Interesting Trends in Chengdu's Music Scene

I have been active in the "Lao Wai Gig" (a gig that only hires foreigners) scene since arriving in Chengdu almost a year ago. These corporate shows have always been particularly high paying, yet the music can be embarrassingly bad at times. Agents will take anyone who can hit a bongo or a tambourine as long as he or she has a foreign face. In some instances foreigners are hired to open doors, pour wine, or even just stand around and do absolutely nothing other than smile.

Lately I have felt a shift in this strange phenomenon. These days I have been getting calls specifically asking for jazz musicians. In some instances the agents are willing to bend the rules and hire Chinese if it means filling out the group with a pianist or drummer. When I first arrived here most people did not really know what jazz was, now it feels like there is a serious buzz in the air about it.

Although this development is very promising and exciting, a disturbing trend has been taking hold as well. Some of the agents calling for these gigs are now specifically asking for 'white only.' Through the grapevine I have heard that one particular group of black performers left a bad impression at several venues. Prejudices were quickly stoked throughout the corporate music scene and anyone with darker skin is suddenly finding it difficult to find work in this field. While this has not affected my band, it has affected some of my peers here in Chengdu. Some are beginning to make plans to head out and find work elsewhere.

Has anyone felt the affects of racism or other biases in different parts of China?

Chinese New Year Plans Finalized, Sort Of

Just yesterday I was ready to post that our New Year plan was fixed. We had dates for gigs in Shanghai and Hangzhou, airplane tickets purchased, hotel reservations made, but a wrench has been thrown into the works. Apparently a plane ticket from Shanghai to our final travel destination of Urumqi in Xinjiang was double the typical price due to the high demand during the Chinese New Year travel season. Standing in line waiting for a train ticket would also have been prohibitively time consuming given our performance schedule. There would also be no guarantee of actually getting the ticket.

Our new travel arrangement is to fly from Chengdu to Xinjiang on the 25th of this month, spend a couple weeks traveling, slaughtering some lambs, drinking Bai Jiu, and mainly just trying to stay warm up there in the frozen desert. Once the crazy holiday bustle slows down, we will take the two to three day train ride from Xinjiang back to Chengdu, enjoying what should be some incredible views from the train window. Once we are back in Chengdu we will continue preparing for a jazz concert series being held by the JZ jazz clubs of Hangzhou and Shanghai. We should be slotted for a performance sometime during the next month. Check back for more updates though as this current plan could very well be tossed out in the next few days.

In other news, the band played a very well received show at the Little Bar 小酒馆 on Friday. The stage is almost exclusively used for rock and metal bands, so it was a pleasant surprise to get such a warm reception from the crowd and management. In fact, talks are currently underway to set up a semi-regular performance. The Lao Wai Jazz Note will keep you posted!

Tackling Written Chinese

For the first five or six months I spent in China I completely avoided the written language. For a while I learned Mandarin purely by listening and repeating, eventually learning the "pinyin" system, which is the English spelling of Chinese words. Initially frustrated by my inability to converse with people, my goal was to learn as many new words as quickly as I could. Learning characters seemed like a waste of time. My visual memory is definitely not up to the level of my musically trained ear, and characters seemed so complex and arbitrary.

My strategy worked, for a while. I definitely surprised myself at how quickly I picked up the spoken language and could understand and speak with people. After a few months in Chengdu however I started to realize it may have been a mistake to completely gloss over the written aspect of the language. Every text message I received, no matter how simple, required a translator. Looking for a particular store always required help from nearby shop owners. My favorite restaurants were always the ones with English menus, or at least those with pictures.

So as of a few months ago I broke down and got a couple Chinese text books for learning characters. My goal was to learn the characters for all the words I already knew how to say. It seemed daunting, but I at least wanted to give it a try. Now into my third textbook series (the first two earned well deserved places on the shelf) I believe I have struck language learning gold.

EazyChinese's "Magical Chinese Characters" series is exactly what I needed to make this process easier. One particular focus of this series is to explain why a character looks the way it does. Whether it's a visual depiction, shares the sound of a similar character, or carries some historic meaning, the book is great at finding a device to easily remember the character's structure. With the other books it was all about repition and forced memorization. The "Magical" series is about finding the rhyme and reason, looking at the glue that holds this surprisingly logical language together.

One thing this series lacks is guided practice. There is little room reserved for exercises or other memorization techniques. This is where you need to be a little creative. I've set up a system of flash cards and writing sentences to help retain everything I learn. There is a text accompanying each lesson to practice reading, and it helps to see any new vocabulary in context. The book also comes with a CD which could be used to practice dictation as well as listening skills.

Initially I was worried that spending all this time bringing my written skills up to the level of my spoken skills would slow down my progress. In fact, I think I've found that learning to read and write is really integral in understanding this language, and will definitely help me learn at a much faster rate in the future.

For anyone who has been reluctant to learn the written side, yet speaks decent conversational Mandarin, I fully reccommend EazyChinese. Here's the Amazon link.

Wow, Chengdu Is Ready For Its Subway

For the past few years a subway system has been under construction here in Chengdu. It is projected to be completed by 2010 but this overwhelmingly crowded city is more than ready for it now.

With the cold, damp winter upon us, it seems like more people are leaving their bike locked up and their walking shoes off in favor of Chengdu's woefully insufficient public transportation. The result is that it's nearly impossible to find a taxi from about 5-7 pm, the buses are packed like sardine cans, and traffic moves at a sloth's pace.

Today I took the 92, a double-decker bus, right in the middle of the rush hour commute. It was not the romantic, London-style bus you may be imagining. The bus is old and decripid, spews fumes, and feels like it's ready to break down at any second. On both levels there is not nearly enough headroom to stand up straight for a person any taller than 5'7".

The protracted, fetid, agonizing ride led to a heated confrontation between some passengers; two couples. After one lady stepped on the shoe of another a verbal altercation ensued. After a few swears in the local Sichuan language were exchanged, everything seemed to settle down. A few minutes passed and then the women were at it again, this time more vehement. Suddenly punches were thrown, people were shoved, hair was pulled, and the bus just kept on plodding along. Finally a few passengers broke up the fight and formed a human barricade between the two couples.

While I'm sure I will miss the Pay-Per-View quality bouts right in front of me, I think I'm ready for this subway system. I really enjoyed the smooth metros of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, and I think it's exactly what this city of eleven million spicy food-eating, rice wine-drinking, slightly peevish inhabitants needs.

Back to Chongqing, Lao Wai Gig

This past weekend I spent two days and one night on a mountain about three hours outside of Chongqing. This performance (which is usually the case for the gigs I play outside the city) was a "Lao Wai Gig." As I have mentioned before on the blog, this is essentially a gig where the person hiring is only looking for foreign faces.

The event was very typical. The massive upscale real estate development was just in its beginning phases and the development company hosted a lavish party to entertain prospective buyers. Those who were interested were bussed in by the hundreds from Chongqing. The theme for this particular party (as you probably can gather from the photos) was Christmas and extravagance.

The main performance was the rock band that I traveled from Chengdu with; 红水, or Red Water. I sat in with their band for a few tunes, then was left on stage by myself with a Band-in-the-Box track playing to back me up. Unfortunately this crowd's taste in music proved to be a little less sophisticated than the typical Chengdu audience. Many patrons left, and some of those who remained called out requests for some (apparently) popular Kenny G originals. Sorry Chongqing, not my thing!

New Year Plans

After our the slew of Christmas and New Years gigs the band is planning to take a little travel break, and maybe even play a few gigs a long the way. We have already spoken with the people at Hangzhou's JZ Jazz Club who have invited us to take the stage in mid-January. After that we may also get a chance jam with the folks at the Shanghai JZ, just an hour away by express train.

After our mini-tour of the east coast we will head back west to our piano player Larry's hometown in Xinjiang province. I forgot to ask him the name of the town but I believe it's pretty close to the Kazakhstan border. I don't envision a lot of opportunities to play jazz up there in the rural northwest but I'm sure it will be an incredible experience.

Rumor Mill; No Gig

I can't be too specific at this point, but our piano player Larry recently had a phone conversation with a good friend who happens to be the owner of a popular music bar in Shanghai. Apparently the video clip I recently posted sparked his interest in opening a bar here in Chengdu. Chengdu has never had an exclusively jazz themed bar, but I think a jazz bar opened under the name of this Shanghai venue would really generate some interest. And if the reception our band has been getting is any indication of Chengdu's willingness to embrace this kind of venue, I think the bar could really succeed.

On the other hand, today the band suffered a minor setback in our vision of spreading jazz across Chengdu. Last week we arranged to play a gig at some function (probably real estate related) this afternoon. Unfortunately after the agent heard our band at one of our shows he told us “我不懂你们的音乐。我觉得爵士乐不合适我们的现场。你们能不能玩儿听众听过的歌？” This translated means "I don't understand your music. I think jazz doesn't suit our venue. Can you play some songs that the audience has heard of?" And he asked us this after hearing us play Satin Doll, Fly Me to the Moon, and a few other obscenely overplayed jazz standards. So, unfortunately no gig today, but I guess we could use the break in anticipation of tomorrow's big recording session!