Mo’ Better Blues: Mix Blends Smooth Grooves and Great Cocktails

This post is sponsored by The Westin Beijing Chaoyang.
 

From VIP guests and celebrities to First Ladies and Presidents, the Westin Beijing Chaoyang’s house band has played for audiences from all walks of life. But the quintet – which calls itself the CAST band (铸乐团) and features Tao “Tore” Ningzhou on bass, Ye Zheng on piano, Hong Feng on guitar, Qian Xiaowei on drums, and a rotating line-up of guest vocalists including its current singer, Tao Hongxu – enjoy performing for each other above all else. 

CAST has been the house band at the Westin's Mix bar since 2009 and they also play every Sunday at the hotel’s popular Bubbalicious Brunch. While they have indeed formed a special bond during their stint at the Westin, these esteemed musicians had already known each other after crossing paths at many gigs in Beijing’s tightly knit music scene over the years. 

Bassist Tao “Tore,” Ningzhou studied accounting in university, but longed for a more creative career. On the side, he formed amateur bands with his classmates, covering classic rock hits by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in small bars near their campus. In his dormitory, he would play along while listening to his favorite songs on CD. His reputation as a promising bassist grew in Beijing’s underground music scene and he went on to work as musical director for high profile international acts touring in China, including legendary R&B group The Drifters during their 2007 China tour. 
 

Tore eventually clinched several breakthrough gigs as the bassist for Anthony Miller from Canada, George Shaw from Louisville, and other foreign stars during their gigs in the PRC. His gig on George’s Shaw’s tour was so well received that, in 2009, the Westin decided he would be the ideal bassist for its house band, which was then mostly comprised of foreigners. After the band’s contract expired Tore was the only member who decided to stay. Together, he and the hotel adopted a dramatic new approach – hire more professional local musicians and recruit a new singers every six months to keep things fresh. For the permanent members, Tore enlisted Ye, Hong and Qian because he considered them to be among the most professional musicians he had seen perform at various venues throughout Beijing over the years.

After landing the Westin’s house band gig, Tore brought all his skills to bare, not only playing bass but also arranging for acclaimed jazz and gospel singer Windy Barnes – who sang backup for Stevie Wonder and other superstars – to perform as a guest vocalist for CAST at the Mix bar. Tao says he especially enjoyed playing with Barnes because she “was very professional. She had a different dress and a different hairstyle every night. She was a beautiful black woman with a very strong voice.”
 

While Tore is thrilled to recruit such guest vocalists, his true inspiration has been his longtime band mates in CAST. This is especially true of pianist Ye Zheng, whose friends call him the Frank Sinatra of China because of his smooth singing style. “I’ve studied piano since I was six,” he says, adding that his earliest exposure was to classical compositions as a boy in his native Hunan. His love of performing helped him secure many gigs at small local venues over the years, and as he met more and more musicians who were impressed by his abilities, they helped him land work as a session musician at Hunan TV and eventually BTV, where he edited and composed music for the network’s footage. He also partook in several of those TV stations’ reality singing competitions, including China’s X Factor, where he ranked fourth place.

Nowadays Ye’s favorite song to perform is the big band standard “When I Fall in Love,” which he and the members of CAST play along with jazz, funk, bluesy rock and reinterpretations of modern pop hits during every set. 

CAST’s guitarist, Hong Feng, also has a strong reputation in China’s music scene, having played with many of the nation’s top pop stars, like Qi Qin and Cheng Lin.

Tore says those long-time members appreciate having Tao Hongxu as the band’s current singer because she can easily adapt to their eclectic set list, while still maintaining a distinctive vocal style. “After our last show, eleven audience members came up and told her she sounded like Ella Fitzgerald, and all of our bandmates told her that we agreed, agreed, agreed,” he says, with an emphatic chuckle.

Tao Hongxu is flattered by the compliment, but adds that she is far more impressed by Ye’s strength as a singer. “Our band has both the Ella Fitzgerald and the Frank Sinatra of China, which is pretty amazing,” she says.

Growing up Tao always had an interest in singing, but initially saw it as nothing more than a hobby. For years she would record covers for fun at home and post them online at 5sing.com (China’s answer to Myspace). She was surprised by the praise she received online, and it emboldened her enough to compete in The Voice of China in 2012. She made it to the second round, and clinched a spot on judge Halin’s team, before being voted off. That experience was so inspiring that she continued to sing at small venues across the city. At those gigs she began hearing rumors about the impressive skill set of the Westin band, and decided to send them a video audition. Tore and the others were immediately sold on her brassy delivery, and brought her into the fold in December of 2014.

And while the members of CAST are becoming more well known, thanks to the TV appearances secured by some of the band’s longtime members and guest singers, each of those musicians have been star struck while playing for some of the Westin’s truly famous guests. Those celebrity attendees include American First Lady Michelle Obama, who stayed at the Chaoyang hotel in March of 2014 and caught CAST’s Sunday brunch set. “She gave us a smile despite being very busy and surrounded by many Secret Service bodyguards, which was an amazing thing to see,” says Tore.

But the FOTUS is not the only important politician the band has played for. In 2010 Tore recalls being startled during a set by a man who patted his shoulder while walking by. When the band finished performing, Tore asked the bar manager who that friendly guest was, and was dumbstruck to be told that it was Horst Koehler, Germany’s then-President. 
 

Nowadays Tore and his band mates are still going strong and still get a kick playing together every week, including regular Thursday-night performances at The Westin Beijing Chaoyang’s sleek Mix Bar. Their passion for playing is even apparent during their warm up on one breezy spring evening last month. While they were setting up Tore keyed up a set list on his phone, and Hong Feng gave his guitar a bit of extra tuning. Ye Zheng began plinking out some seemingly random melodies on the keys, and before long all of his band mates were chuckling as his motif grew suddenly familiar: the simple, but catchy and unmistakably silly refrain of The Chopstick Brothers’ “Little Apple” (小苹果).

Afterwards we joined Tore over cocktails at the bar as he recounted the band’s brief but impressive history. Meanwhile Mark Ma served us Mix’s signature “Spicy Mojito,” in glasses brimming with molten red liquid and topped off with slender chill peppers. Our curiosity grew with our inebriation and we asked about the ingredients, which the bartender rattled off: rum, mint syrup, sugar, fresh lemon juice, apple juice and Sprite, along with a few red chilies. 

As the night proceeded we were served a few other signature cocktails, including a sweetly refreshing “strawberry mojito” (made with rum, sugar, fresh lemon juice, mint syrup, strawberry juice, Sprite and fresh seasonal strawberries) and a smooth, soothing “blue mojito” made from blue Curaçao liqueur, rum, lemon juice, fresh pineapple slices, mint syrup and soda water.
 

“Many of our guests have told me that we make the best mojitos in Beijing,” the bartender explained. “We always make them with fresh fruit and juice to ensure that every glass is a memorable experience.”  

Tore nodded in agreement, adding that his band loves to play jazz standards and other smooth styles of music to complement the drinks and the atmosphere. He adds: “We’ve been playing these regular gigs every week for seven years, with no break. The regular customers keep coming back and every time they know that their favorite drinks are here, their favorite foods are here, and that they can hear our music. We love being part of this tradition.” 

Photos: Uni You