One more time for Shanghai’s boom-chick old duffers

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

“When everything’s made to be broken,?I just want you to know who I am”
– Iris by Goo Goo Dolls

You might think it strange that this was the refrain going through my head as I was listening to the six senior musicians who make up the Peace Hotel Old Jazz Band play Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The A Train”.

But it seemed appropriate for the moment and what it stood for.

You see, I had always wanted to listen to the Old Jazz Band at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. I had heard so much about them. “Nostalgic,” said one. “Romantic,” said another. “They’re a bit doddery but sweet,” chuckled another.

But sadly, I never got round to it and then it was too late – the hotel closed and the band disbanded. And the only memory I have of them is a CD I got as a birthday present.

So imagine, there I was, standing in front of the very same band and listening to them swing as I imagined they had been doing for the last 27 years – but in their new home, the Hua Ting Hotel & Towers.

It was one of those bittersweet moments in life.
Jin Jiang Hotels, owner of both hotels, has re-created the Peace Hotel’s Jazz Bar, which Newsweek in 1996 reportedly called “the world’s best bar”.

Given that I never saw the old bar, I can only go by hearsay that it is a faithful re-creation. Everything’s the same, they say, including the staff and the rest of the furniture.

The band, in particular, is the same. Formed in 1980, the band’s oldest member is now 86 years old while the youngest is 65.

And in their time at the Peace Hotel, they played their way into Shanghai’s history books, becoming one of the city’s most enduring and endearing legends.

Wikipedia has this entry about the band and Peace Hotel. “In 1992 Peace Hotel was listed as one of the famous hotels of the world by the World Hotel Association. It remains the only hotel in China to have received this recognition. Today, it is particularly renowned for its Jazz Band and its roof terrace restaurant…”

So did the band make the hotel or did the hotel make the band?
I suspect one made the other.

The band’s never been hailed a great jazz band by any stretch of the imagination.

A review on a jazz website had this to say, “The band played with enthusiasm, the place was packed, and the crowd clearly loved the old duffers, but I must say we were disappointed. Along with ’30s and ’40s Glenn Miller- and Benny Goodman-like arrangements, the musicians played such non-jazz chestnuts as ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘New York, New York’ for visitors. Even on jazz arrangements, the band was stiffly “boom-chick”; musicians appeared not to improvise, and they did not swing.”

They tried to swing the night I was there but “Take The A Train” wasn’t going anywhere fast. You can sense the old spirit wasn’t quite there. And who can blame them really?

There they are, in a new home which, while it’s been re-created, feels slightly out of place in this huge, modern building that was fashionable in China in the late 1980s.

I asked the musicians through the bar manager how they felt about playing here. They said “it wasn’t the same” but “at least we are together and playing”.

Yes, “in this world where things are made to be broken”, nothing’s ever the way it used to be. The old has to make way for the new and the elderly for the young.

Will the band play again at the Peace Hotel when it re-opens as the Fairmont in 2009?

Who knows but it will be a sad day indeed if Shanghai, in its frantic desire for development, finds no room in its heart for a little nostalgia and romance, and eight men playing jazz and wanting the world to know who they are.

Catch Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at the Transit Café – www.thetransitcafe.com