'Excess Luggage' at TCG Nordica

Went out to an evening of jazz at TCG Nordica (TCG 诺地卡文化中心) with Norwegian trio 'Excess Luggage'. I was hoping to catch them on a stop of their China tour and was thrilled when the girlfriend asked if I wanted to catch them in Kunming. Oh yes!

The funny woman didn't even realize that it was going to be a night of jazz till the day of the concert. She had simply assumed that I'd pick something listenable. AIYOH. Dangerous, since her musical inclinations aren't similar to mine at all! I would never pick a jazz concert over an indie gig. Hehehehe. Goober Gun just played at this venue on 23 February! I'll probably catch them end of this month in Singapore. Well, since I'm missing most of Mosaic (...especially John Butler Trio...), Excess Luggage should make up for it just that little bit!

It gave me a chance to sample a bottle of Yunnan Red. I was told to take the semi-dry instead of the sweet. It was...drinkable. Well, it's technically wine. But it isn't flavorful or complex. It's just a tad alcoholic. Grape juice with alcohol. There was another bottle of 180 yuan Californian Red on the menu. But it said just that, no other details given. At that price, I'm not sure that it would be better than the Chinese wines, really.

For 45 yuan (only!!!), the 2-hour set covered their older pieces, and also a few from their new album 'Hand Luggage' which clearly had Asian influences in terms of rhythm, sound and song title. There's a piece titled 'Kunming'. How nice to hear it live. My curiosity was satisfied. The band is clearly fond of Kunming on this second visit; I wanted to know their interpretation of the city through music, as opposed to the sullen bleakness of Jonathan Aumen's paintings of the city which are on display at the gallery. The band played 'Kunming' in a dark minor key, and the music at the end trails off into tunes reminiscent of the music of the Yunnan tribes. This is clearly, closer to fusion jazz than the rest of their sounds.

Given that the venue was in a warehouse airy, echo-y sort of space, the sound was surprisingly good. Contained and controlled. Jazz gigs meant no earplugs were needed. Enjoyed the evening totally! And being the suckers we are, copies of the band's cd were bought. :)