Jump'n Jive: All That Jazz

A famous Harlem photo stands on the wall beside the amplifiers at the CD Jazz Cafe. It was taken on the day all of New York's famous jazzmen came together in a group photo that captured a golden era of the genre as much as the aged inner-city enclave that's produced the doyens of black American culture.  One of the younger geniuses produced by that culture, jazz maestro Wynton Marsallis, played at the CD Jazz Cafe several years ago. His appearance made the front page of the China Daily. That front page hangs next to the Harlem photo in the café.

The CD Jazz Cafe is a fan's jazz club, one of those places that gestates but which cannot be created. The CD Jazz Cafe, tucked in beside the main gate of the Agricultural Exhibition Centre on the East Third Ring Road, has the atmosphere of a true fan's hangout. Decorated with jazz memorabilia, it was lovingly created by a former Chinese traditional instrumental player and rocker Lin Yuan.

Diplomats and their children brought many of modern jazz techniques to Beijing two decades ago, playing in hotel bars for themselves and a few keenly interested locals. Later, China's rock godfather Cui Jian and his band picked up jazz in late-night clubs while touring the USA in the 1980s and 90s. It was out of those trips that the CD Jazz Cafe was born. Liu Yuan, who leads the Liu Yuan Quintet every weekend night at the CD Jazz Café once played in Cui Jian's band. On weekend nights his band plays high-class takes on jazz standards as well as tunes composed by Liu himself.

Up to the early 90s, Beijing's jazz scene was limited to occasional overseas groups playing to expatriate audiences in hotel bars. Today eight bars in the city offer jazz of varying degrees of talent and regularity. Starbucks shops around the city have copped on to the coolness of jazz, playing standard albums such as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and John Coltrante's  A Love Supreme almost ad nauseam. And music shops around the city offer an ever-bulging range of CDs and concert DVDs. Several jazz fans chatting with this writer in a large CD shop opposite the Lido Holiday Inn professed themselves astonished at the range and quality of the recordings on offer.

"I've picked up albums that have gone out of issue and concert recordings that are not so easy to find in music shops in the west," said Joel Hammett, a university lecturer from Boston.

Near the South Gate of Chaoyang Park, two bars that stand almost side by side offer Latin bands and straight jazz. The dance-hall-sized and easily named Latinos hosts bands from Latin America who play for fans of salsa, son and rumba. Cuban styles usually predominate here, but the band currently providing the beat is an eight-piece group from Venezuela. A Saturday night visit will inform a fan about what's hot and happening in this joint. A two-minute stroll up the street takes you to the Big Easy, sitting incongruously amid its neighbours. This two-story bar and restaurant appears to have been lifted right out of New Orleans, like a Mississippi-style river boat described in Huckleberry Finn adventure stories. With a resident American singer and a mix of local and expat musicians, the Big Easy swings to jazz standards, with some blues and soul mixed in on alternate nights. Keep an eye out for local blues man Zhang Ling and his Rhythm Dogs. They play blues at the Big Easy every Friday at 10:30 p.m. and Saturday at 9.30 p.m.

Just south of Qinghua University's West Gate, in Haidian District, Loup Chante on Chengfu Lu mixes lush jazz sounds with regular punk and rock sessions. Loup Chante's jazz nights alternate with Wednesday night rock jams, the jazz nights offering a good mix of orthodox jazz numbers and more electric be-bop material. It's a small venue, and while that can make for good acoustics, it can mean the joint gets jammed on a good night. But the tables and chairs of the seating arrangement do in some way hint at traditional jazz club seating arrangements.

Down in Xicheng District the Sanwei Teahouse and Bookstore at 60 Fuxingmennei features the trombone, drums, sax and bass of the Sky Light Jazz Band every Friday night. Gigs start at 8.30 p.m. and there's a 30 yuan (US$3.62) cover charge, but the Sanwei Teahouse Bookstore makes for one of the most charming, cosy and unusual venues for live music you are likely to find anywhere.

Beijing's jazz scene is blooming. As yet, there been no re-emergence of the Beijing Jazz Festival, organised by the Goethe Institut several years ago. But great new venues are constantly appearing. Easily the most interesting is the new Centro bar at the Kerry Centre Hotel. It is too luxurious, perhaps, to be a bona fide, smoky fan's bar, but neither is it stingy in the quality of the music with its foreign artists brought in to play for a predominantly corporate clientele.

Concerts and not-live nights incorporating video projection at the CD Jazz Cafe and Haidan District's Loup Chante have added some innovation to the scene. There have been rumours too of inbound tours, judging by calls placed by this writer to some of the big international jazz record labels. Internationally known Marty Hall and his band have promised through their record company to include China on their next Asia tour. The well-reviewed Brenda Jackson is seeking a China venue for a tour of her St Louis-learned gospel repertoire. And the multinational Gutbucket outfit, a modern jazz troupe based in Europe, are rumoured to have lined up shows in Beijing and Shanghai for the autumn. Good news indeed on the 50th anniversary year of one of jazz's most seminal recordings, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Go to the CD Jazz Cafe and try to pick him out on that photo of the greats.

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CD Jazz Cafe

Add: Agriculture Exhibition Hall main gate, Third Ring road, Chaoyang District

朝阳区东三环农展馆正门

Tel: (010) 6506 8288

Latinos

Add: Chaoyang Park south gate bar street, Chaoyang District

朝阳公元南门酒吧街

Tel: (010) 6507 9898

Big Easy

Add: east of the south gate of Chaoyang Park, Chaoyang District

朝阳公元南门东边

Tel: (010) 6508 6776

Loup Chante

Add: 38 Chengfu Shi Wei Ying (200m south of Tsinghua University's west gate), Haidian District

成府侍卫营38号清华大学南门

Tel: (010) 6276 7355

Sanwei Teahouse and Bookstore

Add: 60 Fuxingmennei Dajie, Xicheng District

西城区复兴门内大街60号

Tel: (010) 6601 3204

Centro

Add: 1/F, Kerry Center Hotel, 1 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District

朝阳区光华路1号嘉里中心酒店一层

Tel: (010) 6561 8833