scofield x ray charles

after a day full of mishaps and spending over $60HK and 7 hours on transportation to nowhere, at the end of the day i was at least able to see john scofield at the hong kong culture center (albeit half an hour late). i haven't seen the man since i was a sophmore in high school.. at the ark in ann arbor which was a nice intimate show in a smallish venue. this time around it was in a large concert hall and i was stuck up on the balcony.. it was good though, despite the relatively unresponsive hong kong crowd. they had difficultiy clapping with the music- which reminded me of the (wonderful) movie, swing girls. it's a movie about misfit japanese schoolgirls who join a big band group to avoid summer make up classes... but then they actually find an interest in jazz and its the story of them saving money to buy intstruments and trying to become a real big band. in part of the movie they learn how jazz is syncopated... because all of them clap to the music on the 1st and 3rd beats instead of the 2nd and 4th beats. then there's this wonderful little segment of them clapping on to music in various places around the city. anyway- that's what most of the crowd was like, clapping on the 1st and the 3rd, which was really odd to me- i guess there's not a lot of exposure to jazz here. oh, but we sat next to a old interracial couple (in their 60s?) that were getting down, singing along, and dancing in their seats which was refreshing. sitting there also renewed my interest in buying a hammond b-3 organ... ah i really wish i never quit playing piano or at least was motivated/talented enough to pursue jazz piano on my own. and i wish i could sing. this guy by the name of dean bowman was on vocals.. and damn the man could sing a very convincing ray charles.

afterwards i had to meet scott at a hipster party at the cattle depot artist village, something like the art community, "dashanzi", in beijing but much smaller. the place is out of the way, in hong hom, and used to be a genuine cattle depot. it was only interesting because it was an international gathering of hipsters haha, but they were too cool to talk to me so i didn't find out what "the scene" was like here. but who really cares?