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

The Core at Glamour Bar

First of all, I made it down to the bund to listen to The Core on their final night in Shanghai a few nights ago. It was an enjoyable show, one of the few jazz groups that is perhaps a perfect fit for the Glamour Bar in terms of both style and the sound filling the space effectively. As I mentioned in the post before this, they were channeling John Coltrane’s second quartet sound, and hearing them live it was apparent that they draw quite a lot of inspiration from that particular group and its members in many ways. But thankfully they do so while maintaining their own individuality, creating their own unique group sound as well. But the influence of the members of Coltrane’s most famous quartet is unmistakable in most of these players, with a strong dose of McCoy Tyner apparent in the pianist’s sound, Elvin Jones’ characteristic fullness in the drummer’s playing, and of course late-era Coltrane in the saxophonist’s quick vibrato and powerful tone. So for me the general effect was that the melodies of songs were quite original and the arrangements interesting, and then the solo sections had the effect of Coltrane’s spirit entering the room. It was intense!

I think it fit the club because the Glamour Bar tends to have great attendance for things like this, whether edgy avant-garde or other jazz groups, yet oftentimes people who come might only listen for a short while and talk the rest of the time. Of course, the hard core jazz listeners usually turn up on time, while the socialites come a bit later, so the prime listening time for all these shows is the first set before too many people are talking. However, this group was a good fit for the social tendencies of its audience that day because they had the raw power to reach all corners of the room no matter how loud the conversation level was.

The music itself was lots of fun to listen to, with a nice amount of tunes in odd time signatures (they opened the show with the tune in 7 that I heard on their website) and a few with characteristically Scandinavian harmonies (lots of major triads changing in quick succession). The players all have mad skills and are well-rooted in the jazz tradition (especially the tradition of Coltrane’s second classic quartet–did I mention that already?) while also expressing something unique and interesting individually.  So I was glad I went.

Lawrence Ku trio at the Oriental

I’d be cheating if I said I went to hear Lawrence Ku’s trio at the Oriental Arts Center yesterday afternoon, so I won’t claim that I did. However, I heard from others that it was a good show, featuring Shanghai’s favorite Australian drummer Nicholas McBride and bassist Peter Scherr who is up from Hong Kong for a few shows. They played a program of mostly Thelonious Monk tunes. Did you happen to catch the show? Liked it? Hated it? Leave a comment!

ETH Big Band at JZ last night

A few different things have been happening at JZ in the absence of some of the regular bands who play Sundays and Mondays while the regular players are on tour in North America. Coco Zhao’s band is playing a few shows in Canada and the States, so his regular Sunday night slot has been filled this week by a student big band from an institute of technology from Switzerland (ETH). The regular Monday night band is usually run by EJ Parker, who plays in Coco’s band. Replacing that group has been a band run by trumpeter Theo Croker playing lots of great original music. Anyway, back to the topic at hand–the ETH big band.

What struck me first about this band was the strength of their lead trumpeter. Also their percussionist was pretty great. The arrangements the band played were mostly pretty modern-sounding and interesting, I didn’t recognize most of what they played. Generally speaking, this was a pretty solid band, but some of the members were not as solid as others, which made it clear that it was a student band. Still nice to listen to anyway.

This Sunday, April 13, will be the first performance in the JZ Jazz Concert Series at the Oriental Arts Center in Pudong. This monthly series will take place on the second Sunday of each month, and will feature some locally-based acts and some foreign greats. The concert this month will be the Frank Harrison Trio featuring Poet RD Pennant from the UK. More details here.

At JZ Club on April 21 will be a performance by Chinese-born American jazz vocalist Xu Bei, who has become popular especially in Japan, where she is signed to Universal Music. This is a CD release concert. Not sure if there will be a cover charge, but I’m guessing there will be, usually around 50 RMB.

Coming up later in the month, we have a number of performances by the fantastic Danish Brazilian jazz group Mais Uma around town. Their schedule will see them performing on April 17, 23, 27, and 29 at JZ Club, as well as at at JG bar for the month’s second Speakeasy party on April 25, plus a night at each of the three Melting Pot clubs in town. At the Taikang lu Melting Pot they play April 24, at Hengshan lu Melting Pot on April 18, and at the pudong branch on April 19. Free entry.

At the end of the month, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the piano and cello duo Brubeck Braid will be gracing Shanghai with some exquisite music before they head to Beijing for some more performances. They will perform in Shanghai at twocities gallery on April 26 and at the Glamour Bar on April 27. Both are 50 RMB.

To recap, here’s the whole schedule:

Tonight, 11pm-2am at JG Bar, free, 3 on the bund, 3 Zhongshan yi lu – Speakeasy Party featuring Five Below

April 13, 3pm at Oriental Arts Center in Pudong, 100-200RMB – Frank Harrison Trio

April 17, 23, 27 and 29, 10pm at JZ Club, free, 46 Fuxing xi lu – Mais Uma

April 21 at JZ Club, possible cover charge – Xu Bei

April 26, 7:30pm at twocities gallery, M50, 50 Moganshan lu bldg 0, 50RMB – Brubeck Braid

April 27, 4pm at Glamour Bar, 20 Guangdong lu 7F, 50RMB – Brubeck Braid