The New Face of Hotel Jazz
Hotels have long been a haven for working musicians, providing steady work and a comfortable environment to ply their craft. But with Shanghai’s increasingly wealthier and more cosmopolitan crowds, hotels are expanding their offerings, and becoming less cheesy pop venues, and more classy expansions into the nightlife scene, creating a treat for tourists, locals and expats alike. This month, Talk looks at the new offerings of hotel jazz and interviews two different musicians, one rooted in the tradition of hotel musicianship and the other a rising jazz star who's found a pied a terre in one of Shanghai's premier hotels.
George Butts, tenor saxophonist and singer has been engaging audiences in hotel lounges and bars for over two decades. His current engagement at the Portman Ritz-Carlton in Jing’an’s Shanghai Centre is his 16th engagement at a Ritz-Carlton property. Easy going and radiating warmth, Butts is ready to crack a smile and tell a joke, regardless of the fact he is shortly scheduled to play.
Butts describes making the initial impact he made, when he started playing hotel gigs 20 years ago. "The Ritz Carlton is a quiet place, you know? So at most of the Ritz Carltons at that time, they had pianos. And I came in, played my saxophone and put a beat to it [using a drum machine] and spiced it up a bit."
For his repetoire Butts says that he can play jazz, but nowadays prefers instead to play contemporary pop, R&B and blues music, often incorporating new songs in order to cater to local audiences and tastes.
In terms of keeping things fresh, Butts remains positive about his performances in several ways. "I have a variety of different songs that I play every night to keep things fresh. And then the guests are different; I don't get the same guests every night. So that makes things fresh, too. Of course with so many people coming and going that also means there's not a lot of pressure [to change my material], but then I do it for the staff. There's nothing worse than having the staff know what you are going to play before you play it."
And for all of his time playing in hotels, somewhat insulated from the outside world, Butts feels that he can keep things relevant. "Some guys go out of style, but I'm here to stay. I figure out what works with people. I can do that because I don't make it about me. It's about them."
On meeting him, there's a certain impishness to Theo Croker. Sipping champagne before his set at the Peace Hotel's legendary Jazz Bar, he asks "Can I say anything I want?" And after being told that anything he doesn’t want publicised can be taken off the record, he responds with a smile and a glint in his eye, "Just promise you'll print it."
Where many jazz players prefer to exude cool aloofness, Croker aims to provoke. And whilst this might come off as empty posturing, Croker's world-class talent proves that it is not. The grandson of American jazz trumpeter and singer Doc Cheatham as well as a star graduate of America's renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Croker is considered by many to be a rising star in the jazz world.
But he recognises the long-term stigma attached to hotel musicians, and describes his initial reluctance in coming to the Peace Hotel. "I met the GM and the head of F&B and a chef while I was hanging out at the Cotton Club. I sat in with the band and they said, ‘We want you to come play at our hotel.’ And I said, 'I don't play hotels.' But they convinced me to come check it out, so I did. And I found that it's really a club inside of the hotel. So I said, 'Okay, I'll do that’.”
Calling the type of music that he plays "BAM or Black American Music", Croker follows a schedule of different types of music throughout the week, but stays firmly committed to his own style, not following the trend that many hotel musicians make of mimicking old tracks. "Our goal is not to gravitate toward playing what people already know. Like I don't care what the guy on the street thinks funk is. I play what I think funk is."
However, Croker doesn't see the night as solely about him. He sees an educational dynamic to what he does, and in the sounds that he creates. "People don't really know what funk is here. People don't really know what jazz or Black American music or R&B is so we're trying to show it in its purest form and our version of it as young musicians."
After the interview, Croker and his band play an unapologetic and free-spirited set, including one of Croker's own songs entitled 'Transcend'. Much like Croker himself, the song, which vascillates between deep dischordance and straightforward melody seeks to challenge listeners, but pull them in at the same time. The result being that hotels like the Peace Hotel see returning customers to their regular jazz nights, simply because they have no idea what they’re to expect.
George Butts plays Monday through Saturday, 8.30pm until late at The Ritz Bar in the Portman Ritz-Carlton, 2F, 1376 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Xikang Lu, 6279 8888
The Theo Croker Sextet plays every Tuesday through Saturday, 10pm until 1am in The Jazz Bar of the Fairmont Peace Hotel, 1F, 20 Nanjing Dong Lu, near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, 6138 6883
