The soul of music
Renowned double bass player Zheng Deren honored on his 100th birthday
China’s groundbreaking double bass player Zheng Deren recently turned 100 years old, according to traditional Chinese custom which gives a year’s age to a newborn. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra hosted a concert on Jan 19 to celebrate his storied life.
Such was his talent in playing the double bass that nearly all early bassists in China are his students or students of his students.
“We are all fruits that fell from the same tree,” said Lu Yuanxiong, the double-bass professor at the Texas Christian University in the United States, during his interview with China Daily.
The winner of numerous international competitions and the artistic director of the TCU International Double Bass Festival, Lu studied with Zheng for seven years, from 1977 when he was admitted to the middle school attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music until his graduation from the institution.
“You can hardly find another musician like Mr Zheng in the world. He has contributed so much to the performance, education and music creation of an instrument,” said Lu.
In a letter congratulating Zheng on his centennial birthday, David Neubert, former president of the International Society of Bassists, wrote: “Professor Zheng has had a major impact on the world of double bass performance and teaching. I was fortunate to have met him twice when visiting Shanghai with Professor Lu Yuanxiong and was very impressed to see that he was still actively conducting an orchestra, playing jazz and teaching the double bass.
“His charming personality and passion for music has certainly been a key component to his longevity. Thank you again Professor Zheng for all you have done in the world of double bass.”
Born in Shanghai in 1923, Zheng grew up playing the trumpet in a Boy Scout band before learning how to play the violin and subsequently the double bass during the tumultuous Pacific War period.
Strike up the band
One of the major turning points in his life took place in 1941 when several leading universities in China moved to southwestern China to start the United University of Southwestern China. Zheng enrolled in Jinan University, one of the institutions involved.
However, as he was getting ready to travel to Kunming, Yunnan province, to study economics at the new university, he suddenly lost contact with his seafaring father due to the war. The family only heard from the father, who had been stranded in Australia, five years later.
As the eldest child in the family,
Zheng was left with no choice but to abandon his plan of going to university in order to shoulder the responsibility of providing for his mother, two younger brothers and two younger sisters.
To make ends meet, he took up a job as a librarian in Shanghai. Realizing that the salary was insufficient to provide for his large family, Zheng thought about supplementing his income by moonlighting as a performer.
With a few music-loving friends, Zheng set up a band that auditioned for performance slots at nightclubs and dance halls.
The make-up of the band proved to be fortunate. At a time when most Chinese musicians only knew how to play traditional Chinese instruments, Zheng’s band easily stood out from the competition due to their proficiency in Western instruments such as the violin, mandolin and piano.
Before long, the band signed a lucrative three-year contract with Cosmos Club, which offered Zheng a salary five times that of his day job.
With musicians from the Philippines and Russia, Zheng and his band entertained audiences while getting to hone their skills.
When the Shanghai National School of Music (known today as the Shanghai Conservatory of Music) announced its first public student recruitment in 1943, Zheng decided to make the leap of faith and focus on carving out a career in music.
He aced the entrance exam, becoming one of only 30 people out of 600 applicants to make the cut.
Fascinated by the deep sounds produced by the cello, Zheng set his mind on majoring in the instrument.
But Russian teacher, J. Shevtzoff, who was the principal cellist in the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra, suggested that Zheng take up the double bass instead because he had already recruited eight cello students. Zheng then turned to learning the double bass.
True virtuoso
Zhu Shunhua, the principal bassist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra who had been one of Zheng’s students, said the nature of the instrument benefitted his teacher’s role as he would go on to guide future generations of bassists in China.
“The double bass in an orchestra is like a foundation in architecture. If the bass section fails to uphold the structure, the entire performance will collapse,” said Zhu.
“Although it is primarily a supporting instrument, the double bass produces such beautiful and striking sounds as a solo instrument that a slight pluck of the string is enough to touch your heart.”
Looking back at his school days, Lu recalled Zheng being an industrious teacher who frequently translated symphony music pieces for the orchestra to the double bass and piano to make training more interesting.
“He also compiled lots of Chinese folk music for the orchestra. He is a great jazz musician, too,” Lu said.
In 1947, when he was still a student, Zheng joined China’s first jazz ensemble, the Jimmy King Jazz Band, which played adaptations of the latest pop songs to large crowds at Paramount, a renowned club and dance hall in Shanghai.
When the Hollywood movie Bathing Beauty premiered at the Grand Cinema in Shanghai, the ensemble founder Jimmy King bought four tickets for Zheng, who watched the performance four times in one day.
The young man returned with mental notes that allowed the Jimmy King Jazz Band to play the very same songs at Paramount the next day.
Zheng later became the double bass principal player at the municipal orchestra when many expatriate members of the jazz band left.
In 1956, popular concerts resumed in Shanghai under the instruction of mayor Chen Yi. Zheng was appointed to organize Shanghai’s first light music orchestra and took over the conducting wand.
In the 1980s, Zheng brought together his friends to form a band of grayhaired musicians that played at the invitation of the Peace Hotel on the Bund. It was 40 years since the last time jazz music was played in the city, but Zheng was never a step out of beat.