My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

This past weekend, we went to Taipei to look for some live jazz. Some online research led us to a few places. The first place was a restaurant that has live music performances, with Jazz on Saturday nights. The house band is led by a woman who plays saxophone, flute and piano.

We were all really impressed with her, but a little disappointed with the performance. Most of the songs included vocals, and the singers kind of rubbed us the wrong way. Still, it was a good show.

The net day, after visiting the Long Shan Temple 龍山寺, we were in the subway when we heard what sounded like jazz. We followed our ears and discovered a forum where people congregate on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to jam.

The bass player was outstanding, and the saxophone player was really tight, too. The forum is really loose – whoever shows up, can jam with them. Ian wished that he had brought his violin!

That night we went to another club, called the Blue Note, which features live jazz performances, with a focus on instrumental music, rather than vocal. Boy were we surprised when the piano player showed up. It was the saxophone player from the first night. She played with an electric guitar player. A flute player showed up a little while later and played with them for a few songs.

Here’s a little taste of what they sounded like.

So we are encouraged by the presence of a jazz community in Taiwan, but it seems that the circle of musicians is still pretty small.