China Daily Global Edition (USA)
The improvised life of Xia Jia
Jazz pianist and co-founder of Beijing quintet Redhand talks music, life and the sweetness of reunions, Chen Nan reports.
The piano stood in the center of the Aranya North Coast Chapel, a popular scenic spot in the Aranya resort in Qinhuangdao, the coastal city in Hebei province.
It was a cold winter night that Jan 13, and as people gathered inside, jazz pianist Xia Jia prepared to perform.
“It was an unforgettable evening. The audience included parents and children, as well as elderly people. They sat in circles, very close to me. Though I was performing alone, we shared the night in the small chapel as music flowed around us,” says Xia.
A few days later, he listened to the recording of the concert and was surprised. He hadn’t expected that the sound would be so unique. A friend also listening to the recording commented that “the sounds breathed”.
“Maybe it was the building, which has a high-pitched roof and is an intimate space. It made me want to turn the live recording into an album, to make the performance permanent,” says Xia.
To support the album’s release, the pianist played a series of concerts, including at Beijing’s Tsinghua University on March 30 and at Harbin’s Old Synagogue Concert Hall on April 13.
The album opens with an improvisation, which Xia says “invites people in” with music he felt was suited to that particular moment in the seashore chapel.
He also played songs like Lament, which he wrote to commemorate legendary jazz player Kenny Kirkland (1955-1998), one of his favorite musicians, and Echo, which he composed while studying at the Eastman School of Music in New York, and which he dedicated to the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and his teacher, Harold Danko.
New Autumn, composed by Danko, and Warm Winter, a piece by Xia, rounded off that night in Aranya.
Xia says that he wrote Warm Winter a few days before the performance at the seashore chapel, shortly after visiting his mother in Beijing.
“Though the winter was very cold, I felt warm. And the piece came out naturally,” he says.
“His improvisations are impressive, reeling off piano improvisations that are soulful, harmonically forward and marked by painterly restraint. In my note book, I scribble a snap judgment: ‘any scene would be lucky to have him’,” New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen once wrote about Xia.
“Xia Jia’s playing was in a way restrained but nonetheless sophisticated. There was clearly thoughtfulness in his playing and the way he built his improvisations,” says Eugene Marlow, a jazz musician and author, who produced a feature-documentary in 2022, based on his acclaimed 2018 book
Jazz in China, which traces the genre’s history in China since the 1920s.
Born and raised in Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, 50-year-old Xia was introduced to music by his parents — his mother is a pianist and his father plays French horn. He was first taught to play piano by his mother as a child and in 1986, began attending the primary school affiliated to Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, receiving classical music training and studying classical piano and conducting.
He first realized that he enjoyed playing freestyle piano after an encounter with one of the other children at the school.
“I remember that I enjoyed improvising with a student who was a year older than me. We met in the piano room and after he played a phrase, which was totally spontaneous, I followed up with another musical phrase. I really enjoyed the free playing, although I had no idea what improvisation was back then,” Xia says.
An album given to him by his primary school piano teacher also encouraged him to pursue a career as a jazz pianist.
“It was an album by a piano trio, featuring interpretations of Bach’s music in jazz style. I cannot remember the trio’s name. It was probably the first jazz recording I heard,” he says.
Between 1999 and 2004, Xia studied jazz piano at the Eastman School of Music.
In 2001, he and his classmates performed in the 18th New York JVC Jazz Festival, which marked his debut on the international stage.
Since the 1990s, jazz has taken root in Beijing with a number of homegrown musicians performing at clubs and bars, resulting in a vibrant and fast developing scene. After returning to China, Xia frequently played at well-known venues, like East Shore Live Jazz Cafe, which was founded by veteran jazz saxophonist, Liu Yuan.
He also formed Beijing’s first large jazz band, the Beijing City Jazz Orchestra.
“Back then, we jammed with musicians from all over the world. It was a time that inspired me and expanded my vision as a jazz musician,” says Xia.
In 2005, along with Chinese-American saxophonist Nathaniel Gao, trumpet player Wen Zhiyong, double bass player Wang Chenhuai and drummer Liu Xingyu, Xia formed a quintet called Redhand. They played at live venues, concert halls, and jazz bars around Beijing, gaining a fan base with their compositions.
As the members of Redhand pursued their studies abroad — Xia moved to Netherlands where he earned a master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam — the quintet was put on pause.
In the summer of 2023, Redhand reunited with a performance in Beijing.
“I once had a dream about the members all going abroad to study, which became reality. Now, we have come back and performed together again. We are still the same Redhand playing our own music, but our skill and perspective of music has changed,” Xia says.
In 2025, Redhand will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a new album and a tour.
Xia Jia’s playing was in a way restrained but nonetheless sophisticated. There was clearly thoughtfulness in his playing and the way he built his improvisations.”
Eugene Marlow, jazz musician and author