While Beijing’s blues scene is small, we still boast a fair number of talented musicians. However, despite this surfeit of talent, Beijing has always had a woefully under-represented jazz and blues bar scene.
One of the mainstays supporting this small musical community was CD Jazz Café, which re-launched as CD Blues Café in the spring of 2010. The re-launch called for all-new interior and an all-new outlook for promoting blues.
The inside of the club has been completely overhauled, doing away with the low lighting and dingy wall colours. The new CD Blues Café features bright white walls offset with candlelight and dark black furniture.
Seating comes in the form of comfy sofas, situated around circular tables covered in white cloth. The bar has remained in the same position, as has the stage, but the changes at CD Blues Café are more than merely aesthetic.
The new ethos of the bar is to feature nightly blues performances showcasing the best Beijing has to offer, alongside more avant-garde fare.
Most nights when a band plays there's a cover charge – however, the management assures us that nearly all of the door money will be going straight to the bands. As a musician himself, the owner is committed to seeing his fellow music men get paid for their work.
For all the people who have seen CD Blues Café out the window of a taxi while hurtling down the Third Ring Road, but have never been in, check out this intimate venue, and discover just how much the Beijing music scene has to offer. Ross Goulding