On Friday night I attended the release party of the Solitary Bird CD, recorded earlier this year by three musicians in Shanghai, Steve Sweeting, Jeremy Moyer, and Coco Zhao. I've known Coco since the late 1990s when he emerged as one of Shanghai's first Chinese jazz singers. In fact, Coco and his band played at my wedding here in 1999. Since then he has dedicated himself to jazz singing and lyrical composition and has greatly expanded both his repertoire and his skill set as a singer. Jeremy Moyer plays several percussion instruments as well as bowed instruments such as the erhu, and he plays them all very well. In this concert he was playing a coconut fiddle from Taiwan. Steve Sweeting is an American jazz pianist who has been living here in Shanghai for the past five years or so along with his family.
Read MoreA Week of Musical Magic in Shanghai
a description of various live music events I attended this week in the city, including the rock band Mountain Men from Yunnan, and also some jazz and folk music shows
Read MoreWindows Underground: A New Bastion for the Rock Scene in Shanghai
Last night Mency and I met my friend Mo Jin, who is back in town for the weekend, and together headed over to the new Windows Underground. We arrived at 11 pm in the middle of the Secondhand Roses (ershou meigui) concert. This Beijing-based band delivers a powerful mix of northern-style folk rock enhanced with traditional Chinese instruments. The male lead singer has a campy singing and operatic performance style, and is known to dress up in women’s costumes. They looked like regular rockers last night though, and like my friend Dan Shapiro (Handlebar Dan, though he shaved his whiskers for the summer) said, these guys don’t need a gimmick—they’re solid.
Read MoreSUBS in Shanghai : Great band but the venue needs work
Hard rock band SUBS from Wuhan playing at Windows Tembo, a short-lived music club in Shanghai
Read MoreChina's Jimi Hendrix? The Guitar Work of Zhou Chao 周朝
A couple of months ago I became acquainted with the guitarist Zhou Chao, who plays every Monday night with his band at the Melting Pot at 288 Taikang Lu in Shanghai. Zhou Chao's guitar work is deeply rooted in folk and blues styles. Lately he's been experimenting with a more free-form blues with a lot of wah-wah thrown in.
Read MoreChasing the Shanghai Winter Blues
Shanghai can be a cold place in winter. Unlike Beijing, there’s no central heating, so people have to rely on space heaters to keep warm. Or by piling on lots of warm clothing. Or warm bodies. Whatever method you choose, winter in Shanghai is still a rough ride.
Read MoreThe Best of Old and New Beijing: Historical Sites and Live Music
A week of touring old historic sites and visiting rock clubs and festivals in Beijing...
Read MoreHang the Police, We're Here to Rock! The Beijing Pop Festival, Sept 10 and 11 2007
When the capital city of the world’s largest authoritarian police state hosts a rock concert with headliners Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails, how does it prevent mayhem from breaking out? Answer: police. Lots of em. The Beijing Pop Festival was an impressive contradiction of rock-fueled mayhem that brought performers and audience together, and rigid military discipline that kept them apart.
Read MoreAnother Rockin’ Week in Beijing
More bands, concerts, and clubs in Beijing...
Read MoreProject Dementia Goes to Shanghai: An Interview with Wu Jun and a Night @ 4Live
While in Shanghai I was able to kill two birds with one stone, or as they say in Chinese, 一举两得 . Three birds really, since I also reuned with my family, but that’s another matter. While Sat and Sun were reserved for the CET fieldtrip (see my previous blog), Friday July 20 was a chance to reengage with Shanghai’s live music scene.
Read MoreProject Dementia Week 3: A Tsunami@2K, Jamming@Sugar Jar, Acoustic Glam@D22, and the usual Excess@PPG
More blogging on the Beijing rock scenes and nightlife...
Read MoreWelcome to Project Dementia: Week 3 in Beijing
A rundown of my week in Beijing, including visiting the rock club D22 in Wudaokou
Read MoreFreedom, Beijing Style
One of my projects while in Beijing is to research and experience the city’s notorious “underground” live music scene. The scene is not that underground really--for several years now clubs have been operating in the open, featuring gritty Chinese rock bands. One such club is 2Kolegas, which opened up two years ago. Run by veteran rocker Liu Miao 刘淼 and his partner , the club is located beyond the Third Ring Road on Liangmaqiao Street. It’s in a Drive-in Movie Theater Park. The area of its location is parkland--meaning field and forest. The club itself is small, and patrons can sit outside on a dirt-grass field and drink their beers while enjoying the (cough, splutter) clear Beijing night air.
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