Letter from Shanghai - JZ Club

Each week our man in Shanghai, Tim Gifford, reports on the arts and culture shaping the city.

By day, the tree-lined streets and elegant, period architecture of Fuxing Lu reflect the quaint, colonial heritage that Shanghai has managed to retain at the heart of its burgeoning development. The distinctive facades of classical town houses are silent spectators to the incessant chatter and traffic that courses through this noble district.
But as the sun sets behind the shopping behemoths of nearby Huaihai Lu, the street seems to slip into something more comfortable – metaphorically, I hasten to add – and assume its title as Shanghai’s most prestigious jazz district.
It was here that I found myself last Sunday evening, as I sought the Campari-red neon sign of the JZ Club. Now, before I continue, I feel it is necessary for me to admit that I am not a huge jazz fan. It is a musical genre that has never really ‘spoken’ to me. Nevertheless, I strolled up to the front door of this jazz institution with an open-mind and a willingness to have the mysteries of this dark art revealed to me.

Entering the Club was much like descending into a secret underworld swathed in plumes of cigarette smoke and bristling with the anticipation of its dedicated patrons. Taking the stairs from the street entrance down to the basement performance area, we had to squeeze past an unbroken line of spectators that lined the walls of this already cosy venue.
At stage level it was everything I had envisaged a jazz club to be; a congregation of circular tables and bar stools, flickering candles in miniature lanterns and cocktail glasses refracting the warmth of the stage lights. What did challenge my expectations, however, was the diversity of the crowd.
As we meandered through the audience on our quest for the stairs, I was able to get a good look at Shanghai’s jazz crowd from close quarters and was pleasantly surprised. It was predominantly twenty-something professionals out to sample some of the city’s superb musical offerings to round off the weekend. There were more mature patrons, too, relaxing with a bottle of wine as the house band wound its set to a close. But what struck me the most was the mixture of nationalities; bars or clubs in Shanghai are often ‘Chinese’, ‘Western’ or some diluted attempt at a combination, but JZ was unmistakably something else. It seemed like the only shared affiliation was genuine appreciation for the music for which this place is so renowned.

Taking the stairs to the second floor lounge I was told by my companion that the crowd had turned up to see a local jazz celebrity with quite a name on the scene. The lounge, its deep crimson lanterns and low, broad couches upon which silhouettes reclined to drink and smoke, bore an uncanny resemblance to what I always imagined an opium den to look like. From our table in the corner I could see a spiral staircase leading tantalizingly to another floor. My imagination ran riot, as is my wont, but was rapidly reined back in when I saw a flustered bass player heaving his upright bass down the stairs towards the stage.

So far the music had been upbeat but, to my heathen ears at least, fairly unremarkable. This changed as soon as the main act took the stage. Like I said, I know very little about jazz, and certainly won’t claim to be a fan for the sake of this article, but when I heard Coco Zhao start to sing I felt a little flutter in my jazz-less heart.
From his opening notes people were leaving their seats to watch his performance at the balcony rail, as if drawn by some invisible magnet of sound. He was young, trendy (skinny fit jeans, tight T-shirt and Shanghai-chic hair cut) and vocally outstanding. The music was infused with Chinese melodies and refrains but was unquestionably jazz. I was suddenly aware of how now this music was.
Shanghai has always been a jazz city, but this was something else. It was speaking for itself, and people from all over the world were here to listen.
In a smoky, crowded jazz club under ground, Shanghai had taken centre stage, and the audience was captivated.


JZ Club Shanghai ,46 Fuxing West Road , Shanghai ,China , 00862164310269