Shay shay, baby!

Corbett | March 13, 2008 12:44 PM

I introduced Tim, who does the ushering logistics for Emma, to some colleagues who could work the VIP section for him, and in return he scored me some free tickets to Harry Connick Jr. So I took Ker, the sax playing CEO, and Dave, the swinging Aussie, as my dates.

The show overall was lacksidaisical in that it didn't really move into anything. The big band sat for most of the time while Harry played some solos or trio stuff. The tenor player had a great sound and presence and was the most interesting part of the evening as he stalked around the stage in a gnome like way which as a horn player I found real amusing. I mean he was so far crouched over that his horn got down to within a foot of the floor.

Harry has a great voice and personable stage presence ("Shay shay, baby!" was his memorable foray into Mandarin) but it came off pretty much as an end of a nice day in Shanghai now let's get back to the hotel and eat sort of gig. I've had plenty of those kind of gigs, so understand how he might feel, but when tickets run from $60 - $220 you sort of expect more than what was delivered. I would've been disappointed if I had actually paid for the tickets. As the show was only 50% sold I think the promoters took a bath. No local people would want to spend a week's salary to see the show, so that explains why it was 98% foreigners.

The funniest part of the show was when Harry asked around in the all foreign audience - or Chinese as he was experiencing it - if they knew about 'Nawlins and the unusual food they ate there. Some weird and very excited guy from Canada hopped onto the stage to represent Shanghai and "the Chinese," but he didn't even know what Jinmao was (this is the landmark in Shanghai, the huge space-like tower in Pudong), and obviously knew less about Chinese food. Here's a minute or so of that dialogue...

Category: Music

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