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Friday nite is "open mic/mike" at Umi Cafe in Chinatown. From abt 7 pm to midnight, the place is jam-packed with ppl listening to music, songs, poetry reading, story telling, and other live entertainment. The average age of the crowd is abt 25-30.
I took this photo on June 24, 2011 at abt 11h30 pm when the night's event was wrapped up, as usual, in the form of a "jam session".
For the price of a few bucks, it's pretty good entertainment !!
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Reference / Wikipedia:
- "... A jam session is a musical act where musicians play (i.e. "jam") by improvising without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements. Jam sessions are often used to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to sophisticated improvised recording sessions intended to be edited and released to the public.... " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_session
- "... An open mike or open mic is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone. Usually, the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies.... " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_mic
(Minor updates Oct 2, 2012: Chinese title and Wikipedia links added)
4 comments:
Dear Haricot 微豆 ,
Hello I came across your blog by chance while I was searching for a place to perform piano music in Ottawa and landed on your post about the Umi Cafe. Your blog caught my attention and I was curious to read more. I just wanted to tell you that I find your articles interesting and I particularly enjoy looking at your photographs; thank you for sharing.
By the way since you have been to the Umi Cafe, do you mind me asking whether you know if they have a piano there for people to perform or not? Thanks.
Best regards,
Dylan Tinlun Chan
Hi Dylan:
Thank you for your visit and comments.
I believe there is a keyboard piano at the Umi Cafe, but I am not sure whether it belongs to the shopkeeper or a private individual.
I know a jazz musician who lives in my neighbourhood. Do you want me to ask him abt doing piano improvisation in Ottawa?
I also belong to a Chinese choir and we do have a piano at our place of practice. Maybe you want to come and play some of your numbers for us??
BTW: I really like your songs, esp since I read and understand Chinese. However, it will help non-Chinese listeners if the English titles of the songs in your albums are spelled out in English and not in pin-yin 拼音。Just a suggestions :)
Hi Haricot,
Thank you for your response. I thought I would leave a comment here to let you know that I sent you an email a week ago to reply to you. I have been having some problems with my emails going into people's spam boxes lately, so just checking in case you didn't receive it :)
Dylan
Hi Dylan;
Further to our email exchange earlier this year, please note both Umi Cafe (610 Somerset Street West) and Collected Works (1242 Wellington Street West) now have installed working pianos for use by performers.
Are you still interested?
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