A Beijing music venue is attracting off-duty professional musicians after midnight for impromptu jam sessions.

Cafe CD Blues, on the Third Ring Road near the Agricultural Exhibition Center and at its previous location a few blocks further south, has been home to the city's alternative music scene since the 1980s.

Recently, shortly after midnight on Friday mornings, musicians have been converging on the cafe to perform free of charge and let rip their creative impulses after a night being restricted to the official playlists at the hotels and bars where they are paid to perform.

"There are some real virtuoso performers who make regular appearances," said keen regular Craig Quick from the United States, who has worked in the media in Asia for 30 years and who himself takes to the stage to sing and play piano.

"The talent pool is fantastic. We get pianists, bass guitar players, drummers, saxophonists, blues harp players and singers. You'd be paying $200 a head at a club in New York to see people of this quality play."

One of the star attractions is a trio of South Americans who have a regular gig at the capital's highest club, Atmosphere in Guomao. It consists of Argentinians Martin Musaubach, 28, on piano, and Lautaro Bellucca, 25, on bass, with Brazilian Adriano Moreira, 24, on drums. They play their own rhythm and blues and jazz compositions as well as individual and highly energetic takes on traditional hits. They have been in China for about four years and have just brought out an EP of their own material.

"Here I get to try out my arrangements in a really good atmosphere," Musaubach said. "We have the freedom to play what we feel like. There are many musicians in the audience and to win their approval is fantastic. We invite them to join in. The place really starts jumping."

Others include English club and hotel singer Nancy Jenkinson Brown and Russian saxophonist Alexander Vikhlyantsev, 28, who regularly plays at Cigar Jazz and Wine in The Place.

Cafe CD Blues (CD stands for Central District) has been owned for just over a year by veteran R&B singer and bass player "Big" John Zhang Ling. His father was a conductor and his mother a singer. "I have got it in my blood," said the 44-year-old, who lists Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, David Bowie and AC/DC among his musical heroes.

In the early 1980s, as bassist for Chinese rock legend Cui Jian, Zhang Lin developed a deep understanding of the development of modern music in China when Western music was considered "capitalist". He used to listen to Beatles tracks smuggled in from the US.

Zhang studied bass in Australia and returned to China to collaborate with some of the top blues and jazz artists in the country, creating in 1995 China's first jazz fusion band, Tien Square. In 1996, he joined his old band mate, Cui, and International Monetary Fund Vice-President John Anderson to form the first blues band in China, The Rhythm Dogs. He released his first solo album, Nu Ren De Ge (A Woman's Song), in 2008, and also runs a musician booking agency.

Many of the world's jazz greats have visited or performed at the CD Blues Cafe and Bar, including Wynton Masalis, Kenny Garrett and Herbie Hancock's band.

"We have the perfect musician's venue," said Zhang. "I needed my own venue for my bands and I knew CD Cafe Blues. It wasn't being run properly. I rang the owner and asked if he wanted to sell and he agreed.

"Our Thursday nights are unique. There is so much energy there. I think music is driving the change in China. Without music there is silence. It changes everyday life, smoothly and continuously. It helps people keep going."

Zhang is organizing a blues festival at the end of July. He plans to bring 10 pure blues bands to Beijing from all over the world.

"I have the venue and I am talking to a few other venues," he said.

They will play at weekends over a month. If it proves to be as popular as his Thursday nights, it should be a lively four weeks.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/24/2011)