Shanghai - Day 13 - Concert at Oriental Arts Centre

The big day - a concert at the Oriental Arts Centre, in the Opera Theatre which seats 2000, with the Shanghai Symphony Big Band. We had been told a few times that tickets were not selling well, so we were pretty nervous about what the night was going to turn out like! We set up and rehearsed and then relaxed in the dressing room. The girls from the Arts Centre, Kelly and Wendy, came to get us to sign some programs. I asked how many tickets had been sold, expecting under 200. They had already sold over 800, so we were very relieved. The first half of the show was just quartet. John on drums, Tim on piano, Ren from the JZ club on Bass and myself singing. It's hard to do an intimate set in a theatre that size! Celebrity owner of the House of Jazz and Blues, Lin Dongfu was our compere and did a wonderful introduction. I walked out to see at least 1000 people in the audience, so it was really exciting. At the end of the set we did the Beatles song "Can't Buy Me Love" which I use as an audience participation number. With an audience of 85% Chinese, it was really hit and miss whether this would work....but it did! The management were so shocked. We met with members of the Australian Consulate in the interval, then went on for the Big Band set. The Shanghai Symphony guys did great, with some wonderful solos also. The pieces that went down extremely well were the chinese songs we had prepared. Tim did a beautiful reharmonisation of a popular folk song called Jasmine. It was superb. After John's big drum solo to Caravan, I came out in a chinese outfit singing "Tian Mi Mi"..Sweet Honey. Needless to say, we were a hit! We sold a few CD's and did some signings after the show, then the General Manager of the centre took us all out to dinner with his staff. With 2 other shows on in the centre, that's a big sign of congratulations for us. They haven't really promoted a show as a "jazz" concert before, so we were very happy at the success for them. It also means that we have paved the way for more jazz concerts to be held there instead of all Philharmonic orchestras.