The Fringe Club brings the world to your doorstep tonight courtesy of the Guy Le Claire Trio. Hong Kong's premier jazz and jazz-rock guitarist returns for an evening of multicultural offerings filtered through his wide experience of music from around the world.
A native Australian, Le Claire (below) has worked extensively in the jazz melting pot of New York, and picked up diverse influences from numerous tours of Asia. He has played with almost every big-name blues artist to pass through Hong Kong in recent years, and studied traditional Chinese, Brazilian and Cuban music. All of which informs his often incendiary playing and guarantees a mesmerising medley.
Less established than Le Claire but capable of making just as much noise are the local bands comprising the line-up of tomorrow's (September 30) Saturday Night Live Band Show. Appearing at Sheung Wan Civic Centre will be Daze (see Q&A - Page 38), Outro, Lado Project and JetHouse, all prize-winners at the Hong Kong Teenage Band Competition 2000. They will be joined by other indie bands, including Elf Fatima, also prime movers on the local scene.
Quarry Bay's jaded office workers are now stepping out to free jazz treats at Friday lunchtimes and again on Friday evenings. Until November 24, outfits including the Rey Cristobal Jazz Group, Anthony Fernandes' Latin Jazz Ensemble, the Guy Le Claire Trio and Jazz Straight Up will be performing at the end of each working week at locations around the Island East office complex off King's Road.
Jazz Straight Up, led by saxophonist Tim Wilson, will open today's (Septem-ber 29) proceedings at 1pm in the Devon House/Dorset House exhibition area in Taikoo Place. As the moniker suggests, mainstream jazz is their bag. The Saturday Night Jazz Orchestra, formed 10 years ago by Japanese ex-pats, now has almost 40 members drawn from around the world; they will perform the second half of the double bill when they appear at 5pm for a couple of hours of al fresco grooving in Tong Chong Street.
Make sure, however, you catch them while you can: a recent street show at the same 'venue' by the Anthony Fernandes Latin Jazz Ensemble was curtailed 90 minutes into the planned, three-hour set when police intervened. An amazed Fernandes said later that the early-evening festival atmosphere seemed too much for some workers and residents.
