[Dixielandjazz] Jazz at Lincoln Center Succeeds - Will China Be The Next Market?

[Steve Barbone]

Two articles from the NY Times. One about the success of American Songbook
Jazz at Lincoln Center. The other about the success of Western Classical
Music in China. . . .

Hmmmm. Note that the classical article points to a decline in audience for
that music in America as well as Europe. And a surging audience in China.
Could it be that China will be the new emerging market for Jazz, as well as
classical? Millions of musicians, billions of audience.

Hey Wiggins, lets book some gigs there before we die. :-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



The Band Strikes Up to Play a Few of Its Favorite Things

NY TIMES - By NATE CHINEN - April 3, 2007

Some concerts by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra adhere to thematic
prescriptions: the legacy of a single composer, for instance, or the sound
of a specific place and time. ³The Songs We Love,² which the band performed
in more than a dozen cities leading up to a three-night stand at the Rose
Theater, advanced a somewhat less focused agenda.

It was basically a grab bag of standards in mostly classic arrangements
selected by Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center¹s artistic director. One
of the first numbers on Friday night ‹ a slow blues involving Mr. Marsalis,
his trumpet and a plunger mute ‹ technically wasn¹t even a song. But
looseness can be a smart premise for a band as disciplined as this one. At
its best the program suggested an alternate title: ³The Songs We Love to
Play.²

One such moment came at the end of the first half: an Oliver Nelson
arrangement of the spiritual ³Down by the Riverside² with a crablike
rhythmic movement and minor-key harmonization. The brass section announced
the song¹s title phrase as a fanfare, over the rhythm section¹s chugging
momentum. And the first soloist, a British trombonist named Elliot Mason,
delivered what amounted to a depth charge. (Mr. Mason is a new member of the
band and has hit the ground running.)

Two other highlights arrived side by side, and as Mr. Marsalis pointed out,
each showcased the band¹s five saxophonists as a single voice. On Benny
Carter¹s celebrated swing-era arrangement of ³All of Me,² they sounded fleet
and gracious together, and their dynamic fluctuations seemed to ride a
single breeze. The alto saxophonist Sherman Irby adopted a similar airy
quality in his solo, along with a singing tone.

Then came a version of ³My Favorite Things² scored by Ted Nash, a
saxophonist in the band. Originally performed in the fall as part of a
concert celebrating John Coltrane, it features a melodic line for five
soprano saxophones, based on Coltrane¹s landmark interpretation. Each of the
five had a solo turn, but the most striking statement was made by the
pianist Dan Nimmer, who has grown noticeably more comfortable with modal
playing. His efforts, and the intense exertions of the drummer Ali Jackson,
made the arrangement feel sharper than it did the first time around.

Of course it was still a retread, and not the only one. Dizzy Gillespie¹s
³Night in Tunisia² sounded shopworn, even with good solos by the trumpeter
Marcus Printup and the bassist Carlos Henriquez. So did the Wild Bill Davis
arrangement of ³April in Paris² made famous by the Count Basie Orchestra,
which closed the show.

Both were crowd-pleasers, though, and that counted for a lot in a concert
that also included less-heralded charts by Bill Russo, Ernie Wilkins and Don
Redman. It all made sense in light of what Jazz at Lincoln Center is aiming
for: programming that enlightens as it entertains and grabs new listeners in
the process. ³The Songs We Love² gets at only part of it. Mr. Marsalis wants
you to love them too.



WHILE CLASSICAL MARCHES IN PLACE.


Classical Music Looks Toward China With Hope

NY TIMES - By JOSEPH KAHN and DANIEL J. WAKIN - April 3, 2007

The Classical Revolution - Millions of Musicians Bloom

³You are the lead,² said the teacher, Lin Yaoji. ³Be bolder. Stretch the
distance between the notes, and then close the distance. I don¹t want
symmetry. Surprise me.²

Zhenyang is one of the brightest young stars at the Central Conservatory of
Music in Beijing, which has in recent years become part of China¹s huge
export machine churning out musical virtuosos.

With the same energy, drive and sheer population weight that has made it an
economic power, China has become a considerable force in Western classical
music. Conservatories are bulging. Provincial cities demand orchestras and
concert halls. Pianos and violins made in China fill shipping containers
leaving its ports.

The Chinese enthusiasm suggests the potential for a growing market for
recorded music and live performances just as an aging fan base and declining
record sales worry many professionals in Europe and the United States. Sales
for a top-selling classical recording in the West number merely in the
thousands instead of the tens of thousands 25 years ago.

More profoundly, classical music executives say that the art form is being
increasingly marginalized in a sea of popular culture and new media. Fewer
young American listeners find their way to classical music, largely because
of the lack of the music education that was widespread in public schools two
generations ago. As a result many orchestras and opera houses struggle to
fill halls.  (SOUND FAMILIAR?)

China, with an estimated 30 million piano students and 10 million violin
students, is on an opposite trajectory. Comprehensive tests to enter the top
conservatories now attract nearly 200,000 students a year, compared with a
few thousand annually in the 1980s, according to the Chinese Musicians
Association. . . .

The Communist Party, which three decades ago was trying to wipe out
classical music, now deems it an essential component of the ³advanced
culture² it vows to create to make the country a true great power.

At the same time European classical music has a charge of pop-culture
frisson in China. Young people flock to concerts, or at least those they can
afford. A woman at a Beijing bookstore was seen carrying Mozart¹s portrait
in her wallet. Piano showrooms look like auto dealerships, with coddled
youth staging impromptu recitals on Baldwins and Yamahas made in China, as
anxious parents haggle over prices. Stars like Lang Lang, the piano
virtuoso, make television commercials.

³Music is hot in China,² said Chen Hung-Kuan, the chairman of the piano
department at the Shanghai Conservatory. ³It may be fading in Western
countries,² he added, but in China the talent is ³unlimited.² . . . .
snipped