Results tagged “bigband”

We know he's meant to be quite a bit more brilliant in concert than we saw the other night, but it seems as though a few things conspired to make Harry Connick's Shanghai show this past Sunday less great than it really should have been. For one, the role that the rest of the band played was way too small — it seems that we heard more from Bjork's brass section the week before! And when they were playing, you could barely hear them as the piano and voice were so much higher in the mix and the horns got drowned out. We fell asleep at the beginning of the show, with all the solo piano and mellow vocals happening. Then it was the same 2 or 3 players taking horn solos all night, and there was only one trumpet solo in the entire show! It makes you wonder what the heck was going on for this to happen, after all the hype about this great big band.

Due to multiple requests (total of two, and one was me) here is more golden week festival news. The previously mention Hop Festival has gotten an official name...so....let it hence forth be referred to as the Yue Festival. Ticket prices are set at 140rmb for students, 280rmb advanced purchase and 360rmb at the gate. Rock-ing has also released their ticket prices and they range from 280-880 depending on how special you want to feel. For those who are worried about getting to Zhujiajiao and back to see the 1234 Beach Rock Festival, your sleepless nights are over! Promoters have promised to keep the complimentary shuttle buses running to Shanghai Stadium late into the night. Shanghai isn't the only Chinese city to catch festival fever. Modern Sky in Beijing will also be hosting a 3 day festival at Haidian Park that first week in October. Rumored headliners are the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Mogwai. We will keep our ear to the underground and keep you updated on the freshest festival news (aren't we clever? we can string words that rhyme into sentences!).

We were lucky enough to hear about the concert held by the Espoo Big Band from Espoo, Finland held last night before it happened. Held in a ballroom at the Regal International East Asia hotel, the show was not widely publicized, and most people we talked to at the event had only heard about it a few days beforehand like us. There was still a pretty good turnout, but it’s too bad more people didn’t make it because it was a pretty amazing show.

“Great day, great bands, great venue…but we wished more people would have turned out”. -- Unnamed Fuxing Park Jazz Fest promoter

Today is the first of three days of jazz music in Fuxing park, and if you aren't into jazz then perhaps the enticing prospect of being allowed to sit on the grass field is enough reason to show up. Yes, folks, you heard it right- an outdoor music festival on a lawn, in China. The last time they had a music festival here, the grass was covered with some protective hard lego-like pieces of plastic that fit together and were more uncomfortable to sit on than concrete. It appears that this time things will be a bit more like the music festivals of yore, with food and drink, picnic style enjoyment of music, and a mellow sunny atmosphere.