The last year or so has seen a slew of major live music events in interesting places – boats, Maloop, B-Box – and it turns out it’s the same creative team behind it all, closely related to Japan Guitar Shop.  Ahead of the next big one, on Saturday 1 February, The Players’ Ball at Seekers Spirits, with prominent horns – Checkered Past and Jazz Sauce along with JGS – LengPleng sat down with Cove Aaronoff (of JGS) and trumpeter Cameron Smith of the other two bands to get the lowdown on next weekend’s event.

Cove is quick to give credit to his JGS bandmate Colin Hodgkins.  “Colin has been trying to create events that haven’t previously been seen or put on.  Ho Chi Minh-based Skeleton Goode at B-Box – that was both of us putting our heads together.  Usually Colin spearheads it, especially in the initial phases.  For example we approached Maloop and asked them about doing a big day, saying we believe it could happen in a symbiotic and beneficial way.  And it did.

“Colin does a lot of work behind the scenes; it basically starts in his brain, he looks around to find the potential to do a new thing.  Then starts getting people involved – connecting with the venue, gathering other bands, finding bar and restaurant partners.  For The Players’ Ball, Mexican joint Itacate and The Deck are helping us out.”

These events are motivated by the truism that there’s a limited choice of music venues in town, particularly for larger bands, and by the chance to put together a significant line-up that is going to do more than just break even for both venue and musicians.  “The fact that many venues can’t pay enough money to put on an event like this for us – three bands, 20 musicians, it’s just unfeasible.  So we think about it differently, and go about it differently.  Finding stakeholders, selling tickets, whatever it takes to make it happen.

“This time the audience has a chance to see three of Phnom Penh’s headliner on one stage, bands that haven’t played together before.  For the community, it’s keeping things lively, making sure that the water doesn’t get still.  And for musicians it’s wonderful too – often we don’t get a chance to see each other play, let alone really collaborate because we’re all gigging on the same nights.”

Japan Guitar Shop at the B-Box show

Cameron: Saucery

And so what’s Cameron up to within this?  “I’ll be involved with this event with Jazz Sauce and Checkered Past,” he says, “and then when I heard the Japan Guitar Shop album Done You Right, I was surprised to find there are two tracks with horns.  Ah!  So I asked them – do you mind if the Checkered Past horn section jumps in for a couple of songs?  So you’ll see a horn-augmented JGS for the first time.

“I like my New Orleans jazz, and I’m pleased to have met a couple of like-minded people in town.  We’re going to have an extended band for this show, adding Phil Javelle on clarinet and Troy Campbell on drums – a proper six-piece trad jazz band.  It’s one of the main things I was doing in Australia for a long time.  I grew up listening to it and playing it, being a trumpet player there was always Louis Armstrong in the house.  It’s just evolved from when I was a youngster.”

“It’s so cool that this evolved as a night of brass,” says Cove.  “We’ve got New Orleans jazz, high energy ska and blues/rock/hip-hop.  The acceptance of the three genres is not odd for Phnom Penh, but it’s unusual to get them all together at one time.”

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online (until 8 pm on Friday 31), or in-person at Seekers or The Deck.  You can purchase tickets on the day but you’ll miss out on the chance of receiving one of the Golden Tickets, which come with a small bottle of Seekers boutique gin, a free link to a Checkered Past album, and a JGS t-shirt.

A pre-game party at The Deck will feature DJ Moto and a happy hour before a free party bus (for ticket holders) leaves for Seekers.

Checkered Past – photo supplied