Lying Down To Jazz – at the Bed Supperclub

We rarely get to the pleasuredoms of Bangkok to which the rich, the famous and not-yet-quite-so-famous swarm in the name of being seen and herd . This is not because we are snobs – well not only - but because the likes of the Q Bar and Narcissus and even, God forbid, RCA, rarely if ever feature live music. A sign of the times perhaps, they prefer instead to feature the cream of global bedroom wannabes in the shape of nerdy young dudes hunched over their CD collections and their latest new turntables hoping to impress the girls. Whichever way you cut it, and no matter how exotic, badly dressed or expensive they are, DJs are not live music, even if their friend did bring an instrument.

But one noted pleasuredom is working on it and gave us the inside track that they are to feature live music at least a few times a month. The idea…sorry, concept is that the punters will have a bit of a change on Monday nights at least, with the cream of locally-based jazz musicians doing their bit to bring grooves to-die-for, live on stage at the Bed Supper Club, that bastion of DJ domination.

The truth is that the club is a feature in itself, looking from the outside like a recently-landed alien spacecraft. The rather Frank Lloyd Wrightesque staircase that takes you up to the front door is another clue that this is a deliberate exercise in not-looking-the- same-as-other-clubs, and indeed arrival in the main auditorium after paying your 500-baht entry fee (includes two drinks), confirms that there is definitely no sawdust on the floor, no pool table and no darts. It is also rather subdued by nightclub standards mainly due to the fact that most punters are sprawled out on bed-like sofas in the manner of the great Roman elite who once lay down to their nosh all those years ago. Idle, hedonistic self-indulgence comes to mind here, but wait a minute, we are trying to get away from it all and enjoy ourselves, so why not.

The first surprise as you step inside is that it is not quite the young crowd we had expected here at the heart of Trendyrama . Instead a collection of tourists, office types, younger couples and even a few mums and dads were sprawled out at their food on sumptuous white sofas on two levels, in what is a fairly spacious room which could comfortably hold four hundred. The whole Bed Supper Club is actually divided into two parts with the smaller section a very cool and classy bar, replete of course with a DJ playing cuts from the various classifications of music they have apparently invented, including Hop Hip, Deep Bass, Drums & Bums, Chilly Ambient and B&R. Whatever happened to good old Rock and Roll?

The lighting is beautifully subdued, the décor understated and in shades of white and there are waiters and waitresses scurrying to and fro as if their customers were all there was to see in the world. This glamorous scurrying involves the delivery of plates of fine food, glasses of wine, beers and other attractions of the house.

Chef Dan Ivarie presides over what he calls the ‘generous and audacious' cuisine. He changes the set menu every three weeks and you can take your pick from three excellent starters, main courses and desserts for the not-so-very-princely sum of 1250 baht a head – a great deal considering the five-star stature the menu deserves.

Gazpachio soups, green mango and octopus with spicy lettuce, avocado-crab salad with black caviar cream are among the starters this semester, with roast duck, sea bass fillet, lamb and spinach risotto and Rigatoni pasta among the mains we could have enjoyed. Finish off with the fallen lemon soufflé, mango crepes with mascarpone and tamarind caramel ice cream or strawberries in calamansi honey with dubonnet sorbet and pine nut cookie! Calorific or what?

There is a three-course set menu Monday through Thursdays at 1,250 baht a head, and Friday and Saturday it's a four-course extravaganza at 1,650 baht a pop. To wash it all down, there is a great choice of New Zealand, Chilean and Australian wines, but the cellar is not confined to those countries and the lists are currently ‘under construction' as we speak.

You can buy a bottle of Chivas at 2990 baht, or a bottle of Johnny Walker Black for 3900 baht. A small bottle of Singha is 160 baht and Heineken 180 baht, so you are paying for the music – live music this particular Monday night.

Playing in-the-round, that is to say in the middle of the floor of the main room, was Everyday People a band formed by some of the best jazz musicians Bangkok has to offer. Tony Fennec on saxophone, Rick Slam on guitar, Kong Sanuk on drums, Keith Nolan on keyboards and James ‘Lock' Bell on bass. And what a rhythm section! Grooves courtesy of John Scofield and the likes thereof locked in and delivered with the perfect combination of precision and feel, so that the soloists had a ball the whole evening delivering the message that there is really nothing to beat truly good live music.

At least one of the owners present that night was impressed enough to promise more of the same soon, and has even gone as far as to enquire of a local promoter who is bringing UK jazz drummer Bill Bruford to town, if he might put him on for an evening at Bed when Bruford gets in to town early May.

I wonder if Bill brings his own DJs?

Bed Supperclub
26 Sukhumvit Soi 11
Reservations 02 651 3537
info@bedsupperclub.com
open 7pm ‘till late