B-Jazz All-Girl Big Band
Someday, August 7, 2026
Becky Liu – bandleader, trumpet, flugelhorn, alto saxophone
Charmaine Cheng, Ophelia Ng - saxophones
Angela Liu, Charming Chung, Jackie Chan - trombone
Agnes Lai – French horn
Shan Fong, Stephanie Lai, Claudia Tsang - trumpet
Aileen Wong - piano
Janice Lo - guitar
Bass: Sonja Lam - bass
Rika Lee - drums
Karen Ka – drums/vocals
It’s not every night you get to hear an all-girl big band playing classic and modern big band jazz. It’s even rarer to hear one from Hong Kong, and rare again to hear one so vibrant, well-versed in the big band canon, and full of swing. In America, all-girl bands were a staple of the big band era, especially during the war. I suppose, like then, even in this era, they have something to prove. They did just that. The B-Jazz band played jazz with heart, sophistication, and exuberance.
Kicking off with several classics, the first set showed just how much the past is present in jazz, and how global it is, very much rooted in Hong Kong, too! Duke Ellington’s “Creole Love Call” and Red Garland’s “Red’s Good Groove” got right into the fun, followed by “Putting on the Ritz.” The tunes had great arrangements, succinct, sharp soloing, and an obvious love for music written a century ago. (A century isn’t so long in Chinese history, it must be said.) In fact, love was the theme of the songs selected for the first set. “Love is Here to Stay” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” both featured great vocals from Karen K set in swinging arrangements. “I Could Write a Book” expressed all the energy of the 1940s big band era.
“All the Things You Are” and “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise” again featured splendid arrangements and great solos. Finishing up the first set with a Latin arrangement of “It Had Better Be Tonight,” let everyone in the band enjoy themselves fully. Their enthusiasm and precise playing were infectious. Staying proudly in the traditional big band format, everyone played with such attention to detail and musical engagement that each song sounded fresh.
The theme of the second set was “baby” and kicked off with “Let the Good Times Roll.” But “Moten Swing” really floored me. Being from Kansas City, where the tune is something of the jazz anthem of the city, and having heard Count Basie for years in my youth, I had to stop for a moment to reflect that I was sitting in a jazz club in Tokyo, listening to an all-girl big band from Hong Kong play a Kansas City swing number nearly one hundred years after it was popular. Jazz’s trajectories around the world never fail to amaze me.
“Topsy,” another Kansas City swing number, featured a great drum solo. “I Found a New Baby” felt like the band's anthem, with funny, informative introductions from leader Becky Liu. “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” and “Coming Home Baby” opened up for longer solos and a looser rhythmic feel. The arrangement of the theme song from “Cinema Paradiso” was lush and rhythmic, and showed another, more contemporary, side of the band.
“I’ll Wait for You” and “Sweet Home Chicago” featured gutsy vocals that would have been at home in any blues club in Chicago. The encore was “All About the Bass,” a great closer that summed up the energy, knowledge, virtuoso playing, and great sense of fun that the band brought to the evening. Hopefully they’ll be back to play in Tokyo again soon.
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