World music reaches Beijing

One of Asia's foremost jazz pioneers has turned his focus to world music, and he says audiences can expect an exciting melding of musical styles. Chen Nan reports.

Peter Lee Kai-kwan started the first Jazz Festival in Hong Kong in 1987 and has played an integral role in building the profile of the music across Asia ever since. Now Lee, the founder of the Hong Kong Jazz Association, is devoting his energy to boosting the profile of world music. Working with Tree Music, an indie music label based in Beijing, Lee has taken on the role of artistic director to launch the first Beijing World Music Week, which will see six bands from five countries share the stage. Headliners are The Ray Lema Quintet from France, gypsy violinist Kim Angelis from the United States and Swing Shine, a French and Chinese duo. "In today's world, when people can fill up their stomachs, they can also fill their minds with more culture and art," Lee says.

Lee says jazz music has always been strongly influenced by ethnic sounds from Africa, Asia and beyond. He points out that the definition of world music has been evolving ever since the phrase was coined in the early '90s by the British indie record labels. However, it is an inadequate label for such a wide range of musical styles.

"Nowadays, the most significant identity of this kind of music is the innovative, creative and groundbreaking aspect. But world music is more than that," Lee says. "While jazz music demonstrated the idea of harmony, world music certainly can lead us into a deeper sense of awareness. Through the music of each nation and tribe, we can walk in its cultural roots and customs, and begin to respect, appreciate and accept each other," he says.

In selecting bands to participate, Lee looks for music that has been influenced by more than one culture and musical genre, and music that is easily accessible to audiences of all ages.

Jiang Shu, founder and director of Tree Music, who organized Moma Post Mountain Music and Art Festival last October in Beijing, says nearly all the bands set to perform at the upcoming Beijing World Music Week, are visiting China for the first time.

"Last year, we invited a few world music masters to perform in Beijing. For educational purposes, we focused on letting those musicians display their ancient and rarely-seen instruments to the audience. This time, we want to show a different side of world music, which is much more creative and combines different cultures," Jiang says.

The only Chinese musician performing at the event will be Lin Di, a Shanghai-based pipa player and vocalist. She met French musician Jeremy Lasry in 2007 when they worked together to do a new version of the old Shanghai song, Xiang Xi He Pan, for the Expo 2010 Shanghai.

Under the invitation of Tree Music, the two formed the band Swing Shine and play reinterpreted 1930s Shanghai swing music. They have recorded two albums, which combine pipa (Chinese lute) with gypsy guitar - the two instruments represent Chinese culture and French-style jazz.

"Swing Shine will offer the audience the beauty of mixed-blood music," says Lin, 39. "Shanghai and Paris shared the same golden age of swing jazz back in the 1920s. It's exciting to bring this atmosphere back."

Lasry has been performing gypsy guitar as well as electric guitar since he was 15. "The biggest challenge was to make two kinds of music sound natural and modern all together and to adapt French songs into the Chinese language," he says.

"We want to introduce gypsy jazz style to Chinese people and bring Chinese music and instruments to the French people."

Lee says that since many artists play all kinds of music, they are reluctant to define themselves. One of the best examples is Ray Lema, the Franco-Congolese pianist, whose music is "an amalgamation of his own extremely varied cultural history".

Though he was born in the former Kingdom of Kongo and wanted to become a priest, Lema stumbled into a career playing European classical music, before moving onto American rock music and Congolese rumba. His appointment as musical director of the Congolese National Ballet took him back to study his traditional roots.

"Musicians tend to love more than one type of music and look forward to meeting musicians from different trends to enrich their playing skills," says the 68-year-old pianist.

Lema also established African Musical University, which he hopes will become a kind of "Berklee College of Music" for Africa, since "the African continent and its musicians deserve a top-level music school".

"I hope China will become one of our partners in this project because it becomes more evident that China and Africa are bound to share a lot together in the near future," he says.

Lee strongly believes the world music market is huge in China, both import and export wise.

"I could say this country has the richest ethnic music culture in the world," says Lee. "I encountered quite a few amazing singers from remote areas of Yunnan province, with voices like angels from heaven. They aren't trained musicians, but definitely gems in the world music arena. We saw them as farmers who sing work songs, but for many Western musicians, the new and exotic 'sound' usually plays an important part in creative simulation, which is a gold mine for them. Chemistry will sparkle and new ground will be broken when this happens."

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.

If you go

8 pm, April 15-20. T8, North Area of Dangdai MOMA, 1 Xiangheyuan Lu (Road), Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8400-4774.

Franco-Congolese pianist Ray Lema is one of the headliners in the upcoming Beijing World Music Week. Photos provided to China Daily

Swing Shine, with Chinese pipa player Lin Di and French musician Jeremy Lasry, is known for its interpretation of 1930s Shanghai swing music.

Gypsy violinist Kim Angelis from the United States.