When Henry Chan opened Shanghai Bistro more than two years ago, he said he knew right away that he wanted to add music, to do something different.

“We had the stage for it and everyone was like, ‘do karaoke’, but everyone does karaoke,” he said. “We just tried it and it found a niche, it just sort of took off.”
People started calling in asking for reservations for the nights with live music, Chan said. It was something a little different than other restaurants
in town.

“We don’t want to have an upscale, nose in the air feel,” he said. “We want to be more contemporary and urban.

The Scott Currier Trio books a lot of people for Shanghai, including Peter Phippen, Chan said. He is sort of the director of the jazz program there.

The Scott Currier Trio
The jazz trio, made up of seniors Scott Currier, piano; Jeremy Boettcher, upright bass; and Sean Carey, drums, plays at the Shanghai Bistro most Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Currier, a non-traditional student at UW-Eau Claire, began playing with Boettcher and the previous drummer, Dave Whitman, over two years ago when the Shanghai Bistro opened, Currier said.

Carey said he joined the trio a little more than a year ago when Whitman graduated.
The Shanghai Bistro has the perfect spot, the perfect kind of restaurant and the trio has the right kind of music to go with that, he said.

“The ambience of the place is really nice,” Boettcher said. “There is a sushi bar and a full Chinese menu. Having live music just makes the atmosphere more hip and exciting.”

Carey said he agreed that the live music makes it unique. It’s one of the only places in town where someone can hear live music and eat other than bars. He said it’s also one of the only jazz venues in town.

Although they are a jazz trio, Currier said on Thursday nights they do more of a variety of pop, funk, blues and a little bit of jazz. On Friday and Saturday nights they tend to do their own interpretation of jazz standards.

“Jazz standards means we’re playing jazz tunes that people all over the country and world play, because they are historically recognized as influential songs or recordings,” Carey said.

The group also plays some of their own compositions written by Currier, or arrangements that they write, ranging from Nirvana to John Lennon to Alanis Morissette, he said.

The originals are more modern sounding, Boettcher said. They try to mix it up.

It is unique in Eau Claire to be able to focus on jazz trio-specific music. To have the opportunity to be able to play that art form is great, Currier said.

“To not just have it be wallpaper music,” he said. “We can exhibit it, that’s something really neat and to have people appreciate it – and in a restaurant of all places.”

Being able to play with other musicians of a high caliber is great, Carey said. It’s a nice place to apply what he is studying and practicing into a real-life situation. Most college students don’t get to do that.

“We all really, really enjoy (playing there) because we are doing what we love to do and we are getting paid for it,” Boettcher said. “It’s a really
nice deal.”

Peter Phippen
Although he started playing at the Shanghai Bistro as part of a duet, Peter Phippen said it ended up being a solo gig.

Although Phippen plays a variety of flutes, he said at Shanghai Bistro he usually plays the Shakuhachi – a Japanese bamboo flute. It is played vertically, but it is still a true flute. Because he plays alone, he said he does use an effect processor to enhance the sound of the flute.

“I love playing there,” he said. “I am improvising 99 percent of my music. I just walk in there
and play.”

Phippen said his music is perfect for the Shanghai Bistro because it has oriental flavor, but it’s still western music. He loves crossing cultures.

“My music is more . chill music,” he said.

It’s not in people’s faces, Phippen said. They can choose to listen or talk, which doesn’t offend him. They have the option to listen and he said he finds that a lot of people do. He is very thankful for that.

“As a flute player, you’re either going to play in a concert, or be background music,” he said.

Phippen said he describes his music as ambient. But Borders usually files him under New Age or Native American.

“I do not believe I play Native American music,” he said. “If they can’t describe what it is, they tend to put you in New Age. It’s a catch-all.”

Phippen said the Shanghai Bistro is interesting because people come to see him play, and the food is great, the service is great, and everyone who works there is wonderful.

The music brings in more people, Chan said. There is a little bit of everything so all ages are attracted from the college crowd to young professionals to older crowds.

“Everybody really enjoys it because it is so unique,” he said.