Not Just Another Pretty Face: My Jazzy encounter

Saturday, October 15, 2005

My Jazzy encounter

For some strange reason, when I think of Jazz, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of books like The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise, pops into my mind. Being the internet junkie that I am, I proceeded to do some searches on my favourite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia and I found the missing link:

"The Great Gatsby, has often been described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature."

Reminiscing, I think some time during my teenage years, I read a romance book (might be Sweet Valley) set in the roaring twenties, where the heroine was a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was madly in love with a writer who moonlighted as a waiter at the many Jazz Clubs in 1920s America with snazzy names like The Black Cat.

Somehow, the book made a big enough impression on me to associate Jazz with Fitzgerald. I remember envisioning the heroine all decked out in the trendy flapper-styled duds of that era (ala Marilyn Monroe), with the pale foundation and red, red lipstick slow dancing with her man in a dark, smokey club where men and "liberated" women smoked cigars, sipped cocktails all soaking up the crisps jazz notes from a live saxophonist and band.

After which the hero and heroein would recite parts of F. Scott Fitgerald's novels to each other and...*censored*

Yes, I know, I know, cheesy, stereotypical, trashy romance novel, but I was young and impressionable then OK?

Anyway(s), I had my own encounter at a jazz club on Friday with a bunch of good friends. No, there was no sexy live saxaphonist, no tall, dark and handsome waiter to sweep me off my feet and err, no book recitation *sigh* Welcome to reality...hee hee. But what was present in abundance was good cheer, great drinks, live music, much commiseration over "bosses from hell" and "unlucky black stars", endless laughter and most importantly of all, fantastic company.

A wise person (my mum) once told me, "It's the company that matters most." True, I agree, but I believe that the place we were at totally RAWKS as well!!

We were at Bangkok Jazz @ Chulan Square along Jalan Raja Chulan. This place with the snazzy name offers a restaurant serving Thai food and also a bar that has live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights. The ambiance there was superb, definitely worth a second visit! Tea candles in coloured holders bathed the place in a dim glow, comfy leather sofas with throw pillows that you can just sink into in the private booths and low wooden chairs surround coffee tables in the main lounge area. The air was cool and not overly smokey with a *ahem* cultured crowd. It was lively but not too packed.

Time flies when you're having a blast. The band performed three gigs with 2 intervals in between, finishing at about 1.30 am. Although the band was not particularly outstanding IMO, but having live music did make things more spontaneous rather than flat, pipped music. What I liked about BJ was that, the music was loud (we were sitting just next to the stage) but yet not so loud that you couldn't hear each other.

The drinks were good as well. Among us, we had a jug of Sangria, Heinekken, Stout, a large variety of cocktails including Singapore Sling, Daiquiri, Pina Colada, Graveyard, Manhattan...

Hic!! *giggly laughter*

Riding on the high of the night, my friends and I thought of checking out Zouk or 12SI, taking advantage of the Ramadhan month, evidently the cause of the abnormally jam-free KL roads on a Friday night. After a few wrong turns, a Christmas carol (Felice Navidad!) and a thousand crappy jokes, we finally found our way to Zouk, but ended up deciding against paying a cover charge for just an hour of clubbing as the club would be closing at 3am.

In the end, we ended up at one of my favourite haunts in Pee Jay, the 24 hour A&W near Amcorp Mall, where although the food isn't that great 'cept for their curly fries and root beer, was bustling at 3am in the morning.