Singing in the Chen
Shanghai is renowned for its jazz scene in clubs like Cottons, JZ and elegant hotel foyers.
Jazz can be amazing when masters like John Coltrane take you on a journey to new places of creativity and emotion, but much of the jazz songs you hear in this city are standards designed to keep the bosses and their cigar toting clients happy. It’s really refreshing to catch a set when the musicians are given the freedom to be themselves.
Steve Sweeting and our friend Jasmine Chen have put on a couple of shows at Two Cities Gallery in Moganshan Lu. We really liked their set from March 28th, which had Chinese folk songs and passionate Latin tunes to mix up their performance. Steve Sweeting is warm and funny as a passionate showman, whereas Jasmine is cool and elegant. Somehow, they achieve a balance between musical traditions and personalities that makes it lots of fun to go to their shows. When I heard this, it dawned on me that decent Shanghai jazz should be a confident clash of Chinese and international influences. It is probably obvious that I am not a jazz aficionado. I’ll leave that to JQ Whicomb of Shanghai Jazz Scene.
Steve and Jasmine put on another show last night, but we only arrived in time for the final few songs. I regret not filming the audience as they used plastic bags and clapping as percussion, but I got my camera out in time to film their version of ‘Singing in the Rain’. As fine as it is, I prefer their more playful explorations away from standards.