Busiest man in Beijing Showbiz?

Two acts come through Beijing this week both courtesy of Jon Campbell, who runs the YGTWO music event management company. Aside from bringing Bus Driver to Beijing Canadian-born Campbell is also the local promoter behind Lache Cercel and the Roma Swing Ensemble. The Romanian group performs gypsy-flavoured jazz with a violin maestro, said Lache Cercel, and two guitars as well as bass and percussion. They'll play three shows in Beijing: Saturday October 13 at the new White Rabbit (more on that later) on so called “Lucky Street” bar strip - Zaoying Lu to locals – and October 14 at Peking University Hall as part of the Time Arts Jazz Series.

To get the student crowd YGTWO has graciously kept tickets as low as RMB20 (2 euros) for that Peking University gig. There’s a final gig on Wednesday Oct 17 at the new Purple Haze Bistro at China View, a new real estate project. Purple Haze’s Swedish co-owner has been a big supporter of local jazz and plays bass in several Beijing groups. The new Purple Haze will have to compete with custom however with China’s first Hooter's bar, next door. Lets hope Lache's sound is as good as Hooters'  publicity push on its Chinese bar girls, though the place looks empty any night this writer's cycled by.

Campbell, who also drums with two Beijing bands has been steering a lot of business to the new Yugong Yishan, in the former courtyard home of Duan Qirui Government on the Zhang Zizhong Road, Dongcheng district – what’s left of Beijing’s old city. Abigail Washburn, an American banjo player who sings in Chinese came back to China on September 29. Billed as The Traveling Daughter Returns Washburn played with a mixed bag of local friends, including a trio of girls on classical instruments pipa, guzheng, zhongruan, to an enthusiastic expatriate-heavy crowd.