XI BAN RELEASES NEW ALBUM
The album features renditions of eight classic Peking Opera songs that pay tribute to the 200-year-old ancient art form,
Surrounded by large construction sites in the Sheshan suburb in Shanghai is a bookstore, and this was the unlikely location where Chinese band Xi Ban recorded their latest album Wan Pi.
Besides recording their new songs there at night, the band members also lived in the bookstore.
“It’s a new and exciting experience for the band,” says Zhu Ma, the leader of the band. “In the day, we did rehearsals at the bookstore. I liked watching the scene of the construction sites outside the windows because I can imagine what the place would look like in the future.”
Zhu Ma, whose real name is Zhang Du, founded the band in 2009 with the aim of mixing contemporary music elements, like jazz and electronic music, with those from Peking Opera and
Qinqiang, a traditional opera form that originated in Shaanxi province. The band’s name in Chinese refers to ensembles of traditional Chinese operas.
In their new album, Zhu Ma selected eight classic Peking Opera songs and turned them into renditions that pay tribute to the 200-year-old ancient art form. The classic songs include
The Drunken Concubine by Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) and Kongchengji, or Ruse of The Empty City by Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang (1901-1966).
On July 18, the band will give a live performance at Blue Note Beijing before they head to Guangzhou and Hangzhou later in the month.
“When Xi Ban started, we had about 10 members playing various musical instruments, including wind instruments and percussion. But now, we only have three musical instruments — guitar, bass and drum,” says Zhu Ma.
“When I first mixed Western music with traditional Chinese opera, I tried to display the versatility of traditional Chinese operas so I used many musical instruments. But with this new album, I wanted to return to the simplest and most basic music forms.”
Besides Zhu Ma, who does the songwriting and plays the guitar and sanxian (a traditional Chinese three-stringed instrument), the band presently also includes double bass player Yu Bo, jazz percussion Zhang Ruijia and Peking Opera actress Wang Weijia, who specializes in performing qingyi roles, or young, graceful female roles. “Traditional Chinese operas, like Peking Opera, are strong and rich enough and it goes naturally and harmoniously with Western music like jazz. For example, I can use the guitar to play the same melodies like erhu (traditional Chinese two-string instrument) and sanxian,” Zhu Ma adds. Xi Ban released its debut album This Is The Tune in 2012. The band has since toured around the world to music events such as the CAFE Budapest Festival in 2016 and the OzAsia Festival in 2017.
Born in Altay, a city in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Zhu Ma arrived in Shanghai, his mother’s hometown, when he was 16. He later went to Beijing after graduating from high school but eventually dropped out of university when he was 19 because he did not like studying accounting.
Zhu Ma fell in love with rock music and taught himself how to play the guitar before becoming an independent musician. While performing covers of Western songs, he started to think about creating his own music.
“For me, traditional Chinese musical instruments, such as
erhu and sanxian, are quite familiar because when I was a child, I listened to lots of traditional Chinese operas and those instruments dominated the bands,” recalls Zhu Ma.
“So when I wanted to create my own music, I naturally considered integrating these traditional Chinese musical instruments into my creations.”
Zhu Ma can still recall how he tried in vain to convince some of his previous band members about his ideas. Those that could not understand his concept soon left the band.
“I compare traditional Chinese music to a unique language. Many young people don’t listen to traditional Chinese music now. It’s not the language’s problem. What we should do is to keep the language alive and keep up with the pace of the contemporary world,” Zhu Ma says.