Hanging out with "boss", FRED and The SteveMcQueens

We had not been out all week and I started feeling a little bit cooped up hanging on the couch for a few evenings. It was a Thursday evening and luckily there were some things on my face book events calendar that we could attend. In all fairness there were several thing of interest and it was again difficult to choose.  FRED at Artistry or the SteveMcQueens’ CD release at Blu Jaz. But first we had to decide what to eat. We initially chose to have a bite at Blu Jaz, but as we arrived, the lovely waitress Cindy told us, that “boss” was at Piedra Negra. We hadn’t seen “boss” in a while and it is always good to hang out with her, so we changed our minds on food and headed for Mexican. It was good catching up with “boss” and it made me loose track of time a bit. Since I still had not made up my mind where to go for music I decided to do both. I told “boss” and my companion, who were still chatting and looked like they could go on for a while, that I would head off to Artistry and would be back later to finish my beer and see The SteveMcQueens.

As I walked in @ Artistry, Rachma was in the middle of the solo on her Melodica. 

The band FRED is:

Felix Phang on Double bass

Rachma Lim on Melodica

Eugene Ang on Keyboards

Daniel Wong on Trumpet, Flugelhorn

According to their face book site, they explore the texture and colors of European & local jazz through original compositions as well as the works of masters such as Rava, Fresu, Galliano and Lundgren. I understand that several of the local compositions are off Felix' hand.

I stuck around until the first set ended and listened to some nice relaxing music in a nice relaxing atmosphere. It is cool to see that music and setting can be captivating enough for people to just listen.

 

Then I headed back to Piedra to rejoin the two chatterboxes, who were still going at it, when I arrived. I caught the second set of The SteveMcQueens from the beginning with:

Aaron James Lee on drums

Eugenia Yip on Vocals

Fabian Lim on flute and saxophone

Jase Sng on bass

Joshua Wan on keys

When I see the bands name, my mind always wanders off to what is probably one of Steve McQueen's best movies. Papillion. A mad story about a man convicted to a life time prison term on the Devil’s Island 

off the coast of French Guyana. The movie shows the brightly blue-eyed actor,

 wearing the typical striped outfit given to prisoners in those days (The stripes may have been thinner) and in all shapes and forms of agony. 

He later successfully breaks out of prison and ends up in Paris free as a bird.

The SteveMcQueens band were all the NeoVintage soul band they promise to be. Good music and good entertainment. They did manage, for instance with a beautiful Wonderwall, to hold there audience captivate.