TJ’s Family Band
While working in China and after Pipz, my mentor, had gotten me back into playing my harps wherever I went, I had to travel a few times to Shanghai to meet up with the company accountants. A strange outfit that handled many foreign companies’ accountancy was what I had inherited from the bosses in London. A South African émigré seemingly owned them, and our account executive was a young Chinese woman named Sherry who I seemed to get a great working relationship with, much better than my company execs had, so I took over the accounting brief, and that necessitated a monthly visit to Shanghai to sign off our taxes.
When you first visit Shanghai, it can take your breath away. It is an incredible city with bags of history, especially over the last 100 or so years. However, it has a racy reputation that even went before the Communist takeover, and because of the ease with which foreigners can do business, the sexy feeling is coming back.
I love the Inspector Chen detective novels by Qiu Xialong, which feature Shanghai and things that happened around the Bund and that area along the Huang Pu River. Also, many other stories come from there, such as “The Last Rose of Shanghai” by Weina Dei Randel, the Alexa Kang love stories, and so many others. It is a magical area, especially when lit up at night, and the backdrop of the old colonial buildings makes it more like a scene from one of the old movies.
The area on the Bund opposite the iconic Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower has a wide promenade where many Chinese soon-to-be brides have pre-nuptial photograph sessions in their wedding outfits on warm evenings. The backdrops across the river and opposite the old architecture make it a magical place.
In Shanghai I also met TJ, a lovely girlfriend for a while and she introduced me to her younger brother who managed and played in the band where we often went.
Her younger brother’s band sponsored TJ’s work permit and visa. A terrifically professional cover band, they had a residency at “The Blue Marlin,” a large Bar/Restaurant on the east side of the river at Pudong, Shanghai. Like Pipz, Noel, and many other Filipinos I’d met, her brother was a natural self-taught musician. He had first picked up a guitar at the age of 10 and learned many different instruments ever since. As a bandleader there, he played the drums, sat behind a plastic acoustic surround, and directed and produced beautiful music. He was only about 23 even then, and his wife was one of the two frontline singers.
TJ got her brother to let me play along with the band on their Thursday rock nights, and I became a bit of a feature over a few of my visits. One evening a tall, black American came out of the audience and challenged me to a harmonica duel! I thought it a strange request, as I never played to compete with anyone, only to enjoy the music, but he came on stage and joined in anyhow. He didn’t last long, though, as I blew him off the stage with my honkin’ stonkin’ rocking blues. I think he thought I was the wrong color to be a bluesman. Tell Paul Butterfield that back in the USA, I thought when politely shaking his hand afterward.
On my last visit there, I invited Sherry, the accountant, and her boyfriend along and entertained her on the company expenses; having TJ as the Bar ‘meeter & greeter’ ensured that she had a great night out, and I had gained another ally in our business and a fan of my playing.
TJ was a lovely, warm-hearted person, one of those former girlfriends that has a place in my heart forever; one day, I might meet her again, and we can carry on and make more good music together.
