SUNDAY 2 | ‘In the colourful cabarets and sepia-lit dance halls of Old Shanghai, jazz was the background score to a fleshy world of mobsters, adventurers and sing-song girls. Old Shanghai was the uncontested jazz capital of Asia, where musicians from the world over tested their musical mettle nightly to the delight of enthusiastic audiences. In 1935, Du Yu Sheng, the notorious overlord of Shanghai’s ominous ‘Green Gang’, ordered into creation the first all-Chinese jazz group, The Clear Wind Dance Band, to perform at the Yangtze River Hotel Dance Hall. Critics called the music ‘pornographic,’ but the band played on just the same.’ So sayeth ShanghaiJazz.com of the era being channelled tonight by PP-based jazzophile Philippe Javelle to celebrate Chinese New Year in feather boa-ed style.
WHO: Philippe Javelle (keys)
WHAT: A night of 1930s Shanghai jazz
WHERE: Riverhouse Lounge, #157 Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 7:30pm February 2
WHY: Celebrate Chinese New Year in feather boa-ed style (if slightly late)