Shanghai’s Music & Jazz Scene: Past and Present
Old Shanghai was the uncontested Jazz capital of Asia, where musicians from the world over tested their musical mettle to the delight of enthusiastic audiences.
In the colorful cabarets and sepia-lit dance halls of Old Shanghai, Jazz music set a background score to a world of mobsters, adventurers and sing-song girls.
And today, Shanghai has again acquired an international music scene in which jazz plays first fiddle.
Andrew Field, the author of “Shanghai's Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919-1954” (2010) and a passionate expert on jazz and music will introduce you to the history of modern and contemporary classical and jazz music in Shanghai, and – being an independent lecturer of history, cultural and metropolitan themes – Andrew will also discuss what the existence of a jazz scene in Shanghai says about contemporary China.
A possible night time walk with Andrew begins at the Pushkin monument at the intersection of Fenyang and Yueyang Road with the Russian influence in Old Shanghai, discusses the rise of the modern Music Conservatory, and pays homage to the composer of the Chinese national anthem, visiting these sites and monuments along the way. The visit of two jazz and blues clubs that have paved the way for a jazz and blues scene in Shanghai - the Cotton Club and the JZ Club - will complement this unique Shanghai Flaneur walk & talk event with some real good music.