All That Jazz

Local IT consultant Tom Nunan has a confession to make: “When I go out dancing at night, I don’t want to hear jazz. I want to hear something easier to listen to, something repetitive and recognizable.” Sounds like you won’t be seeing him on April 21, when jazz regulars Allen Youngblood & Jazzbalaya, newcomer Ginger Kwan and others perform at Grappa’s Cellar for Jazz Series Part 12.

Nunan’s confession may raise your hackles if you knew he is actually a respected jazz musician in Hong Kong, and the musical director of the Stray Katz, the band notorious for getting well-heeled audiences dancing drunkenly away into the wee hours of the morning at Grappa’s Cellar. But he explains: “Personally, when I listen to even half-decent jazz, I need to listen hard. It actually takes focus; it takes effort,” he says.

The word “effort” here will no doubt be the sticking point for some potential listeners, as Nunan is well aware. In fact, it might turn many away from the local jazz scene before it gets a fair try, depriving it of the audience it fully deserves.

Pianist Jason Cheng believes the lack of appreciation for Hong Kong jazz is not a question of work, it’s a question of taste. “In Hong Kong, it’s always about what’s ‘in’ or ‘what’s hip,’” he says. And as many a local performer and venue owner here can tell you, hipness can be a fickle mistress. Hence, he aims to draw people in by focusing on the music first and foremost, to “provide the essential gel for having a good time.”

But to a casual listener, it is actually not that hard to enjoy jazz. “Jazz didn’t start off as some sort of concert hall art form,” says pianist Jason Cheng. “It started off as a dance thing where you had the music and people would dance and have a good time.” His conviction jives with the overall atmosphere one finds at Gecko on a Wednesday night, where he performs regularly with drummer DC and an unpredictable cast of whoever else might have stopped by that night.

Yet, there’s clearly work to be done to improve the jazz scene. For one thing, it’s very fragmented when it comes to gigs – there’s hardly a club that is dedicated to featuring jazz music every night, since the Jazz Club, a mecca for local fans in Lan Kwai Fong, was closed in 2000. Its closure left a definite void. “There are more smaller venues in Hong Kong nowadays that are willing to give live jazz a go once in a while,” jazz veteran Eugene Pao observes. Now there are places like Blue Door, Gecko, Le Rideau, Grappa’s Cellar, Innonation, Philia’s, Dinamoe Hum and the Fringe Club where musicians can play on weekends, but these are hardly full-time jazz clubs.