Time to jazz things up
Festival set to swing music lovers as the capital gets into the groove, Chen Nan reports.
For a week during this summer, the outdoor stage of the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center in Beijing’s Tongzhou district is expected to be flooded with musicians and music fans who will travel across the city to experience the 2022 Taihu Jazz Festival.
From Aug 26-31, 14 bands and nearly 100 jazz musicians will share the stage for their live performances, virtual concerts and workshops.
“Last year, we launched the first Taihu Jazz Festival, and we received warm feedback from the audience, which made us ensure that the festival is an annual event now,” says Huang Yong, the music director of the event. “There’s a type of jazz for every person if they take the time to listen. We try to provide an event for that kind of thing.”
Huang, a veteran bassist, is also the secretary-general of China Jazz Association under the Chinese Musicians’ Association.
“We are all ready to get together again and share that special spirit that lives at a jazz festival. It’s taking longer than we wanted, but we’ll all have our celebration when the time comes,” says Huang, adding that the festival has been postponed due the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its first year, the festival attracted audiences of more than 2,000 and this year, Huang says that the number is going to increase.
The Blue Note China Jazz Orchestra, which was launched in 2018 and gathers young jazz musicians, will open the festival on Aug 26. Chinese musicians will perform with jazz musicians from Europe, adapting folk music works from around the world, including Italy, Poland, France and China.
On Aug 27, top Chinese jazz musicians will perform throughout the day, headlined by Kong Hongwei, jazz pianist and professor at the China Conservatory of Music and his jazz band, Golden Buddha. They will bring music works featuring elements from countries along the ancient Silk Road. Jazz pianist Luo Ning will perform with his jazz quartet, featuring pieces he composed. A newly born big band, which consists of about 20 students from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, will perform on the same day.
On Aug 28, a big band, CMA, from the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, will perform jazz pieces adapted from popular Chinese songs. Founded in 2011, CMA is one of the most successful student bands in the jazz music scene.
Trumpet player Li Xiaochuan, who is the principal conductor of the big band, will join in the performances, as well as give a solo concert on Aug 27.
“We will premiere some new jazz works adapted from Chinese traditional music pieces. We are always keen on bringing out jazz music pieces that are original and independent,” says Li.
“We gather those top Chinese jazz musicians on the same day, hoping to show audiences the country’s jazz scene. Besides playing classic and popular jazz pieces, those musicians will perform their original works, which is a highlight of the festival,” says Huang, adding that the performances on Aug 27 will be livestreamed.
“For audiences who may not be familiar with jazz music, they will get a sense of the music genre,” adds Huang, who will perform with Li, pianist Qin Sifeng and Golden Buddha.
Huang created the Beijing Nine Gates International Jazz Music Festival, which was launched in 2005 and ran for 15 years. The festival offered a platform to many jazz musicians and exposed people of all ages to this music genre. It was a golden opportunity for like-minded music lovers to meet up.
Beijing has always been home to an abundance of musicians from a diversity of music genres. The number of homegrown jazz musicians is on the rise during the past three decades, says Huang.
Jazz music, which originated in the African American communities of the United States in the late 19th century, has taken root in Beijing over the past three decades.
Since the 1990s, a small but dedicated group of jazz musicians has been performing at bars and clubs. One of the most famous venues for live jazz performances is East Shore, a jazz bar with floor-to-ceiling windows near Beijing’s Houhai Lake. The bar was founded by Liu Yuan, a well-known saxophonist and a longtime band member of China’s rock legend Cui Jian.
Thanks to the internet, local jazz musicians are more closely connected to the international jazz community and young people’s knowledge of music and listening experiences are diversified.
Some of the young jazz musicians have won international awards, finding their own musical style, and are able to play with world-class musicians on the same stage.
Seeing the potential in the market, New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club, one of the world’s most renowned jazz clubs, opened a branch in Beijing in 2016 and in Shanghai in 2019.
“The audience for jazz music is always new and young — that’s the main force to keep the festival going,” says Sun Yang, director of the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center. “People can see and hear jazz music and jazz musicians live, outdoors, in a relaxed, laid-back setting, which is a great experience on summer nights.”
The NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center, a stage art complex, was launched in 2018 by the National Center for the Performing Arts. Covering an area of nearly 60,000 square meters, the art center has multiple indoor and outdoor theaters, rehearsal rooms and areas to keep technical equipment, costumes and sets.
People can see and hear jazz music and jazz musicians live, outdoors, in a relaxed, laid-back setting, which is a great experience on summer nights.”
Sun Yang, director of the NCPA Taihu Stage Art Center