"Jazz is not just a piece of music, it's a way of life, a way of being, a way of thinking." Legendary jazz singer Nina Simone once described jazz this way. Today, when many people hear the word "jazz", they will still unconsciously associate it with "retro". But Nina Simone's famous quote may provide us with another perspective on jazz, and even life.
"I'll play it first and then tell you what it is."
Miles Davis, a jazz innovator and trumpeter known as the "Dark Prince", once left such a quip. If he were alive today, someone might have told him: No, you tell me what you're going to blow first, and then I'll decide whether to listen or not.
Miles Davis in Paris in 1973 (Photo by Dominique GonotINA)
Miles Davis (Source: Miles Davis website)
According to the National Museum of History, jazz is a type of music that "often has improvisation as an important component." Improvisation, which is instant creation, is to stand a little further away from the score, or even throw it away.
Singer Zhang Ying and jazz pianist Zhou Xinren both started learning classical piano and only became jazz when they became adults. Today, as jazz musicians, they all say that what they enjoy most on stage is uncertainty.
Jazz pianist Zhou Xinren, East Coast Jazz Bar
From classical to jazz, singer Zhang Ying seems to push open a door to a new world. "I [was] used to playing strictly according to the score, used to following the rules," Zhang Ying recalls of herself before and after meeting jazz, "and jazz is different, it is improvised and full of surprises, and this way of playing makes me feel particularly interesting." Over time, she began to think, "Maybe my life could be more eclectic, like jazz." ”
Jazz singer Zhang Ying
Classical notation, heavy playing, jazz improvisation, heavy composition. Such a conceptual impact prompted Zhang Ying and Zhou Xinren to start to re-examine their lives.
It is said that jazz is life, because life has no musical score, it is difficult to define but full of surprises. Finding our own way of improvising and gaining self-consistency in the process of playing life is a proposition that each of us will study throughout our lives. Miles Davis says, "Sometimes you have to play for a long time before you can act like yourself. ”
Legendary jazz singer Nina Simone (Photo by David Redfern)
Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett (Photo by Daniela Yohannes)
Although most of the time, we are eager to predict the future, analyze the unknown, define it, and label it, these behaviors that are accustomed to mastering the unknown and predicting change make us miss the unexpected surprises brought by the unknown. Slowly define, leaving a little unknown and space, rather than trying to interpret it at first, it is better to improvise like jazz and feel their natural occurrence.
Duke Ellington jazz big band
The Metronome All-Stars jazz band
For more than a hundred years, jazz has been reinventing itself in the fight against labels. For example, some people felt that the hottest bands of the swing music period were too big, and the space for musicians to show themselves was too small, so Bebop, which was dominated by small orchestration bands and musicians could take turns improving, came into being.
Jazz piano legend Thelonious Monk (Photo by Eleonore Bakhtadze)
Later, they felt that it was too "hot" and "faster" than Pop, and immediately Cool Jazz and Bossa Nova came to cool down. At that time, the harmony of the jazz piano was not exciting enough, so the jazz geek Thelonious Monk on the piano deliberately pressed out a little dissonance. Jazz in the 50s was still subject to too many rules, so break the shackles and create Free Jazz. This time, to improvise and go crazy together. When someone questioned: Playing free jazz doesn't read music? Apparently not.
Jazz piano poet Bill Evans (Photo by Jean Pierre Leloir)
Bill Evans and his classic trio members double bass Scott LaFaro, drummer Paul Motion, and music producer Orrin Keepnews at the Pioneer Village Jazz Club in New York in 1961 (Photo by Steve Schapiro)
Piano poet Bill Evans said, "Jazz is not a what, jazz is a how." "Maybe sometimes jazz just wants us to let go of presuppositions, improvise more, feel a little more, rather than thinking about everything "as it should be."
Everyone who has seen the jazz scene may be familiar with such a scene.
In more traditional or mainstream models, musicians get a solo opportunity after the ensemble is over. This is their highlight moment, and other musicians generally reduce or even pause to support the person in the spotlight.
Blue Note Shanghai × Jasmine Big Band 2023 Chinese New Year Concert (Photo by Major Z)
In particular, the audience can applaud for one or two bars after each musician's solo to show their approval of the improvisation, and the musicians will express their gratitude through expressions or body language. However, the opportunity to applaud is fleeting, so the unwritten etiquette is that the applause should not be too long, thus affecting the next musician, solo.
In other words, the audience can applaud multiple times during the performance of a jazz track. The applause after Solo is a form of communication on and off stage, and sometimes it is a test of tacit understanding.
German jazz trumpet god Till Brönner and Dutch jazz pianist Jasper Soffers at Blue Note Shanghai in 2019 (Photo: Shi Wei)
In Beijing, Blue Note Jazz Club, a jazz club born in New York in 1981, is putting on such a conversation about jazz. On the classic blue stage, the world's top jazz masters and Grammys gather here to bring a world-class jazz feast. For many domestic music fans who like and want to understand jazz, Blue Note Beijing and Shanghai double store has become one of the excellent places.
These performance scenes and viewing customs reflect an attitude conveyed by jazz: always put music first, accept and appreciate others more from the heart, and respond in time and express it generously. Through music, applause, expressions and even gestures, the communication between the stage and the audience is completed.
Zhou Xinren (left), Zhang Ying (middle), Li Peiying (right), East Bank Jazz Bar in 2023
Pianist Zhou Xinren said that when there are two major harmonic instruments in a jazz band, keyboard and guitar, they will "give each other" appropriately in the performance, so as to avoid their respective harmony "fights".
It is necessary to be relaxed and supportive. There is a common word in English jazz criticism called "interplay", which refers to interaction and mutual influence. It is often used to refer to the interaction between playing within the band. But the charm of interplay does not stop at the band, even in the solo piano performance, the player can improvise a loud voice dialogue with only one pair of hands.
Zhou Xinren
Today, we live in an era that encourages individuality. But we do not live in a society that is self-contained. However, the popularity of new Internet words such as "social cow" and "social fear" shows the sensitivity and confusion of people's social boundaries. In interpersonal or teamwork, paying too much attention to oneself can sometimes interfere with communication. Individuality is important, but if participants can focus on the overall music or the work itself, like jazz musicians, many problems will be solved.
Making mistakes must be a dilemma that most people want to avoid.
But in jazz, going wrong seems to be a "good" thing. Art Blakey, pioneer and drummer of Hard Bop, even joked that jazz originated when someone made a mistake. Jazz does not seem to respond to the standard of "perfection" and has an unusual attitude towards "error".
Dutch jazz singer Laura Fygi and jazz bassist Ren Yuqing, founder and jazz bassist of JZ Music, Shanghai JZ Club (Photo: Shi Wei)
In the studio, jazz musicians don't usually record the same piece over and over again. They sometimes finish recording one song or two times, and the space for post-processing is limited. For them, the standard of "perfection" does not seem to exist. In the face of so-called "flaws", most of them also show scoffing. Jazz seems to be the type of music furthest away from "perfect" in the secular sense.
2021, JZ Big Band Sino-Italian Classic Film Concert, Shanghai JZ Club (Photo: Serious)
Because, more about truth than so-called error, jazz is more concerned with truth. Do musicians play (sing) their truest side? Did the musicians listen carefully to each other, improvise and communicate from the heart? After all, the essence of jazz is a group of extremely pure people walking into each other in real time and at a deep level through music.
The same is true in life, there is not necessarily absolute right or wrong. Black and white, beauty and ugliness, success, mediocrity and failure, these are artificial boundaries. Sometimes, artificially draw not only boundaries, but also resistance to themselves.
Drummer Li Peiying
Drummer Li Peiying is very demanding professionally, admitting that she is often nervous and anxious before playing, especially when she is about to share the stage with unfamiliar musicians. "You have to pay your full attention and don't desert for a minute. Because on stage, interaction can pass in an instant. You have to concentrate on accurately anticipating what other musicians are doing and vocalizing with them in sync. ”
Jazz musician Qin Sifeng encouraged her to dare to show her imperfect side. With the accumulation of stage experience, she gradually found self-consistency in her performance. "In fact, it is not as bad as I thought, sometimes it may be my own psychological burden, which is heavier than the so-called 'mistake' in reality."
Li Peiying's drumstick
Although in the performance, undesirable "mistakes" or "imperfections" will inevitably occur. But jazz musicians are more concerned with how to improvise so that the music can move on. Sometimes they simply make mistakes, or even deliberately repeat the "mistakes" just now, as a new musical motivation to stimulate the next more exciting improvisation. More exciting in jazz than the absence of "imperfections" in jazz is how to play a "mistake" right through a series of subsequent "improvisational remedies", or even play it more brilliantly than the original path.
JZ Big Band Classic Film Concert (Photo: Serious)
At the East Coast Jazz Bar in Beijing, or the JZ Club in Shanghai, many young local musicians gather for "jam" after the club's official performance. "Jam" is an informal form of improvisation, distinct from the broader "improvisation." "Jam" has the essence of jazz full improvisation and full collision, so it has become the most "mistaken" but also the most tolerant form of performance. "Jam" is a unique way for jazz musicians to get to know each other.
You may also be wondering, if jazz is life, what will a jazz musician's day be like? Finally, let Zhang Ying, Zhou Xinren and Li Peiying take us to the east bank of Beijing's famous jazz bar. In 1985, Liu Yuan, the "father of Chinese jazz" and a saxophonist, founded the "East Coast Jazz Bar" in Houhai, Beijing. In the nearly 40 years since, the East Coast has gathered the best local jazz musicians and is the cradle of jazz music in Beijing.
Edited by Sienna Guo and Valerie Zhang
Written by: Several Qiu
Zhou Xinren, Zhang Ying, Li Peiying picture part
Photo by Wang Haisen
Styling: Yu Xiaoyuan
Hairstyle: Gao Peng
Makeup: Li Jiqun
Manicure: Cheng Cheng
Editor-in-chief: Dellis Dai
Producer: Luen
Costume Assistant: Xu Linfei
Photography Assistant: Xie Shihao
Production Assistant: Kai & Irina
Venue courtesy of: Beijing East Coast Jazz Bar
Design: Bingbing