Saturday, April 21, 2007

Is you IZ, or IZ you ain't...?

I need to write more about the Beijing music scene and my favourite music bars, but not right now - I'm wasting a gloriously sunny afternoon (and putting off a very necessary 15-mile run).

I just wanted to mention that I had noticed a week ago that a rather good Xinjiang folk band called IZ are playing this weekend in one of my 'locals'; but then I forgot where I'd seen the listing, couldn't be sure of the date. It's been driving me crazy all week. I just found it again (after checking all the listings magazines at least three times, and developing a complete blind spot for it): yep, it's tonight - so that's my Saturday evening sorted. And I don't have to worry about an early start tomorrow. (Tulsa, are you coming?)

The venue is a little 'West China'-themed bar called Jiangjinjiu, on the square between the old Drum and Bell Towers, just south of my apartment. I know a number of the foreign musicians who play there, and it was the scene last December of possibly the best gig I have yet seen in this country - by a wondefully eccentric, experimental "folk" performer called Xiao He, partnered on this occasion by another fantastic singer/guitarist called Yu Zhe and a small group of Beijing Opera percussionists. Absolutely marvellous stuff (I wasn't able to record their names at the time, because I was still playing coy about being in China). I wonder what tonight will be like?

"Sometimes I just get so tired of everything - but the music."

2 comments:

argonox said...

One Chinese ensemble I discovered last year (though I've never seen them live, and for all I know they could be Taiwanese) is Yu Fei Men. Here's a song, which I really like, called "Le Yuan" (Paradise): http://www.zshare.net/download/01-2713822290-m4a.html

(P.S.: 15 miles! If taxis are that scarce, I'm really going to be in trouble...)

Froog said...

It's not a taxi scarcity thing, silly. No, Beijing is great for taxis - you very seldom have to wait more than about 10 seconds for one.

I'm supposed to be running a marathon in 4 weeks, so every spare moment should be spent on 'training'.

I'm afraid I can't make your music download work. The file extension is .m4a and my computer has no idea what that is.