Hong Kong returns to era of multi-night jazz residencies with EFG Jazznote Club Festival
Jeremy Monteiro, Eugene Pao and some of Asia’s best talent coming to Hong Kong to play at Orange Peel in Lan Kwai Fong
Hong Kong gets more visits from international jazz artists than is sometimes supposed – but the guests usually don’t stay for long.
Back in the 1990s heyday of the Lan Kwai Fong Jazz Club, three or four noteworthy performers came through town every month and usually settled in for five-night residencies. Many fans went along on more than one evening, allowing a rapport to develop between artist and audience.
Since the club closed, visiting jazz artists have usually come for just one public performance, or at most two. That may change if an upcoming residency at Orange Peel, structured as a mini jazz festival with different guest artists on different nights, plays to good houses.
The catalyst and principal artist for the EFG Jazznote Club Festival at Orange Peel is Singapore-based pianist and composer Jeremy Monteiro, who in line with usual practice was originally planning to be here for only one show.
“I was supposed to do a concert with Eugene Pao in one of the concert halls in Hong Kong in support of our duo album project, but I couldn’t find a venue,” Monteiro explains. “We could have played in Sha Tin, but it wouldn’t have suited the sponsors [EFG Bank] to be so far from the centre of town, so I asked them if I could use the budget for a club run instead.”
The Orange Peel music lounge was available, and serendipitously Monteiro had musician friends visiting him in Singapore who were willing to join him on a trip up here.
“I had all these musicians playing with me at the Singapore Jazz Festival and I thought it would be great to extend their stay and come and do something in Hong Kong,” he says.