Results tagged “stevesweeting”

Concert promoting "The Color of Love" at twocities gallery this Friday

Smart Shanghai

These concerts keep getting better and better. The twocities in tune concerts have traditionally featured Steve Sweeting on piano joined by a vocalist, and the last one we heard with Jasmine Chen on vocals was off the hook. This time, Steve is going all-out and bringing in bass and drums to join him and vocalist Coco Zhao to make the final concert in the spring series a show-stopper. Playing bass will be Scott Dodd and on drums will be Charlie Foldesh.

Steve Sweeting knows how to bring creativity out of vocalists. Having worked with a number of local singers in Shanghai since he moved out here almost two years ago, he has produced a number of concerts and even a few albums already with many of Shanghai's best singers. His popular ongoing vocal-piano duo concert series at Twocities Gallery "Twocities in tune," has always been well-attended, as they tend to premier new music and ideas. Even people who have heard these singers before are amazed at these concerts because there's always plenty of completely new stuff.

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line...

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...

The lovely Anna J's stint doing Wednesdays at the Glamour Bar was interrupted last month when she was injured and put in a big cast for a while. However, she is better now, and ready to rock the Bund once again every Wednesday starting from June 13. Her band is fab as before, consisting of EJ Parker on the upright bass and Steve Sweeting on the piano. The sound is great in the room, and the house is always packed by the second set so get there early to find a good seat. Or just call ahead and reserve one.

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.

This first week of the JazzArt concert series will feature the Lawrence Ku Septet playing at the TwoCities Gallery at M50 on Moganshan lu. The septet, which performs quite rarely, is in fact playing quite a few times this month. This is partly because trombonist Andy Hunter is in town through the end of the month, and there aren’t really any other good jazz trombonists in Shanghai. Besides the Jazzy Shanghai festival performance last week and this weekend’s JazzArt concert, the group will also play a CD release party on the 24th (and the Beijing jazz festival at the end of the month). Of course, the imminent release of the album is the other main reason for the increased performance frequency.

As part of the ongoing "Twocities in Tune" concert series, tonight there will be a duo concert by Steve Sweeting and Coco Zhao at 7:30 pm. These two have done a few of these concerts together already, some of which we reported on previously, also at the last minute. All of the concerts in this series are held at the Twocities Gallery at M50 on Moganshan Lu, and each one features Steve's masterful piano skills together with a talented vocalist. This particular duo has recently recorded an album, which is still in the production process. We'll be sure to let you know when the CD release (party) is when we catch word of it.

Lucky for Shanghaiist, we won't be. But we certainly feel for people who will be stuck in the city for the holidays. So we've compiled an incomplete list of a few things to keep you occupied while your friends are back home drinking eggnog and getting wasted with family around the Christmas tree.

Twocities Gallery (双城现代手工艺术馆), 50 Moganshan Lu, Building 0, 2nd floor (near Aomen Lu). 莫干山路50号0号楼2楼,近澳门路.Tel: 52521518