Shanghai Jazz Goes Cabaret

 

I watched my friend Janet perform Wednesday night at No Black Tie. Great show, wonderful company, an enjoyable evening it was. My knowledge of the language is practically zero but it was not difficult to appreciate the repertoire of mainly Mandarin songs. Some were familiar to me melody wise, others not so. Still one could pick up on the nuances of the lyrics by the emotive delivery. One particular song I loved much, I forget its name, but was translated to me as it was sung. It certainly made me appreciate the song more. It made it more appealing, more meaningful.

Although it has always drawn rave reviews, I had never been to No Black Tie. I like the place. The intimate setting, the atmosphere. Laid back yet sophisticated in its own way. I'll be finding my way back there in future I am sure.

In the meantime, I look forward to catching up with Janet over lunch or tea soon.

Photo by Brandon Lim, courtesy of Janet Lee, shot at No Black Tie.

I Have A Date With Spring

I first went to a production by Dama Orchestra a few years ago and have been going ever since. Along the way, I also ended up doing 2 feature stories about Dama for Heritage Asia magazine. If memory serves me well, a summary of 1 of the features was incorporated into the souvenir programme of a production as well.

This time round, I attended the last performance in the run of 'I Have A Date With Spring'. If helmed by Dama, one is guaranteed of a stellar production. An added incentive was that my friend and wedding industry colleague Janet Lee was in the cast; she played Lulu. As always, I come away from a Dama production with conflicting emotions. A sense of hope and faith on the one hand, melancholic on the other. The storyline and songs tug at the heartstrings, and when a performance arouses such sentiments, it has made its mark.

'I Have A Date With Spring' reminds us of the support we gain from strong friendships and the importance of nurturing and cherishing such relationships. It illustrates the fact that the varying decisions we make in life lead us to differing resultant outcomes. It encourages us to acknowledge and appreciate those who have helped us along our way, be it in our careers or personal lives. It tells us that if we let go of unrequited love, we can open our hearts to another. And being the sucker for good endings that I am, and despite the cynicism and skepticism that we face in these modern times, 'I Have A Date With Spring' celebrates the essence of true love, that if 2 persons truly love one another and are meant to be, fate will destine that challenges can be overcome and 2nd chances embraced. Food for thought ........

Photo courtesy of Dama Orchestra.

Music To The Ears

I was at karaoke last Sunday. One can throw caution to the wind and sing one's heart out when in the company of good friends. We don't judge, but we do snigger when someone starts on a wrong pitch or goes off-key midway through a song. That's what you can do in front of good friends - be silly. And there's lots of encouragement and applause too when we are screeching at the top of our voices trying to hit the notes that are way beyond our reach. All in the name of amusement.

If only Janet was there to see us sing with reckless abandon. Janet Lee is someone we like having around at wedding fairs. She is affable, chatty, enthusiastic. Most importantly, she humours us and entertains our requests when we ask her to sing. She gets us to sing along too sometimes, although we mostly only manage the chorus, and it has to be a relatively well-known song to boot. You see, we are rather hopeless with lyrics when there's no karaoke screen in sight. Still we have a good time.

Janet sings in English, Chinese and Malay, and her repertoire ranges from show tunes and arias to jazz and evergreen favourites. Some of us are planning to sing a Chinese number at an industry colleague's wedding later this year, though most of us do not read nor write Chinese at all. So I ask Janet for a tip. She sends me an mp3 of 'Ru Guo Mei You Ni' or 'Without You' in English. It sounds great but I reckon only she can pull it off, not us amateurs. So it's likely that we will go with the song that we originally chose during our karaoke session. Something with a simple, familiar melody and not too challenging but nevertheless appropriate for the occasion. Perhaps we'll ask Janet to come listen during rehearsals and let her have a laugh, at our expense.

Photo shot by Callista, courtesy of Janet Lee.