Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Flying Chef - Rent A Chef In Shanghai

The new Club Mao on Yueyang Lu



Well hello pussy cat. There's a new cat on the block this month with the ongoing soft opening of Mao, or Music Art Oasis. The club/lounge/garden/juice bar has little in common with The Chairman, offering exclusivity, decadence, environmental awareness, and late night music to in a decidedly non-Communist way.

The Yueyang lu club (that's just opposite Dragon for those of you who think in terms of a giant map of bars and restaurants) began a fairly comprehensive pre-opening schedule of parties, parties and more parties a couple of weeks ago in the run up to their big super mega grand opening party next Thursday.

The crowd at the last bash in the concrete and chrome designer haven was composed of designers, architects, professional partiers, media, young business owners, and other funky members of the International Adventure-Seekers legion currently arriving at Shanghai Pudong by the Premium Economy load.

Environmental awareness as a theme is carried throughout the venue, from the cocktails, made with natural ingredients, to the recycled material interior, and the gorgeous garden stretching out from the back terrace. The cuter-than-cute washrooms are more than worth a visit, although a little challenging after a few drinks, and as for the barmen, well, girls, you're certainly going to enjoy waiting for your drinks here.

Green-friendly though it is, Mao is not without its glamour factor. At the last party I attended there, the bubbly flowed like the French Revolution was just around the corner, and the glitterati danced to the early hours to a deliriously dirty baseline and very little conversing on environmental issues. No hairy hippies here, just the young, the funky, and the decidedly beautiful.

The architects and owners, the Vinyl Group, are amongst the hottest crew in Shanghai at the moment, having tucked into a whole host of high-end projects including the French bakery chain Paul, Arugula and Kraze Burger. They're also the ones responsible for ruining many a pair of my shoes on the Bar Rouge beach. Given the innovation factor of their current project, Mao looks set to become a top designer hot spot in Shanghai. I know I'll be pondering environmental warming with a bottle of Bolly in the VIP room soon, if only to take in the excellent mixology on show...

Club Mao - 46 Yueyang Lu.

Mao has its Grand Opening party on June 28th. Until then they only open for special pre-opening parties. Check their "Culture Shock" party this Saturday from 10pm, or the Christina Aguilera after-party next Tuesday-

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DMC 2007 China Final


The DMC (Disco Mix Club) is the most popular DJ competition for all DJs involved in the avant-garde music genre known as turntablism. This year 15 DJs compete for the China DMC DJ Championship Final 2007 title at 4 Live, with a live showcase of DJ, MC and special guests DJ CO-MA (2006 DMC World Supremeacy Champion) and Jifana from Japan as judge. Hosted by China's first DMC Champion Dj V-Nutz and the Lab Crew. Starts 9.30, tickets 50rmb at the door.

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Monday, June 25, 2007

Exquisite Design Lab Party


Thursday, June 21, 2007

Peacebreaker @ Underlounge


The name's Bond....James Bond. Underlounge are hosting a James Bond themed breakbeat night, the slogon "an agent with a license to kill". DJ Avium and DJ Kingpin will be bringing you the sounds for the evening. Dress to impress, any James Bond lookalikes (good luck) get a free martini. 30 rmb draft beer, and a buy one get one free offer on the 600 rmb Absolut Vodka bottles. 10pm til late. 50 rmb entry includes one drink, or free entry with flyer.

Avant-garde Jazz @ Zendai Museum of Modern Art


Avant-garde Jazz
An East-meets-west Avant-garde Jazz concert. The German Jazz-Star Peter Brötzmann and his long-term drum partner Michael Wertmueller from Switzerland are playing together with the Chinese traditional instrument player Xu Fengxia. This is Peter Brötzmann's first performance in China. He is among the most important European free jazz musicians, often called the "Father of improv". His former band "Globe Village" became a milestone in the history of improvising Jazz music. The concert starts 8pm. Tickets 80rmb, 50rmb for students (including one free drink). www.zendaiart.com

"Peter Brötzmann, well-deserves "father of improv", instead of a Jazz musician. Jazz or not, as Brötzmann himself put it, only represents love and esteem for the Jazz instruments. It is the torrential and incendiary sound from his instruments that emancipates the music itself.

Born in Germany, in the past 40 years, he has played with countless musicians of various genres. For him, music is the thing played by a group of fellows. Without any professional musical training, Brötzmann mastered clarinet and saxophone himself.

As an art student, Brötzmann joined the Fluxus movement, and he created works of art with Nam June Paik, John Cagy and other members of the group in early 1960s. After that, He met his first musical partner, bassist Peter Kowald, Together with drummer Sven-Ake Johansson, they formed a free Jazz Trio. The band successfully expands into Globe Village led by Brötzmann, which later became a milestone in the history of improvising Jazz music.

Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker and some other Jazz musicians joined in the band successively. Following the self-production of his first two LPs, For Adolphe Sax and Machine Gun for his private label, BRÖ, and a number of concert recordings with different sized groups, Brötzmann worked with Jost Gebers and started the FMP label. He also began to work more regularly with Dutch musicians, forming a trio briefly with Willem Breuker and Han Bennink before the long-lasting group with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove.
In the middle of 1980s, Brötzmann extended his interests to noise and heavy metal music, and he once cooperated with Keiji Haino. He remains active in touring around the world frequently. His performance with the Chicago Tentet reached an extremely high degree of excellence. Besides, Brötzmann never gave up his art ideal, and he designed most of the covers of his records.

Michael Wertmuller, drummer and composer born in Switzerland and now living in Berlin, definitely impresses the audience with his free spiritual performance. Wertmuller is a virtuoso, also a wild drummer, who merges the body and mind into the beating. Literary texts underlie several of his pieces: some from Nietzsche and Bacon.

On the other hand, he belongs to composers of technique school, appeal to mathematical proportion and computer control to treat the music. Wertmuller pursues strength of sound, high frequency and how to constitute the elaborate structure of the intense strength. In his most distinguished works Die Zeit. Eine Gebrauchsanweisung (time, a user's manual), he made fifteen musicians read the notes from a screen upon and controlled by a central computer that works like a fifteen-armed conductor and indicates the fifteen different tempi.

Wertmuller, settled in the computer world and in extremely technological procedures, has deep feelings for traditional Jazz as a free Jazz drummer. He reinterprets conventional Jazz music with reference to the computer treatment of modern music. In 1991, as the drummer in trio experimental Jazz band, Wertmuller started to launch discs with a blended style of Jazz, hardcore noise and heavy metal.

After that, Wertmuller published several records with Peter Brötzmann, as well as some records of his composed music, including the famous Die Zeit. Eine Gebrauchsanweisung. Wertmuller is also a fixed partner in Peter¡¯s world tour.


Xu Fengxia was born in Shanghai and started learning zither since seven. Graduating from Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she plays Chinese GuQin, SanXian and LiuQin as well as zither. She was soloist of Shanghai Orchestra for Traditional Chinese Music in mid 1980s, as well as the bass of the first lady rock band in Shanghai.

In 1988, Fengxia co-played with the European free Jazz musician for the first time in Shanghai. Afterwards, she moved to Germany, then established Gufeng band with three other Chinese traditional musicians. She is devoted to mixing traditional Chinese music instrument and melody with free Jazz.

In the year of 1995, she met with the bass player of Global Village led by Brötzmann, Peter Kowald and made European tour with Peter. She gained fame in the filed of free Jazz after the tour. It is Fengxia who infuses the clear, light, and delicate essence of Chinese traditional music into the free Jazz, which proves to be a new montage to improvising performance.


Reduced ticket price for Q5 members 50rmb. Please show your card when you purchase the ticket at the door.

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Jailhouse Funk by Charlie Xia @ Bar Rouge