It Don't Mean a Thing...

In search of swing, sophistication and all that jazz

Published on March 24, 2004 By mmzzin In Entertainment

Damon Brown is bald, British, and plays jazz on the flugelhorn. Close to midnight on a Saturday, he sits in a huddle of animated musicians at JZ, where he has blown in for the weekend as part of his Asian tour. The musicians hum tunes to each other as they brainstorm the song list for the upcoming set, verbally riffing a stream of shared musical consciousness that twenty minutes later they replicate on stage.

In a scene dominated by CJW's imported glitz and fancy hotels' prefabricated easy-listening jazz, such spontaneity is as refreshing as it is unrehearsed. It also brings to the fore the catch-22 that has kept Shanghai's jazz in a primitive state. To court Shanghai's primarily foreign jazz audience, clubs during the last decade have imported musicians from abroad, making jazz seem as foreign and incomprehensible as deodorant to its potential Chinese audience. Little interest in or even awareness of jazz exists outside small pockets in China's conservatories, so jazz venues are compelled to continue looking outside of China for their talent supply.

"You have to learn jazz by playing it," says JQ Whitcomb, a soft-spoken American who came to China a year ago and has played the trumpet at all the primary stops on the Shanghai jazz circuit. "The Chinese learn jazz from foreign musicians and by listening, but there is no formal jazz education in Shanghai except for a couple of very basic jazz electives at Shanghai Conservatory. And only a handful of people have sufficient skills to teach." Whitcomb is doing what he can to "get the scene moving," playing publicly almost nightly and taking on private students.

Unfortunately for aspiring Chinese jazz musicians, educational opportunities are uncommon. The venues with the money to attract talented international acts require performers to sign six-night-a-week exclusive contracts, effectively forbidding them from jamming with the local talent. Though there are ways to circumvent contractual obligations, doing so jeopardises the permit foreigners require to play in Shanghai.

New venues JZ - started by two musicians as a kind of "musicians' living room" - and the argyle-themed velvety Qin La lounge are less rigid and more accessible than their predecessors to local audients and musicians alike. Many of the spectators at JZ are jazz musicians themselves, and sitting back in a plush couch, it's almost possible to imagine that their soulful nods and tapping toes directly influence the performances. The spectators and performers at JZ and Qin La share an intimacy absent from other Shanghai jazz venues, and though both venues package jazz as a luxury item, they do so without curtailing its vitality or musical integrity.

For all their veneration of unadorned music, JZ and Qin La cannot match the atmosphere of their venerable progenitor the Cotton Club, still one of the city's best live music venues, which turns out consistently tight tunes every night. If you think Louis Armstrong was the first man on the moon, then this remains your best bet, with Maoming Lu's House of Blues and Jazz nipping at its heels. Though currently in the midst of a three-month blues cycle, this spot also hosts a mix of local and imported jazz ensembles of varying ability which aim to please the Buddha-Bar-boozed-up crowd.

Shanghai's remaining venues market jazz as a luxury item and a status symbol. CJW churns out imported cheese to attract the slick set by placing jazz between cigars and wine as a conspicuous consumable. This is jazz by default, more aptly described as a sophisticated advertising jingle. Similarly, the easy-listening jazz that resonates in the sleek lounges of Shanghai's ritziest hotels is simply a live version of what sounds in their elevators, a sonic backdrop for impossible lavishness.

In a city so dominated by financial motives, jazz will only take root and flourish if it attracts both the prodigal and the prodigy. It is possible that Shanghai's new jazz clubs will attract the requisite benefactors to foster local talent, though it is still too early to tell. A jazz connoisseur in Shanghai recently remarked, "Classical music is a monologue, it's a scripted recitation, whereas jazz is a largely improvised conversation between musicians, complete with quotations and allusions and jokes." Shanghai's local jazz scene still speaks the halting pidgin of a recent arrival, though it has begun to show signs of overcoming the language barrier.

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Comments

jazz lover

on Mar 04, 2005

Just for the record of CJW jazz club, seems to have a lot of bad reputation for vocalist and u.s. citizens. CJW has been hiring americans and not keeping to there contracts, and breaking them for no reason, many vocalist have had problems with this company, and musicians. Not much many nice things are said about the management. The club itself is gorgeous, and the clientel is beautiful, but management has a lot of flaws, and seems to be paying there clients in conterfeit money.

JAZZ LOVER

on Mar 04, 2005

JZ'S JAZZ CLUB SEEMS TO HAVE REAL PEOPLE, GREAT TALENT, AND MANAGEMENT SEEMS TO BE VERY REAL, AND ENJOYS THE MUSICIANS AND THE MUSIC, HAS A LOT OF INTERACTION WITH THE MUSICIANS AND MAKE THEM FEEL AT HOME.

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