Interview by William Chan
The “Coco Zhao Jazz Concert” will be held at the Grand Auditorium of the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM), singer Coco Zhao (趙可) confirmed to The Macau Post Daily in an online interview last week.
The septet comprises Zhao, saxophonist Wilson Chen, trombonist Hu Qingwen, guitarist Lawrence Ku, pianist Huang Jianyi, double bassist Joseph Han and drummer Charles Foldesh. Coco Zhao and his six-piece band will aim to recreate the 1920s Shanghainese cabarets and “American speakeasies of the prohibition days”, as well as popular jazz standards and Chinese jazz classics, according to a recent CCM statement.
Zhao studied classical Chinese and Western music at the Shanghai Music Conservatory when he was young. As jazz education was then limited in mainland China, Zhao learnt about jazz through videotapes, records and friends. His first career highlight was collaborating with Betty Carter at her performance during the Shanghai International Jazz Festival in 1997. In the subsequent year, he performed for the then US president Bill Clinton and his family during their visit to the city in 1998.
According to Wikipedia, Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies.
Scatting is the act of vocalising, using nonsense syllables or sounds (e.g. “dool-yuh doot-n dwee-dah”) to create an improvised melodic solo, often imitative of other musical instruments, according to Wiktionary.
Zhao and his band – The Possicobilities – was the first Chinese band to ever perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2006 in Quebec and received tonnes of acclaim, including on Europe 1 radio. In the same year, he released his new album “Dream Situation”, a project that rearranged old Shanghai tunes into modern jazz and fusion music.
Zhao received a Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cultural Council Scholarship in 2010 and spent six months as an artist-in-residence in New York and New Orleans, during which he studied with Jay Clayton and Theo Bleckmann and performed Chinese jazz music at the Kennedy Arts Centre. In 2016, Zhao spent a three-month residency in Switzerland through Pro Helvetia, collaborating with artists including Andreas Schaerer, Sonic Calligraphy and the band Rosconi.
Shidaiqu (時代曲)
According to Zhao, Shidaiqu [“songs of the era” in Putonghua] is a new form of music in Shanghai that was created in the 1920s. “During that period, Shanghai was often visited by the United States Navy while also becoming an international centre which attracted musicians from around the world, including jazz players from the United States. Jazz music became popular in the city: the Peace Hotel had its big band, and even the triad leader Du Yuesheng had a big band at that time,” Zhao said.
Zhao said that a raft of Chinese classics such as 花好月圓 [“Lovely flowers and full moon”] and 得不到的愛情 [“The love I cannot obtain”] all appeared in that era, and these classics have jazz elements in them. “‘Rose, Rose, I love you’ – a song that originated in Shanghai, became famous in the United States, while the US tune ‘Seven Lonely Days’ was brought to China, filled with Chinese lyrics and sung by Chang Loo (aka Zhang Lu). As you can see, both cultures influenced each other quite a lot during that period,” Zhao said.
Zhao has been listening to Shidaiqu since his university days. Now, he has rearranged these classics and presented them to contemporary audiences. “For people in their 20s and 30s, these songs represent dreams and aspirations, without which there are none of us musicians here. Thus, my task is to tell the forgotten stories of the ‘golden age’ and present the unique fusion of Western and Chinese music,” Zhao said, adding that a story in the past told in the present would have a different feel to both the performers and the audience.
Lessons from jazz
For Zhao, one of the most enchanting features of jazz was to help its learners be openminded and to know what they lack. “Some people always considered that what they understood must be correct, and what they were ignorant of must be wrong. However, as jazz musicians, we must constantly listen and learn from great jazz players in the recordings and our band members playing with us. This makes jazz a continuous learning process, and we have to adapt and cooperate according to its logical pattern to create great music,” Zhao said.
In the interview, Zhao pointed out the difference between pop and jazz music. While the pop singer is always the leader of the band with other instruments accompanying the singer, he considers a jazz singer equal to other band members. “All of us are equally important: horns and rhythm section – and each of us must listen to what the others are playing to make music together – there are no protagonists or side characters, and each section has its chance to shine,” Zhao noted.
According to Zhao, how one perceives the world and art depends on the glasses one wears. “My musicality comprises my feelings, identity and sexuality – they are all within me. I embrace all these elements which polish my music, but I do not stress their importance in my performance. They have become natural parts within me,” Zhao underlined.
For Zhao, the purpose of music is to inspire strong emotions in the audience. “A jazz singer must be a singer and a good communicator. A jazz singer has technical challenges in soloing and rhythmic control, but the principal trait of a great jazz singer is to be able to tell their stories well. Humans, after all, are communicative beings with languages,” Zhao noted.
Slated to start on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) Grand Auditorium, the ticket prices are 250, 200, 150 and 100 patacas, with various discounts. For enquiries, call 2840 0555 or visit www.ccm.gov.mo.
All photos provided by the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) last week
