shanghai jazz scene .com

I know this is already old news, but for those of you who didn’t know already, the second location of CJW in Shanghai just closed about a month ago. According to musicians who had been working there before the closure, the reason for closing was a sudden massive hike in rent by the landlord when the initial rent contract ended. Apparently it might have been a move to force the club out, which may mean the bund center has some intention of doing something else with the space. In any case, they also indicated that the club will reopen another location in Shanghai as soon as they can. The original CJW at Xintiandi remains open, unaffected by the other club’s closure; as does the newest sister–the location in Beijing.

Well, as we reported a while back, the word on the street was that the live music was going to stop completely at the Blues Room. Fortunately, that has proven untrue, with a new band playing three nights a week. The new group playing there, headed by Willow Neilson, features various musicians and vocalists on different nights. The core group, however, includes Erica Li on vocals, Steinar Nickelson or Sean Higgins on organ, and Nicholas McBride on drums. The trio’s name is “Three point strike”, possibly a reference to the burgeoning kung fu prowess of the band leader. They rock out with a mix of not only jazz but also funk, afro-beat, soul, and R&B flavors among other musical stylings.

Three point strike is playing three days every week: Thursday (from 10pm to 1am), Friday and Saturday (11pm to 2am), and I believe they have ditched the Southern soul food menu and are serving the same food as the City Diner upstairs.

The Blues Room. 146 Tongren Lu.

Live music now every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.