Shanghai Sojourns

A Century of Jazz in Shanghai 

上海爵士一百年

 A new documentary film released in 2021

Filmed and directed by Shanghai historian Andrew Field, this 80-minute documentary film explores the convoluted history of jazz in Shanghai, from its rise in the 1920s to the post-pandemic 2020s.

During the 1920s-1930s, Shanghai was the jazz capital of China and East Asia. Then came war and revolution, and the city’s identity as a global jazz metropolis quickly faded away. Beginning in the 1990s, a few brave people revived jazz in a city and country where the music and its ethos had been banished for an entire generation by the new society under Chairman Mao.

Filmed between 2004 and 2021, the film features original footage of live bands and club scenes in Shanghai during different eras in the city’s history. It also contains interviews with many of the people who built the city’s jazz scenes over the past 25 years or more, including the redoubtable Lin Dongfu, owner of the House of Blues & Jazz, and Ren Yuqing, founder of the JZ Club.

Many of the city’s top Chinese jazz musicians and singers are featured in the film as well, including Jasmine Chen, Coco Zhao, Wilson Chen, Peng Fei, Hu Danfeng, and many others. In addition, the film profiles several musicians from abroad who helped to catalyze the revival of jazz in Shanghai including Graham Earnshaw, JQ Whitcomb, Alec Haavik, Lawrence Ku, Theo Croker, Jackie Stanton, Toby Mak, and others. Special attention is paid in the film to the story of the Cotton Club and its founders Matthew Harding and Greg Smith. This club had a twenty-year run in the city and nurtured many fine musicians and singers in the city’s jazz and blues scenes.

The rise of these jazz-oriented clubs and scenes are also connected to the Shanghai Music Conservatory, which has served as a training ground for jazz artists in China over the past twenty years.

In addition, the film showcases the important role played by the JZ Big Band in building the city’s jazz scene.

The story of the revival of jazz since the 1990s is backgrounded by the longer story of jazz in the city stretching back to the 1920s-1940s, when musicians such as Whitey Smith, Serge Ermoll, Li Jinhui, Teddy Weatherford, Buck Clayton, Lobing Samson, and Jimmy King first brought jazz to the city and made Shanghai dance. The story of brave old Chinese jazzmen, who survived the Mao Years and the Cultural Revolution era of the 1960s, is also told in this film.

这部80分钟的纪录片由上海历史学家费嘉炯（Andrew Field）执导，讲述了上海爵士乐从上世纪二十年代兴起，到如今后疫情时代的历史。在二十世纪二三十年代时，上海曾经是中国乃至东亚的爵士乐圣地。然而在战争和革命爆发后，这座城市作为全球爵士乐大都市的身份迅速消失。在整整一代人的时间里，爵士乐和它代表的精神曾被毛主席所建立起的新社会驱逐出这个城市和国家。而从二十世纪九十年代开始，一些勇敢的人们又在这里将其复兴。

该纪录片拍摄于2004年至2021年之间，记录了上海不同历史时期的现场乐队和酒吧场景。在这部纪录片中，导演采访了许多在过去25年或更久的时间里打造了这座城市爵士乐场景的人，包括令人尊敬的House of Blues & Jazz老板林栋甫，以及JZ Club创始人任宇清。许多优秀的爵士音乐家也出现在这部纪录片中，包括陈胤希（Jasmine Chen）、赵可（Coco Zhao）、陈嘉俊（Wilson Chen）、彭飞、胡丹峰等。此外，影片还介绍了几位帮助推动上海爵士乐复兴的海外音乐家，包括Graham Earnshaw、JQ Whitcomb、Alec Haavik、Lawrence Ku、Theo Croker、Jackie Stanton、Toby Mak等等。纪录片着重讲述了Cotton Club及其创始人Matthew Harding和Greg Smith的故事，这家酒吧在上海经营了二十年，为这座城市的爵士乐和布鲁斯舞台培养了许多优秀的音乐家。除此之外，上海音乐学院也推动了这些以爵士乐为主题的俱乐部和场景的兴起，在过去的二十年中，这所音乐学院一直是中国爵士乐艺术家的培训基地。二十世纪九十年代后的爵士乐复兴能够追溯到更久远的二十世纪二十年代到四十年代的老上海。在当时，Whitey Smith、Serge Ermoll、黎锦晖、Teddy Weatherford、Buck Clayton、Lobing Samson、Jimmy King等音乐家首次将爵士乐带到这个城市，并让整个上海随着旋律起舞。这部纪录片同时也讲述了在毛泽东时代和 1960 年代文化大革命时代中幸存下来的勇敢的中国老爵士音乐家的故事。