My Jazz Travel to Shanghai

In December, Shanghai was full of energy with the arrival of Christmas.
The street where I am staying is called "Nanjing East Road," and it is a busy street, but people are crowded and quiet, just like the procession of people who visit Meiji Shrine on New Year's Day. Why are there so many people here? This street has been turned into a pedestrian paradise since the middle of the day, and there were so many people that it was impossible to stop or go back. I couldn't get into a store even if I wanted to shop. I needed to use the restroom, so I decided to go into the department store.
When I finally entered, I found many people window-shopping, who probably touched and tried on the shoes but did not buy. Also, there were so many people waiting for the next one that I probably wouldn't be able to buy it. I'm almost falling apart...

I wait in front of the elevator and that box is full of people riding from the basement. I waited for several times for several minutes, but the line was so long that I didn't think I would be able to get to the top for a while. I gave up, found a nearby Yoshinoya beef bowl restaurant, and went into Yoshinoya to use the restroom while eating lunch...a very good idea, I thought, and of course I got in line.... But of course, I had to wait in line. It was crowded.
I went to the restroom first. When it was finally my turn to wait in line, the toilet was clogged up with no running water, and piles of paper and filth. I was completely taken aback! I had to stop. I don't know if it was good, bad, or cold, but all I could do was break out in a cold sweat.

The young kids parading down the street were somehow celebrating Christmas by wearing shiny horns on their heads and cute Santa hats with flashing lights. Many of them are probably Buddhists, but I guess that is the same as in Japan, where Christmas is a fun event. The queue continued even late in the day.

The streets of Shanghai are exactly the same as those in Tokyo, and I felt no sense of discomfort at all. People were all dressed up for Christmas Sunday, and the young people were fashionable.
The subway was intricate, but easy to get on and inexpensive. It was crowded, but it was beautiful, just like Tokyo. Anyway, China nowadays is very threatening. So many people.
They are just walking around without any purpose, just like the pedestrian paradise in Tokyo 30 years ago in Japan. Japan is getting less and less crowded...
I asked a young boy for directions to find a house of an acquaintance. He replied in beautifully pronounced English. All young kids are studying, aren't they? How about the young people in Japan?

Well, the music situation reminded me of the time I performed in Beijing. And imagining the sound of the Shanghai Bangskin Band in the basement of the Heping Hotel where my wife and I stayed, we went to a hotel with live jazz music without much expectation.
A young jazz band in their 30's was playing standards. Since we were on the 37th floor of a top-class hotel, the price of even a cup of coffee inside the hotel was about the same as in a Japanese hotel.
The band played a well-studied tenor saxophone with good improvisation. Of course, he was Chinese. However, I did not feel uncomfortable. They answered in English, too. All the employees on this floor spoke beautifully pronounced English. The level of performance was different from that of a hotel in Beijing. Why is it Americanized?

When I went to Indonesia, the young people were also longing for GI and wanted to be Americanized. They liked reggae unnecessarily.
One of the things that made me feel that Japan and Shanghai are the same is that the live music on Saturdays and Sundays was a different band at this hotel. A girl band...a unique young women-only band I used to be involved with at Yamaha.
The vocals started off somewhat stylishly, with beautiful pronunciation and beautiful style, but the drumming, bass bebeben, and guitar sounds, not to mention the tuning, were not quite the same feeling! For some reason, it's a Ventures style.
The piano...give me a break.
I wondered how the vocalist could sing that well. And on the main Saturday and Sunday. And at Christmas rates. I told the manager that it is the same in Japan. The girl band is not for sound or level, but for decoration, he said.
However, I think that vocalist will be instantly popular when she comes to Japan. She has a good voice, style and elegance. She probably doesn't even realize it....

It was a trip to Shanghai like that.

For Snapshots of Shanghai