New Gig

The latest gig for BossMa will be at the Holiday Inn's new weekly Sunday brunch. The hotel will be hosting a lavish weekly event which is being built up to be 'The Brunch' to go to in Chengdu. The gig comes as a nice change of pace for us, as until now all of our steady gigs had been held at night. This gig also might serve as my first opportunity to eat some bagels and lox in China. At least they better have bagels and lox for this 400 RMB a head meal.

Chengdu's March Jazz Update

Now that the New Year vacation is over and students are back in Chengdu for classes my work as a private teacher can resume. I like teaching for two reasons. 1) If for whatever reason gigs thin out, it's a great subsidy. 2) It brings new found interest and understanding, as well as future performers to Chengdu's currently meager jazz scene.

This school term I'm optimistic I can attract a lot more students. The head of the music conservatory attended our last gig and apparently enjoyed what he heard. He has invited me to teach a master class at the university at the end of this month. We also played a show at the school in December (right before everyone left for the New Year) and hopefully the buzz it generated has lingered through the winter.

Between the increase in gigs and the potential to teach a lot more students, March is heading in like a lion for the Chengdu jazz scene! And as my long time readers may remember, there's still that looming idea of opening a jazz bar this spring.

Xinjiang Trip - Part 1

I don't think I did the trip to Xinjiang justice with the one paragraph and the blurry picture I posted the day we got back. In fact, I specifically said I would elaborate more on the trip in the near future. So to make up for my poor journalism I'm going to start a little series about the trip. I have tons of pictures, a few movies, and lots of stories to go along with them.

The following clip is one I filmed in Bole, Xinjiang. It's a small city right near the Kazakh border, about an hour away. In fact two of our hosts (piano player Larry's sister and brother in law) worked as customs agents at the border.* While in Bole we were put up in the government hotel that is specifically used to house the customs officials.

The clip is filmed in a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that serves great Mongolian food- smoked horse intestines, lamb, candied potatoes, the usual fare. A few ethnic Mongols that were friends of our hosts joined us for dinner and performed folk dance and music right at our table. You'll also see the singer giving a ritual toast to Larry at the end of the song.

UPDATE: I mistakenly thought this song was originally Uyghur, a prominent ethnic group in Xinjiang, hence the title of the video. The confusion comes from the beginning of the video when the man sitting next to me exclaims that the song is Uyghur. Upon further research I have come to the conclusion that this song is of Kazakh origin yet the language is Mandarin Chinese. Thanks to loyal reader, longtime friend, and annoying nitpick Alex (of the I Want In blog) for pointing my mistake. The song is called: "可爱的一朵玫瑰花" which I think best translates to "A Lovely Rose."



*Funny story the brother in law told us: One ordinary day two Kazakh nationals decided to put on an elaborate cow costume and mingle with the herd to cross the border. They made it across without any problem- not one guard suspected a thing. A large bull however noticed the apparently attractive "Kazakh cow" and became so interested that it mounted them. The two fell over, their costume ripped apart, and the Chinese officials caught them.

Stratification of Jazz Listeners in China

After playing jazz here in Chengdu for nearly a year I've noticed that there are three general groups when it comes to the appreciation of jazz music. The first, and admittedly most fun group to play for, is the Lao Wai, or foreigner. Although meeting an actual jazz fan is rare amongst this group, I imagine the music induces a feeling of nostalgia or at least an escape from the nauseating Chinese pop music that can be found in most establishments. The second group is the educated, middle to upper class Chinese. This group is the most confusing to me. They usually still love their Chinese pop, yet are willing to tolerate jazz, although they don't necessarily understand or even like it. Some however will say that the music makes them "comfortable." The final group is the middle to lower class Chinese. Some of the "Lao Wai" gigs we play are targeted towards this group, and it's amazing how quickly jazz can take a smile off a person's face. I have a picture I will try to upload of the audience at one of these particular shows. Every single person has either a digusted or perplexed look- and that's the few people who remained after the music began. Why are we continually hired to perform this type of gig? I'm not so sure. Of course there are outliers and exceptions, such as the jazz-loving music student, or the nescient foreigner, but for the most part interest in jazz is pretty stratified along these lines. I've heard that different personality traits will lead a person to be more inclined to like particular types of music, but I find the reaction to jazz interesting. The divide along social lines, and the wide spectrum concerning level of interest seems pretty unique. I guess I could see this applying to classical music as well. I haven't put too much thought into the implications- anyone have any ideas?

New Chinese Blog

For anyone who might be interested I just started a second blog, but this one's entirely in Chinese. It's not really about anything- kind of like Seinfeld in that respect, although I'm not sure how funny it is. For now I'm basically using it as an outlet to practice my Chinese, impress my parents, and hopefully eventually use it to attract some local interest in what I'm doing with jazz here. Check it out if you're interested: 驾驶猫博客(Josh's Blog)

Chengdu Jazz; Blog News

Sorry for the recent dearth of posts. The music scene in Chengdu has been pretty quiet since the Chinese New Year with nothing terribly noteworthy to report. Fortunately things look very promising heading into the year of the Rat Cow/Ox (thanks Brent!). The band's schedule will get very busy beginning next month. This is our tentative lineup starting next month:

• Tuesday- Suidie Music Cafe 碎碟音乐咖啡
• Wednesday (every other week) - Cafe Panam 巴黎咖啡
• Thursday (possibly moved to Sunday) - Shamrock 三页草
• Friday - Little Bar 小酒馆 / The Music House 音乐房子
• Saturday - Min Shan Hotel Restaurant 岷山饭店 / Suidie Music Cafe 碎碟音乐咖啡

I'm going to make an effort to bring a lot more media to the blog once things get started. I recently discovered my digital camera is capable of recording relatively decent quality movie clips which should finally allow me to bring some life to the music section of the blog. Actually, we are still in the process of mixing the December concert at the Sichuan Music Conservatory. The video came out nicely, but we still have to sync the audio with the visuals.

In fact, I've been getting pressure from readers as well as one of our band members to make some recordings. The original Ma Lao Ban, founder of our band and fellow sax player, Melissa, is currently winding down her contract in Singapore. She has been pushing us to make a demo for use in a press kit. Apparently she has made some connections within the Singapore entertainment scene which could lead to some great opportunities in the future. Also worth mentioning, Melissa has told me that when she returns in May there is a chance she will be accompanied by a very talented French jazz singer...

Well, after being heckled by good friend and fellow blogger, Alex, of the I Want In! blog, I have decided to put a bit more effort into my own blog. I'm going to try to make posting more of a daily event rather than weekly/monthly. After recently getting a few e-mails from readers I've also realized that the jazz world is very tightly knit, and the blog can be a great way to bring interest, people, and resources to the scene here in Chengdu, China. In fact in May we might be getting a drummer from the States to sit in on a few gigs while he travels through on business, and it probably would not be happening had he not stumbled across the blog. So, check back often, and keep me honest!

Back from Xinjiang

The band (minus drummer 小伟) just got back from our Chinese New Year vacation in Xinjiang. I've got no music news to report as our instruments were collecting dust the whole time, but the trip was incredible. I'm a bit exhausted after a 48 hour train ride so I'll elaborate more in the near future. In the meantime check out some pictures.

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.