Press
Players' Corner
Samson Trinh
- January 4, 2004
- Richmond Times Dispatch
Claim
to fame: Tenor saxophonist, bandleader, budding jazz impresario.
Stats: 20; junior in jazz studies program at Virginia Commonwealth
University.
Q. Your venue has, shall we say, a colorful history ...
A. The restaurant, at 7103 Brook Road, was originally The Celebrity Room. In 1985 my mom, Phoenix Trinh, opened it as the Phoenix Chinese restaurant - my parents are Chinese from Vietnam. It went through other names and operators as an Oriental restaurant, but our family still owned the property.
Then it opened as a strip bar [Gold City Show Girls], and we went through a lot of troubles.
After the strip bar closed [in July], my mom and I talked about what to do with the building, and I suggested it might make a good jazz lounge. She went for the idea.
We opened Dec. 11 as the Upper East Side Jazz Lounge and Sports Bar. We present live jazz by local artists at 9:30 Thursday and Friday nights, and we show sports on 14 screens on other nights.
Q. You're pretty young to be booking acts for a nightclub. You're not even old enough to drink yet.
A. Well, it's a family operation and I'm the musician in the family. My older brother is the bartender. I know the local jazz community from being at VCU and working with some groups, like the Jack Diamond Orchestra.
So far, we've had the Upper East Side Big Band, a 15-piece group I started as our house band, and John Winn's group, the John Winntet. This week, we've got the Butterbean Jazz Quartet on Thursday and the Skip Gailes Quintet's CD release party Friday.
Q. Why is a nightclub in North Side Richmond called "Upper East Side"?
A. I have this fascination with New York, especially the New York of Woody Allen movies.
I was a jazz composition student at Manhattan School of Music before I came back here to study at VCU with Skip and Doug Richards.
When my mom and I were discussing a name for the place, she was thinking "upscale." And I recalled the old "Jeffersons" theme song - "Movin' on up to the East Side ..." She loved it.
Q. Do you foresee keeping to a Thursday-Friday jazz schedule?
A. It's a starting-off kind of schedule. I would like to book more nights, but the budget is limited until business picks up. Right now, a lot of people have no clue we're here and others don't realize we're not a strip bar anymore.
Players' Corner focuses on people in the arts and entertainment community. Suggestions for profiles can be sent to Marggie Graves, Arts & Entertainment editor, at mgraves@timesdispatch.com