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Montreal Road Trip, 2010

// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Dancing, Travel

I’m back! Wow what an amazing trip! I returned from my Montreal road trip about a month ago and only just now have had the time to write about it. My last post was right at the beginning of my trip in DC after dancing at Jam Cellar.  From there the plan changed quite a bit – here’s the rundown:

• June 1-3: DC – Jam Cellar Tuesday night (June 1) and stayed with Soo Clark until June 3. Left for NYC in the afternoon June 3.
• June 3: NYC – Arrived in NYC at around 12:15 am and went straight to Frim Fram. Danced for about 45 minutes then ended up staying with Big George in the city. Had to park on the street, so I took a 3 hour nap then got up at 6:30 am, got in my car, and started the drive to Montreal.
• June 4 – 9: Montreal – Arrived in Montreal Friday night. Met up with Amanda and went straight to the dance at Cat’s Corner. Went to a club the next night, then explored the city with Amanda on Sunday. Monday I explored more hanging out with Jason Zwolak, then stayed for the dance Tuesday night at Le Petite Medley. Left Montreal for Rochester the next morning, June 9th.
• June 9 – 12: Rochester – Arrived in Rochester on the evening of June 9 and went to the Wed. night dance after meeting up with Joy at her blues lesson.  Went to Niagara Falls the next day, then came back and went blues dancing that night back in Rochester.  Explored some of the city on Friday then stayed for the opening of the Rochester International Jazz Festival.  Stayed with Lindsay then left for DC June 12th.
• June 10: Niagara Falls – Stopped by Niagara Falls with Joy Arico.  Unbelievable place and a major highlight of the trip.
• June 12 – 14: DC – Arrived in DC on June 12th and stayed with Amber Smith for a couple nights. Got to visit friends and spend Saturday and Sunday night in DC before heading home on June 14th. Flew back to MT the next morning, June 15th.

Map of my roadtrip

During those 2 weeks, I visited DC, NYC, Montreal, Rochester, and Niagara Falls…and went dancing in every city (often more than once!). As awesome as it was to visit and dance in such amazing cities, gettingto meet and spend time with so many wonderful people truly made the trip an unforgettable experience.  I also wanted to especially thank the following friends for opening their homes to me along the way, without whom the trip would have never happened:

Soo Clark
Big George Henrik
Amanda Fong
Putra Manggala (Angga)
Joy Arico
Lindsay Crawford
Amber Smith

Thank you all so much for being part of my road trip and for all the memories!

Shanghai International Jazz Festival

// September 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // China, Shanghai

This past weekend was the Shanghai International Jazz Festival – 3 days of incredible jazz performances by artists from all over the world. Unfortunately, I only got to see the performances on Sunday, but they were amazing! The event was held at 静安公园 (Jing’An Park) and went from 2:00 pm until 10:30 pm. By now I of course already found the local swing dancers (it only took me one weekend to find them), and we all went to the festival together.

I arrived around 3:30 during a local jazz trio of bass, guitar, and drums jamming on stage. They were impressively good, especially the drummer. After a few tunes a white guy got on stage with a trombone and started rocking it. After the first song, he surprisingly addressed the entire crowd in nearly flawless Chinese. Turns out he is also a local performer and was also taking the role of MC for the event. His Chinese was quite good and you could tell it really made a difference to the crowd. The Chinese hold great respect for any foreigner who makes an attempt at learning Chinese, and it was really great to see so many foreigners (on stage and in the crowd) that could speak at least some Chinese. It was one of the greatest mixes of cultures I’ve ever seen.

After a few more performances we went out for some Thai food. We returned a few hours later to one of the most brilliant Brazilian jazz ensembles I’ve ever heard. Led by Alexandre Cunha on drums, the band was a simple quartet with piano, bass, and a remarkable lead flute/clarinet/sax player. The lead was unbelievably talented with his solos, and the pianist was equally impressive with a very Chick Corea-ish sound. While the original melodies were refreshingly new and surprising, they often contained the quintessential Brazilian jazz sound of full unison on the choruses, with the bass player even singing out the melody in “ah’s” as an added voice (if you don’t know what I mean, listen to the chorus in “Spain” by Chick Corea and you’ll get the idea). They were the highlight of the entire festival in my opinion.

The last act was the famous Laura Fygi backed up by the local JZ Band conducted by Rolf Becker. The JZ Band is a full jazz ensemble bursting at the seams with talent (nearly every lead in the orchestra also leads a band of their own outside of the JZ Band). Laura Fygi is a born entertainer with a natural feel on stage. Her lower range combined with a bit of rasp accented her diverse repertoire as she sang primarily famous French and American “Big Band” music. All the swing dancers got up and danced at some point throughout her show (we just couldn’t resist). She brought a close to the whole festival by singing the Chinese favorite by Teresa Teng 月亮代表我的心 (pronounced “yuè liàng dài biǎo wǒ de xīn,” translated as “The Moon Represents My Heart.” Everyone joined in and sang together.

While this whole thing sounds like a concert review (I guess it sort of is), I’m only writing it to try and express how awesome the whole experience was. Besides the music, this was really the first time I have ever been surrounded by such an international crowd in China, and it was incredible to be a part of it. I met someone from nearly every country in the EU as well as a few Americans amongst the giant crowd of Chinese. The contrast to my summer in Dalian (where the idea of an international experience was going to McDonalds) is beyond description. Nevertheless, watching so many people from every part of the world enjoy the same thing together was a really inspiring experience. With many more weekends to come, I am already looking forward to the next thing Shanghai will bring.