Over a hundred acts from a variety of genres will play at the 6th JZ Music Festival Green Note this weekend, including jazz-hands Tower of Power, Roy Ayers, Jojo Mayer, local rastafari Lions of Puxi, Mongolian Steppe-rockers Hanggai, and DJ's Ben Huang, Siesta, and V-Nutz, one of our personal favorites. more ›

Looking for something to do this week? Shanghaiist has got you covered, from poker and arm wrestling tournaments to a night dedicated to The Dude. Of course, we hope to see you show off your Scrabble skills at the Shanghaiist Happy Hour on Tuesday! more ›

JQ Whitcomb has been deep in Shanghai's jazz scene since arriving in 2003, performing regularly all over town as well as teaching at the JZ School and directing the music side of things at China's biggest foreign-owned radio broadcaster, Soulfire. Today, he writes about the best jazz acts that hit Shanghai this year. more ›

BEAN Shanghai, the international leadership organization with a passion for community service and volunteerism, is hosting their monthly networking night at Kuluska. Mingle with other BEAN members over drink specials and 15 RMB tapas, and find out about upcoming volunteer and social events. more ›

Distract yourself from the rapidly dropping temperatures in Shanghai this week with a smattering of eclectic events, from Chinese performing Hitchcock and Koreans performing Italian opera to Norwegian jazz and the International Puppet Festival. more ›

Dee Dee Bridgewater, the illustrious Jazz singer, has been one of the premier artists in Jazz for the past forty years. From her early days performing with major Jazz legends and winning Tony Awards on Broadway to her more recent work on Billy Holiday, NPR and beyond, Dee Dee has been shaping and defining the way people all over the world understand and appreciate Jazz. To kick off this weekend's JZ Jazz festival, Dee Dee will be gracing Shanghai with a performance this Friday at the Yunfeng theater, sharing the stage with a big band of both local and international musicians. We had the chance to chat about her accomplishments both on and off the stage, her views on Jazz from the past to the present, and her unbeknown love of Chinese art. more ›

Ray Harris "an exceptionally talented keyboard player who pushes Jazz into the electronic slip stream with an experimental fusion of jazz, funk and soul" (Will Page, Straight No Chaser) is performing at Jz Club, Shanghai this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. more ›

JZ Club has started hosting concerts at the Shanghai Center Theater (the one in the Portman Ritz-Carlton building) and the next one is tomorrow (Friday, that is). This show is featuring Bob James, the smooth jazz pianist who recently recorded his album "Angels of Shanghai" here in town with a number of local traditional intrumentalists. There's more information about the project on Bob James' website. more ›

Smart Shanghai more ›

They're not coming to play together, but rather in two separate shows happening this week. Swiss trumpeter Erik Truffaz is performing Thursday (tomorrow) at JZ Club with his band, and Saturday is Mike Stern's show. Each of them are bringing a quartet, ostensibly touring to promote new albums. Mike Stern's quartet consists of Bob Franceschini, Lincoln Goines, Lionel Cordew. Erik Truffaz is bringing Marcello Giuliani, Marc Erbetta, and Patrick Muller in his band. Both of these guys are pretty big names, and so the cover will be 100RMB each of the nights. As usual, the show will start at 10pm. more ›

Just a quick update on what's happening in the coming few weeks here in town. Once again, the Speakeasy party will be tonight (April 11) featuring Five Below with Marta Taylor on vocals at JG Bar, Jean George in 3 on the Bund, 4F with music from 11pm-2am. Free entry. This party, currently held every second Friday, is turning into a great hangout with more and more people dressing up in the 20s garb to fit into the Speakeasy atmosphere each time. With legendary barman Markus Bernthaler and his staff of bartenders serving up some great drinks, it makes for a fine evening. more ›

A last-minute add to the program over at JZ, the Copenhagen-based group called Jazz Kamikaze who have been getting rave reviews will be playing this thursday night at JZ Club. In fact, when Shanghaiist was in Copenhagen last February, we didn't hear the band but got to jam a bit with some of the players in it. They were great, very creative and vibrant musicians. And killer players! So we're expecting a great show from them. more ›

Not that free jazz hasn't landed plenty of times already here in Shanghai, in fact all too often jazz bands that come through town are a bit too "free" for most audiences. But such is the nature of that beast called free jazz...it's certainly not for everyone. But in any case now it has begun to have its own regular performance by a locally-based group, so those of you who do like this unique musical genre can come support it. The group, called Blue koi collective, is led by Italian pianist Gabriel Meirano and performs every other Sunday night for the first set at JZ Club. That's starting from 9pm, and playing for about one hour. The group's next performance will be this coming Sunday, February 24, and after that the next one is March 9th. more ›

It's criminal to live so close to the fantastic JZ Club and actually get to the place as infrequently as we do, but we're determined to mend our recidivistic ways after spending a thoroughly spot-on Sunday afternoon there this weekend. There are few other places you can just blunder into from the street and, without spending a groat (though yesterday the Guinness proved too much of a draw) to be blown away by some great... more ›

Yet another weekend has arrived, and seems a lot of people have been talking about the opening of the Shelter. They are holding a 'soft opening' tonight and hosting Dex, from the Underground Resistance, tomorrow. For those of you who are in the mood for more of a visual than some dude spinning on the decks (or laptop), there are plenty of live shows to choose from. Just down the street from the Shelter are... more ›

Saturday was a very successful day for the festival, drawing medium-sized crowds again in the afternoon and selling out completely the evening portion. The day started with E-Groove, a Shanghainese funk-fusion band who play a popular brand of original instrumental music a la '80s Michael Brecker. These guys play a regular concert series at the Jin Mao concert hall, and can occasionally be seen featured at JZ Club. Following them was Islaja, a Finnish duo who used lots of loop-based soundscapes to support the female folk vocals. She played guitar, and there was a man who played bass, and he played lots more chordal stuff than traditional bass lines. It was a slightly psychedelic, soothing sort of Finnish folk. more ›

One of Shanghai's greatest vocalists will be moving away for good, we are sorry to say. Arlene has been here about as long as your correspondent, over 4 years, and we've worked together a lot. She's a great singer and she'll do well wherever she ends up (first she's going to Dubai to play with jazz pianist Billy Marcus, who used to play in Shanghai at the Portman jazz bar, and then she's moving to Vietnam!). Next Monday, she will be celebrating her time here with a final performance at the JZ Club, and she hopes you all can join her for this festive occasion! It promises to be a lot of fun, as she will also be releasing her first CD that night, which she recorded in Shanghai earlier this year. more ›

JazzArt, as you might have heard, is a monthly jazz concert series held at a different gallery each month. They have become our favorite regular jazz event, not just because we happen to be involved with the planning and implementation but also because art galleries are fantastic places for jazz concerts in general. Also people who show up to these kind of concerts tend to really listen to the music, whereas in smoky bars at night many people come to chat, or conspicuously consume pricy bottles of booze, perhaps giving the occasional nod toward the music in the background when it happens to catch their attention. The JazzArt series has been wildly successful, much to the chagrin of the evil gallery owners who pulled out at the last minute of planning early this year. Drawing an estimated 250 people to last month's show, at least 300 people are expected to pack this month's concert on the 3rd floor of MOCA to the brim. So get there early in order to get a seat, as there will only be about 100 chairs. more ›

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!). more ›

These are definitely the dog days of summer and as in summers past, live shows have dried up with the heat. Ironically enough Shanghaiist has chosen to skip town and head to even hotter Hong Kong where PK-14, Hedge Hog, New Pants and the Re-tros will be playing in the cramped but intimate Fringe Club on Sunday. more ›

The JazzArt concert series got off to a fantastic start with a packed house enjoying two sets of Lawrence Ku's original music on this past Sunday. His group of seven musicians featured the cream of the crop on the Shanghai jazz scene, nearly all of whom are also faculty at the JZ school — including EJ Parker, Alec Haavik, Andy Hunter, Chris Trzcinski, the author of this post, Lawrence himself, as well as the amazing Beijing-based pianist XiaJia. The concert was held at the TwoCities art gallery on Moganshan Lu, and was a perfect room for the band to play in. It's just the right size for that kind of ensemble, because there was no need to use microphones at all. In fact the only amplification used was for the bass and guitar, and it was minimal. more ›

Enduring eight straight days of work ahead of the Golden week? Take this opportunity to let off some steam and get out and hit what Shanghaiist thinks that Shanghai has to offer before you either vamoose out of town or bunker down to avoid the May 1st Holiday crush. more ›

"Sax in Shanghai" (not to be confused with a certain blog) is a concert and workshop given by the London-based National Saxophone Choir and it will take place on Thursday at JZ Club from 5-8pm. The event, organized through the JZ School, will feature about 20 saxophonists who regularly play with the NSC as well as any and all sax players who attend the workshop. During the workshop, which runs from 5 to about 6:30, the NSC members will invite everyone to play and prepare a few pieces that will be performed by everyone together at the concert. The concert itself will start at 7pm and will include a short feature by the saxophone group from the Shanghai Conservatory led by Zhang Xiaolu. more ›

One of our favorite Hammond organ players, Steinar Nickelson, is coming back to Shanghai for a few weeks. Another fantastic Norwegian musician, drummer Håkon Mjåset Johansen, will be in town also for only a few days and will play a short concert with Steinar and — shameless plug alert — the writer of this post at JZ Club this Monday night (the 26th). We will play one set, performing a selection of original compositions written by Steinar and, yes, the writer of this post. This show is not replacing the regularly scheduled performance, as Monday night players Arlene, EJ, and Yuko will still play the second and third sets as normal. more ›

Having just spent some time in Denmark ourselves, we were delighted to discover that some great Danish musicians would be arriving in Shanghai to play so soon after our return. These guys are quite well-known in Denmark and Europe, having recorded and toured around the world a bit. When we asked our Danish friends about these guys, they said that drummer Emil de Waal is famous as a player of every kind of music, not just jazz. It appears from the press release for the tour on the promoter’s website that he will be playing by himself with computer(s) acting as the rest of the band. Sounds interesting. We believe he’s the type of player who can hold up a show like this on his own, just judging from his reputation. more ›

Lyrics to “Nothing to My Name” (一无所有) were already echoing in our head when we passed through the door of JZ Club on Monday night for Cui Jian's show: more ›

We are told he played to a packed house for two hours straight. more ›

Yes, that Cui Jian. The godfather of Chinese rock. The one some call "China's Bruce Springsteen." The guy they put on the cover of the first Chinese Rolling Stone. The guy who last year shared a Shanghai stage and accompanied (kind of) Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. more ›

Last Saturday night, Shanghaiist fancied going to this new place we heard of — the bar where you can drink cocktails with Absinthe — called Tara 57. Located on Fuxing Lu, just next to Boona 2, and opposite JZ Club, this “cocktail lounge”, as they call it, is a very small place. And that is actually a good thing — it's very cozy. Even more (and this is important for us), there is a coat-rack, so you don’t have to keep your coat on your knees while sipping your drink, so you can actually show that, yes, you did dress up tonight, and, no, you are not wearing jeans again. But the coat rack at Tara 57 was ridiculously small (or maybe our coat is ridiculously large?), and it kept falling on us, which spoiled our visit just a little bit. more ›

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