Shanghai’s Best Live Blues and Jazz
Daily 7:30p-1:30a
Reviewed by: Alex from Shanghai, Shanghai, CHN on Aug 24, 2007


Cotton disappointment
The Cotton Club is widely cited as the premier jazz centre in Shanghai. A recent visit to the Club would question that acclaim. The club is well appointed and the service good. Drinks are massively overpriced and there is only an extremely limited range of food/snacks on offer. The music, can best be described as of high-school standard. The group is led by a self indulgent, seriously over miked guitarist and the horns are pedestrian. The drummer is the most proficient member of the group. The music falls roughly within the jazz genre, but is raw and lacks the subtlety and smoothness that characterizes good jazz. Jazz is noted for its high piercing horn solos and mellow, subtle moods. In good jazz the solos blend smoothly with the surrounding music, but at the Cotton Club screeching unsophisticated volume was relied on, with little or no regard to context in the total piece. Piece endings were mundane and managed to detract further from the pieces as a whole. If this is the best that this major city has to offer, then either jazz in China has a long way to go to reach any kind of international standard, or the performance experienced was a seriously off night. Ratings: premises ****, service *****, food and drinks **, music **
Would you recommend this to a friend?
No
Why? / Why Not?
the standard of the music was poor; the drinks prices are excessive and the food/snacks are not up to standard





Still the same great place
Visited the place yesterday, after half-a-year absence in Shanghai....
Reviewed by:A Yahoo! Contributor from on Aug 10 2009

It's is terrible now!
Cotton Club used to be very good, but when we went there again recently, everything changed. Most of...
Reviewed by:kjljkl from on Feb 08 2009