Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Hu Guangxin
Figures/infographics
On the night of New Year's Day in 2021, Wu Songjin's tenth solo concert was successfully concluded in Lanzhou. Sitting on the stage were Wu Song's childhood friends and teachers, and the little boy who loved music in their memories had now become a white-haired old musician on the stage; many of the Ode works performed at the evening were familiar to the audience, and they were kind and touched to listen.
"These ten concerts are the 'debriefing performances' of my more than 50 years of musical career." Two months later, the famous musician Wu Songjin held an "audio-visual sharing meeting" in Guangzhou, where he now lives, he concluded. Born in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, Wu Songjin spent his childhood in Lanzhou, Ningxia and Chengdu, worked as a worker in middle school in Nanchang, and then went to Shanghai to study, and finally took root in Guangzhou. He returned to the city where he had studied and worked, and held a series of concerts to dedicate his half-life's musical achievements to local audiences.
Every concert by Wu Songjin is a star-studded and enthusiastic response. The repertoire is selected from the results of his more than half a century of creation, and the classic old songs and new songs are added to the audience's ears. From CCTV to local TV stations have been broadcast, the media has also received a lot of praise.
Behind these ten concerts, there is a colorful musical life of Wu Songjin. Recently, in the "Ode to the Present Music Space" in Liwan Pantang, this fruitful national first-class songwriter and senior music producer accepted an exclusive interview with the Yangcheng Evening News reporter to share his music story.
Beijing Railway Station and Guangzhou Railway Station
Song World Bole: Guangzhou created Yang Yuying, and more than ten years later, she shared the stage
Wu Songjin's "Bole in the Song World" was called in Guangzhou. In 1987, he introduced China Records Guangzhou Company as an outstanding talent, moved his family from Nanchang, Jiangxi to Guangzhou, and has been rooted in the Lingnan music scene for more than 30 years.
Wu Songjin said: "Guangzhou is my blessed land. If I hadn't come to Guangzhou that year, songs such as "Green Flowers in the Army" and "Tea Mountain Love Songs" would not have existed. In this fertile land, he was like a fish in the water, with his artistic skills and keen sense of touch, he created well-known singers such as Yang Yuying, Chen Sisi, Xiao Zeng, Zhou Liang, Huang Weilin, etc., wrote a large number of household-known original pop songs, and became a music producer and songwriter with continuous achievements at that time. Wu Songjin's relationship with Yang Yuying's teachers and students is well known: in 1989, he brought Yang Yuying, a student in Nanchang, to Guangzhou and tailored a large number of beautiful "Lingnan Sweet Songs" for her. Works such as "Wind with Love and Water with Laughter" and "Tea Mountain Love Song" are selling well, and Yang Yuying has become the first hot jade idol in the mainland music scene.
As early as 1999, Wu Songjin held his first solo concert at the "Sixth Yangcheng Music Flower Festival". 18 years later, in 2017, he moved to Guangzhou for 30 years, and the Provincial and Municipal Music Association held the "Lingnan Flying Song Thirty Years - Ode to the Stars Concert" for him in Guangzhou, and well-known singers such as Liao Changyong, Chen Sisi, Zhang Mi, Tashi Dunzhu, Tang Biao, Li Suhua, Liao Baiwei, and Young Master Dongshan sang on stage.
A year earlier, Yang Yuying had participated in the Ode to Beijing Concert after more than ten years, which was rumored to be a good story in the music world. The concert was co-sponsored by the Music Creation Committee of the Chinese Musicians Association, the Chinese Pop Music Society, the Chinese Music Literature Society of the Ministry of Culture, the China Audiovisual Copyright Collective Management Society, and the China Record Corporation. This is the first time that Wu Songjin has held a concert in Beijing, inviting singers such as Guan Mucun, Yang Hongji, Yu Wenhua, Wang Lida, Ulantuya and many of his disciples to the stage. In the evening, Yang Yuying made the finale and sang Wu Songjin's representative works tailored for her, "Wind with Love and Laughter" and "Tea Mountain Love Song". After the singing, Yang Yuying presented flowers to Teacher Wu, and Wu Songjin said with emotion: "Ganggang (Yang Yuying's nickname) has grown up!" ”
In order to achieve this rare reunion on stage, Yang Yuying also eliminated all difficulties: the concert collided with the shooting of a TV column, and after many communications between agents, Yang Yuying finally arrived on time to participate. "She doesn't charge any appearance fees, doesn't mention any conditions, and even the airfare and accommodation to Beijing are solved by herself." Wu Songjin said frankly, "This makes me very moved. ”
Jiangxi Station and Shanghai Station
Pursuing dreams: The creation started from Jiangxi, and it is unforgettable to cultivate the teacher
In addition to Guangzhou, a 30-year-old career and a national cultural center in Beijing, Wu Songjin also opened concerts in his hometown of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, and Shanghai, where he studied.
In 1966, Wu Songjin, a senior in Nanchang No. 1 Middle School, published his song debut on Jiangxi Provincial Radio, determined to follow the path of music. Unfortunately, when the college entrance examination was cancelled that year, Wu Songjin, who had already been admitted to the China Conservatory of Music, entered the Jiangxi Foundry as a worker for eight years. In addition to his work, he still studied music composition diligently, and his famous work "Singing Pumpkins Under Jinggang Mountain" was written next to the heating stove in the workshop. The "Thirty Years of Love for Jiangxi - Nanchang Concert" held in November 2017 was a heavy gift from Wu Songjin to his hometown: the performance was themed "Hometown Sounds, Nostalgia, Gratitude, Blessings", and the repertoire included many Jiangxi masterpieces with strong Ganpo style; among the hundred performing guests on that day, he trained more than half of the Jiangxi singers.
Shanghai is the starting point for Wu Songjin to embark on a professional music path. After resuming the college entrance examination, he was admitted to the composition department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1978, supplementing the systematic composition professional skills. In Wu Songjin's view, his later success was inseparable from the earnest teachings of the Shangyin master. In 2018, Wu Songjin's Shanghai Concert was specially held on the eve of Teachers' Day on September 9, to report to his alma mater and pay tribute to the teachers.
If the key word of the Jiangxi concert is "gratitude", the key word of the Shanghai concert is "inheritance". Wu Songjin's alma mater, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Musicians Association, served as the organizers of the concert, and Wu Songjin's disciples in the music scene and the disciples and sisters of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music all performed his works at the concert. A touching scene appeared at the end of the concert: Chen Sisi, a famous singer of new folk songs, after singing the famous song "Love Brother Goes to the South" in the finale, presented a bouquet of flowers to his teacher Wu Songjin; Wu Songjin invited his mentors, Jiang Mingxuan, the old dean of his alma mater, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Sha Hankun, the old secretary of the Department of Composition, Wang Ling and Li Danfen, the old editors of the Shanghai Music Publishing House, and He Zhuqing, the class teacher of Nanchang No. 1 Middle School, to the stage and thanked them one by one. Three generations of teachers and disciples have been in the same classroom, achieving a good story. Recalling the Shanghai concert, Wu Songjin was full of gratitude in his words: "At that time, Teacher Wang Ling had settled overseas, and she was more than 80 years old and had inconvenient legs and feet. But she flew back to Shanghai from London to support me, which really touched me. ”
Lanzhou, Ningxia and Chengdu stations
Children's Song Grandpa: Childhood teacher Pan Zhensheng, northwest travel full of memories
In more than half a century of music career, Wu Songjin has composed about 5,000 songs, spanning Lingnan sweet songs, school songs, military camp folk songs, children's songs, main theme songs and many other fields, which can be called an all-rounder. In so many fields, he has a special love for children's songwriting, composing 1500 children's songs, more than a quarter of the total number of children's songs. This "children's song grandfather" has created beautiful childhood memories for groups of children.
Wu Songjin's children's song creation is closely related to Ningxia, which is "plugged into jiangnan". Wu Song moved with his parents to the Great Northwest with his parents when he was 1.5 years old and spent his childhood in Lanzhou and Ningxia. In Yinchuan, Wu Songjin became a student of Pan Zhensheng, the "King of Children's Songs": "I learned to sing in the Children's Palace Choir in Yinchuan City, and Teacher Pan was in his 20s at the time and was our conductor. He taught us to sing a lot of nice children's songs, and took us to the radio to record, only to learn later that he had written them. Pan Zhensheng sowed the seeds of music in Wu Songjin's heart, and many years later, Wu Songjin's creative path also began with children's songs: his first nationally sung work, "Planting Pumpkins Under Jinggang Mountain", was a children's song. Pan Zhensheng passed away in 2009, and when Wu Song returned to Ningxia in 2016 to hold the "Little Bud and Children's Song Grandpa - Ode to this Children's Song Festival", he specially invited Pan Zhensheng's daughter to the scene to express his gratitude by offering flowers to her.
In fact, every concert by Wu Songjin is not lacking in childlike fun. In the Guangzhou field, a group of cute little actors sang his adapted Cantonese chorus "Falling Rain"; in the Chengdu field, the little singer sang his composition of the old Chengdu nursery rhyme "Fat Baby Fat Toot" and his "Thank You alma mater" composed for his alma mater; in Lanzhou field, the children of the alma mater sang "Little Hand Clapping" and "Little Girl Picking Rice Ears"...
"Northwest China and Chengdu are filled with memories of my childhood." Wu Songjin said, "I grew up in Yinchuan, Lanzhou, and moved to Chengdu when I was 12 years old. The Qin cavity and flowers in the northwest, the folk songs and Sichuan opera in Sichuan are all deeply rooted in my mind and affect my future creations. At the end of 2020, taking the personal concert as an opportunity, Wu Songjin returned to Lanzhou after 62 years of absence, recalling the river and the sea: "The previous Lanzhou was very small, a main street could be walked in half an hour; the neighbor's brother would tinker with the ore radio, I often went to his house to listen to the radio and listen to songs, and by the way, I rubbed rice; now the yantan with high-rise buildings was just a small island by the Yellow River..."
Wu Songjin wrote "Grandpa Finds Childhood" for this purpose, and at the Lanzhou solo concert in January this year, he found primary school classmates from three alma maters to sing this nostalgic new children's song with him. "It's actually a very sad song, but the children sang it very happily."
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Going Overseas: Concerts in Singapore and Japan were a great success
In the past five years, Wu Songjin's solo concerts have twice rushed overseas, landing in Singapore and Japan. In January 2019, Wu Songjin held the "Sing Tao Song Flying Chinese Style - Ode to the Stars Concert" in Singapore, which was also the opening performance of the 2019 Asia International Arts Festival. Wu Songjin specially created new works with Nanyang characteristics, such as "Charming Singapore" and "The Wind of Nanyang", which made the audience in Singapore fall for it.
On July 22, 2019, Wu Songjin brought his solo concert to Japan. The "Huale Piao Fu Sang - Concert of Japanese Masters in Ode to Today's Works" became the finale performance of the 2019 Asian International Arts Festival, with more than 30 famous singers, performers, red singers and child stars from China and Japan performing more than 20 of his masterpieces on the same stage. This concert is quite ingenious: he asked people to fill in Japanese lyrics such as "Tea Mountain Love Song" and "Green Flowers in the Army"; he also adapted more than ten works such as "Baqiao Liu" and "Girl's Mind You Don't Guess" into Chinese folk music performances, allowing Japanese audiences to cross the language barrier and feel the beauty of pure music.