The Dawn of a New Era; Wedding Gig

Legendary guitarist Will Chapin made his Chengdu debut performance last night at Sui Di Music Cafe. Fighting through jet lag induced fatigue, Will left everything he had on stage, sending the caffeine hyped crowd into a frenzy. After honing his chops amongst the world's best in New York City, Will provides our jazz band, BossMa, with a new wealth of musical ideas and inspiration. With fellow musical mastermind Andrew Smiley joining the fray in the next two weeks BossMa is destined to achieve greatness. Adoring fans have already claimed that a new musical golden age is on the immediate horizon in this once sleepy Chinese city.

In other news the band played a fun gig at a foreigner/Chinese wedding today. The groom was the boss at one of our regular jazz spots. For me the highlight of the gig was definitely the hours dourves. After spending nearly a year in China, this was the first time I had ever had a good piece of cheese. Incredible. I'm salivating just thinking about it- despite the fact that I'm stuffed after a late night noodle run. The wedding was really enjoyable though. It seemed like the entire "lao wai" (foreigner) community came out for the party.

A quick history: In the past couple of decades all of Chengdu's older buildings were demolished to make way for modern architecture. The latest trend has been to revive the former style as the tourist industry has seen a wave of interest in traditional culture. The wedding was held in one of these new "old" plazas. The reception was quite an event. In a city where locals will turn their head at the sight of a single foreigner, onlookers were surprised to say the least as several bus loads of us arrived at the scene. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, but try to conjure a mental image of a bunch of goofy old white guys, dressed up in elaborate Chinese suits, surrounded by beautiful Chinese women.

Musically the show went of without a hitch and the band was definitely well received. It was great playing for a slightly older, foreign audience that was even familiar with some of the tunes. Now after our big hit in the wedding scene there will hopefully be more of these gigs to come...