Beijing Nine Gate Jazz Festival to Kick off September 9!

Beijing's Nine Gates International Jazz Festival is back this fall for the city's most discerning jazz lovers.

Now in its sixth year, this year's concerts will take place at the Chaoyang Park Center Island Theater, National Library Concert Hall, Beijing Contemporary Music Academy and various bars around China's capital.

Andrea Hunt has more:

 
This September 9-18, festival goers will have their hearts and musical appetites sated with crooning voices and sultry jazz melodies. An eclectic group of talented local and international musicians will highlight the best of Big Band, Swing, Funk, Blues¹ and more.

During the late 1980s, Nine Gates founder², then Beijing student Huang Yong, was given a tape of Miles Davis. One jazz cassette led him down a new path of musical collaboration³, shows and small festivals that would create Beijing's jazz scene of today.

"It was pretty natural for me to start a jazz festival in Beijing. First of all, I'm a jazz bass⁴ player myself and many musicians I've played with also played jazz as well. In 2005, we not only played American classical jazz music, but we also wrote a substantial amount of jazz ourselves. We began to discuss how to create and play this incredible jazz music. Also, we started adding Asian or Chinese characteristics to it, which was very symbolic⁵ for the development of our music."

Jazz in China had a very different beginning than anywhere else. It stopped for many years after its early popularity in Old Shanghai during the 1930s and 40s. It wasn't until the late 1980s, beneath a new flourish of Western musical influence that jazz resurfaced after decades of hibernation⁶.

Liang Heping helped China's jazz scene be reborn and is another organizer of the festival. His personal taste is more European and reflected in the line up of international bands.

"Many American musicians created very classic music, but in comparison to Europeans, their music is quite familiar and doesn't have as many new elements. Of course, a few are very good. But European musicians have a characteristic where they combine their own cultural background and create their own musical "language."

This year's musicians come from all over China and as far away as Austria, Israel, the USA, Spain, Norway, Japan, and Thailand. The international mesh⁷ is also part of Huang's larger initiative to bring music and culture together through his festival.

"There are two main goals. One is to invite great foreign jazz musicians to China, to get the Chinese audience and young musicians familiar with how others from around the world create music. That aim is about cultural exchange. The other, which is really the core aim, is to motivate Chinese young musicians to study music and improve themselves to create better music."

Jazz in Beijing isn't always easy to find. This fall, fans in Beijing will get a rare chance to relish⁸ in their love of jazz music for over a week and soak up the international sounds of this old and beloved genre⁹.

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.

1 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

4 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

5 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

6 hibernation   

n.冬眠

参考例句：

• Bears wake up in the spring after a winter of hibernation.熊经过一个冬天的冬眠后在春季苏醒。
• The tortoise spends the winter months in hibernation.乌龟在冬眠中度过寒冬季节。

7 mesh   

n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络

参考例句：

• Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
• This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。

8 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。

9 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。