Music, sport and lifestyle will be
\ntoday’s topics and we’ll stop in a crowded Bucharest neighborhood in a place
\nwhere, starting February 14, 2015, the owners decided to implement a new
\nconcept: namely to bring ping-pong and jazz music together in one space. It is
\nactually a sports hall in a sports complex which had 14 ping-pong tables and
\nthat was not at all promising from a musical point of view. Here is Voicu
\nRadescu, the director of Green Hours, a restaurant in Bucharest hosting theater
\nperformances, with details about this concept: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
I simply had a flashback, I remembered a
\nclub in New York called Fat Cat where I was 4 times. For about 35 years the
\nclub has been hosting jazz concerts in a space where people can also play
\nping-pong and billiards. And I said to myself that if the concept was working
\nthere, why shouldn’t it work here in Romania as well. The concept could become
\nquite popular, which would help develop this atmosphere of sport and jazz
\ncombined.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
All said and done. Then followed the
\npreparations to adapt the hall to the purposes of the new activity to be
\ndeveloped there: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We talked to the owner of the hall and
\nhe liked the idea. In just one month he had already prepared the hall from a
\nlogistic point of view. He had already bought several couches, arranged a stage
\nand set up a partition wall to divide the area into two: one area exclusively
\nfor ping-pong and the other for ping-pong and jazz.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This year the International Jazz Day was
\nmarked on April 30 in Bucharest through the 12th concert given in
\nthis very hall dedicated 95% to jazz music. That evening the hall was crowded
\nand the concert was given by a professional jazz band: the John Betsch TRIO
\nmade up of the exceptional American drummer John Betsch, pianist Mircea
\nTiberian, double-bassist Michael Acker and guest saxophonist Liviu Butoi who
\nalso plays other wind instruments. Let’s see how the Jazz Pong club was
\nlaunched on the market. Here is Voicu Radescu back at the microphone: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Once a week we have a scheduled jazz
\nconcert, people come for the show, sit on couches and chairs around the stage
\nand focus on the performers. Also, once or twice a week some very young musicians
\ncome and play on a small stage while people are playing ping-pong at the 11
\ntables in the hall. It’s an interesting experiment. Those who come to play
\nping-pong are not disturbed by the jazz music and neither are the jazz
\nmusicians who simply mind their singing. It’s not a concert, it’s not
\nbackground music, it’s just a creative intertwining of two activities, sports
\nand music. For the rest of the time the hall is solely used for ping-pong.
\nWhat’s interesting is that those who come to play ping-pong see a small stage,
\nunoccupied by artists though, but they become aware of its existence. A couple
\nof weeks ago a concert was given by Catalin Milea and Imagination Orchestra.
\nCatalin Milea is a young sax player who studied both in Germany and the
\nNetherlands. He retuned to Romania full of enthusiasm and ideas, and together
\nwith another 13-14 very young musicians, students and even pupils, he organized
\na concert in the sports hall. And given the environment, he introduced in the
\nshow a performance by two professional table tennis players who gave the tone
\non the ping-pong table. The noise of the ping-pong ball was amplified by two
\nCondenser microphones and the musicians played to the various rhythms of the
\nball set by the two table tennis professional players.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This could be an invitation for ping-pong
\nplayers to also enjoy jazz music while playing. Voicu Radescu is back at the
\nmicrophone with more details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Everything takes place in the
\nneighborhood, which I like very much. It is a neighborhood of 200 thousand
\npeople and I’m sure that there are several thousand people who, even though
\nthey don’t know about the sports and jazz hall yet, would be interested to see
\nwhat it is all about. It’s a nice way of spending one’s spare time listening to
\njazz music and playing ping-pong. The number of spectators varies from one show
\nto another. We had the most numerous audiences on April 30th, there
\nwere more than 170 people. Jazz music concerts generally gather audiences of
\nabout 60, 70 people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There’s hardly anything more tempting
\nthan trying a sports and jazz evening! The club’s small tables are shaped like
\nminiature ping-pong tables, the walls are covered by posters of various artists
\nplaying ping-pong and the piece de r\u00e9sistance in the drinks menu is the
\n‘bartender’s madness’ cocktail. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jazz Pong brings ping-pong and jazz music together in one space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":134876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[34871,43040,43047],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-134931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-jazz","tag-ping-pong","tag-voicu-radescu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n