Looking back on 2014, apart from the cancellation of the Hong Kong edition of the North Sea Jazz festival, we had a pretty good year for live jazz and blues.
The Jazz World Live Series brought us performances by the Larry Carlton Trio, the Robben Ford Band, Max Ionata and Dado Moroni, Hiromi Uehara's Trio Project, the Oz Noy Trio, the Eddie Gomez Quartet, Masters of Bass, Alex Sipiagin, Alessandro Galati and his Trio, and other less jazz-focused artists.
The Hong Kong Arts Festival brought us Gregory Porter, John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension, Madeleine Peyroux, and Roberto Fonseca. In December the Count Basie Orchestra played Macau.
Local players maintained busy live schedules, with Grappa's Cellar presenting Allen Youngblood, the Stray Katz Big Band, the Victoria Jazz Band, and singers Jennifer Palor and Ginger Kwan.
One of the highlights of the year at Grappa's was the October gig by a band featuring pianist Jeremy Monteiro, organist Alberto Marsico, and local guitar hero Eugene Pao.
Kwan and Pao both played residencies at The Peninsula hotel's Salon de Ning which started presenting live jazz.