Weekened R&B/Pop Music Bonanza

Had an interesting weekend playing a lot of music I’m unfamiliar with. I listened as much as I had time for, and learned as much as could…. I think they turned out well.

Last friday I was subbing for the bass player at CJW on Xintiandi. This place is one of the better known clubs in the area. It may have been one of the first to have a full band in there. I hear they used to play more jazz stuff, but more recently they do more R&B and pop music.

Anyway, they still play a few standards before the singer comes up. I was a little uncomfortable about not being so familiar with the songs. Especially when some songs have the same title! Like ‘all of me’ the old jazz standard and then John Legend's more recent song.

Also when you’re looking at charts and at the same time looking around for a signal from the other musicians, it’s really just a couple of extra things you need to think about that take away from just playing music. I could have that wrong though. It might be something I need to be more comfortable with.

Well…. I think I got though it ok. My camera didn’t work for some reason so I unfortunately didn’t get any footage…….

The singer Donyale did a great little trick and put a few hundred kuai (yuan) into the band tip jar. And then… guess what happened? The customers started doing the same! Wasn’t much, but it was something!

One of my friends is a busker, and they do the same thing. People subconsciously look at the jar, they might be enjoying themselves and feel like giving a tip. They see whats in the jar, and It creates a standard. Then people feel like that's the amount they should pay. They don't want to look poor or tight now do they?

Interesting psychology.

Sat night I was subbing at Shake. At this point in time in Shanghai, Shake is kinda “the place to be”. In terms of live music anyway. I think a number of the other music venues lose money. Not Shake!

On the weekend there’s a 7 piece band (rhythm section, guitar, keys, singer and horns) playing pop and R&B stuff and it gets PACKED! I’d say most of the clientele are foreigners, and people get pretty dressed up for it. Whatever it is they’re doing, the band, the cocktails, the design….it’s working!

One thing I don’t like so much about playing there is there’s no stage. It’s nice having pretty girls dancing right in front of you….. Personally, I’d like to have just a little something separating the band from the crowd. You know…. drunk dancers swaying and slipping over cables or monitors…. Something is bound to happen one day.

But it didn’t happen the other night! And unfortunately neither did my camera again…. Lucky for me I took a recording device too. I know the sound is too loud in there for that camera anyway. I thought it turned out pretty well.

Was a great night! Like I said packed, and people were dancing and digging the music right from the start. It really helps when there’s all that energy in the room. Makes it a real joy playing music. Especially with the amazing musicians that night!

One in particular was the singer. Courtney I think has been singing there for about 6 months or so. She’s really on another level. Just in terms of inspiration, believing, living it and acting out imagination with a killer voice and stage presence. She’s got it all really. I wonder how long she’ll be in a place like Shake….. It’s a great gig, but it can also be a trap for anyone dreaming of bigger things, or someone pursuing more creative/artistic goals.

I was disappointed I didn’t record the first set…. There was some amazing spontaneous moments. There was a vocal scat - drum trade off. Everyone was just wide eyed dropping jaws and drooling.

The last set was ‘Cadillac’. He kept everyone up dancing and having a good time with some funk and blues.

Both fri/sat I ended up at JZ club late night jam. There weren’t so many musicians. I’ve heard stories ….well, more like the legend about the old JZ jams how they would go all night and all the musicians in town would go and jam with each other. That was before my time.

I still had fun of course, and it is very late for anyone who needs to work in the morning the next day would make it very difficult. Still…. I’m optimistic about the music scene here. Things were always better ‘back then’, but I think this is a bit of a trick of the mind.

This is the kinda stuff I’m thinking about riding my bike back home at 4am in the morning…..