz as it does other kinds of music. But that’s the beauty of a good outdoor music festival, variety to keep the ears feeling fresh. From world-renowned DJ Gilles Peterson to Taiwanese jazz-pop singer-songwriter Joanna Wang, as well as the best of Shanghai’s own jazz groups like Abraham Carmona, Coco Zhao’s Possicobilities, and the Lawrence Ku trio, the festival should be a great couple of days.  Check out the detailed schedule here.

For tickets to the Shanghai Jazz Festival, call 021-962388 or online at Smart Shanghai. For general information about the festival, call 021-54030187 or check the festival website.

The 2008 Shanghai Jazz Festival
September 19-21
Jing An Park, with gates on Nanjing lu, Huashan lu, and Yan’an lu
Tickets: 100rmb/day (70rmb/day for students)

I’m a big fan of the music Steve and Jasmine have done on this album, which I’ve had the privilege of listening to in pre-release form. All the music on there is fantastic, and it’s a surprise that such simple instrumentation can still create the range of sounds they do on this recording. But also, as much as I dig the album, hearing their live performance of the music is sublime. I think it’s because one can see how the music is affecting everyone else, which makes it affect yourself even more!

And of course, every concert I’ve been to at twocities gallery has been great. I would even venture to say it is personally my favorite venue in town to play at, because everyone is there just to hear the music, and it’s not formal and uptight like a concert hall. Nearly every other venue in town that has regular jazz is still mostly about drinking and socializing, with jazz as a sort of background to create an atmosphere. Having the audience’s devoted attention really makes the musicians give extra-special performances.

Details:
Friday, August 29 7:30pm – 9:30pm, free entry
twocities gallery, 50 Moganshan Lu, Building 0, 2nd floor

for more info contact twocities:
52521518 or info@twocitiesgallery.com