The Beijing Midi School of Music's Modern Music Festival in May 2006, androyal hartigan's blood drum spirit Ensemble Tour in Southern China

by royal hartigan and Weihua Zhang

This year (2006), royal hartigan's jazz quartet, blood drum spirit, was again

invited to the Beijing Midi School of Music's May Festival. Two years ago the

May Festival was canceled due to security concerns. Since then, the Midi School

has held three successful Modern Music festivals. The October festival in 2005

was moved from the Midi School campus to Haidian Park, located in the

Western suburbs of Beijing. The park is large and close to the university region,

including Beijing and Qinghua universities and the Zhong Guan Village science

and technology field, and therefore more accessible for audiences. The 2005

presentation included 46 groups that performed in four days from noon to 9:15

pm. including two groups from Canada, and one each from the US, Sweden,

Denmark, Norway, and France. So it was quite international.

This year's May Festival was held from May 1st to 4th at Haidian Park

and included four stages to accommodate the increased number of mu~ic

ensembles. On L,.e main stage, there were forty groups, including styles from

rock'n'roll, rhythm & blues, and pop, to jazz, and even minimalism. Each group

was given 40 minutes to perform instead of last year's 30-minute length. Nine

groups were from abroad, including one each from Japan, Spain, Germany,

France, Denmark, Norway, Holland, United States, and South Korea, as well as

bands from Taiwan and Hong Kong. This indicates the Midi Festival is growing

and has attracted worldwide visibility. Each group had to pay its own airfare

and lodging. royal's was the only that resided on the school campus.

The second stage was dedicated to guitar music and had thirty-three

groups performing over three afternoons. The third stage was called Mini Midi,

had a smaller space devoted to experimental styles, and included thirty-one

groups. It was co-organized by the Shui Lu Guan Yin arts organization, whose

focus is the crossing of sound, music, arts and the environment. The fourth stage

was organized as the Yen Dance Stage. They invited DJs from the United States,

New Zealand, England, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and

Beijing to meet and play electronic dance and hip hop music.

The main stage was equipped with very best sound and lighting systems.

There were two large screens on both sides of the stage, so the audience could

have a good view of the performers from afar. Since the audience included a

number of people from beyond the Beijing area, many stayed for the festival's

four days and set up tents at the rear of the Park. The magnitude of the festival

now equals any large festival in the United States. The entrance fee was 60 Yuan

(slightly less than $8 US). According to Yinze, a festival staff member, this is the

first time the finances for the festival broke even. The president of the Midi

School, Zhang Fan, and his two new assistants, the Canadian, Jon Campbell,

and a Greek American, Charlie Coneros, worked hard to make the festival such a

This year the Midi Festival also arranged an Apres Midi Live Music

program for some of the groups to play at indoor venues in the evenings after

the festival. This allowed ensembles who traveled from distant locations to have

more performing opportunities and earn more income. We found there are a

growing number of venues for jazz and popular music in Beijing, such as the

Nameless Highland, Ice House, Club Yugongyishan and the Dashanzi South

Gate performance space. Unfortunately, some of the older venues such as the Big

Easy and CD Jazz Cafe were closed due to their proximity to new subway

station construction in the Chaoyang District in preparation for the 2008

Olympics in Beijing. One can see construction everywhere for new roads and

facilities. We also heard there was another popular music festival centered

around vocal music held at the same time as the Midi Festival, but in the eastern

part of the city, while Haidian Park is in the city's western area. Apparently,

there was a sufficient audience for both festivals.

royal hartigan's jazz ensemble blood drum spirit arrived in Beijing on May

2nd, and played its first concert the next evening at the Ice House as part of the

Apres Midi Live Music concerts. Three groups played that night, with blood drum

spirit following an energetic Korean / French fusion group Lazy Monday and

preceding the excellent Japanese world/jazz ensemble Yokohama Association of

Artists. The concert started at 10:30 pm and each group played a one-hour set.

The audience numbered about 200 and came for serious listening.

blood drum spirit played new original compositions and arrangements at

the Ice House and throughout most of its China tour. The ensemble consisted of

pianist Art Hirahara, contrabassist Wes Brown, tenor saxophonist David

Bindman, and drummer royal hartigan. The Ice House set began with

Bindman's Material for Thought, a multi sectional piece in 15/8 time that features

bebop, funk, and free time, with complex themes and ensemble unison rhythmic

patterns. The second composition was Anlo Kete, an arrangement of traditional

song melodies and lead and support drum, bell, and rattle rhythms from the

Anlo Kete recreational dance drumming of the Eve people of Ghana and Togo,

West Africa. royal had adapted the songs and instrumental music he studied in

Anyako, in Ghana's southeastern region, during June 2005.

The group's third composition was Flowing Stream/ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,

arranged from the Chinese folk song from Yunnan province. The melody is very

beautiful and familiar for Chinese audiences. In the arrangement it was

combined with Charles Mingus' composition Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The latter,

subtitled as a Blues for Lester Young, is a slow haunting melody embedded in

unpredictable harmonic movement. Saxophonist Lester Young and

contrabassist Charles Mingus were legendary jazz artists, and Mingus was also

an outspoken political activist and advocate for jazz musicians.

The final piece was royal's arrangement of the jazz standard Invitation in

11/8 time. It is a multi sectional, complex suite that encompasses free time,

swing, West African, and Afro-Cuban styles. The ensemble received a strong

response from the audience during and after the set.

On May 4th blood drum spirit was scheduled to perform on the Midi

Festival's outdoor main stage from 6:50 to 7:30 pm. A sudden, unrelenting rain

nearly forced cancellation of the day's concert, but the presenters and musicians

were inspired by the sight of thousands of concertgoers standing in the rain and

cheering. So despite the continuing downpour the musicians and sound system

were covered with large outdoor patio umbrellas and the drumset, bass, grand

piano, and saxophone were able to function. The strong rain seemed like a

thunderous force to inspire music with the same intensity. We played another

Bindman composition in 11/8 time called Threads, followed by Anlo Kete, and

Flowing Stream I Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The ensemble received a thunderous

ovation from the audience in appreciation of their efforts under difficult

circumstances. Other ensembles who played that day all felt the inclement

weather forged a musical intensity that was unique and very rewarding.

The next performance for our ensemble was May 5th at the Dashanzi

International Art Festival. Dashanzi is located in the southeastern part of

Beijing. Originally the site was an electronic factory's compound. After the

demise of the national industry, the factory was abandoned and gradually

artists' studios moved in and were followed by music salons. The International

Art Festival is only in its second year but its activities cover three weeks during

April and May. One of the organizers of the Festival, Leon Lee, is a Chinese

American who graduated from San Francisco State University. He is now

working in Beijing as an editor of the English language periodical That's Beijing

that caters to the international community there and also presents music groups

from abroad.

South Gate Space is one of the theaters in Dashanzi that can host about

150 people. But the day of the performance it was full with a number of standing

tickets sold. The price of the advance ticket was 50 yuan and 60 at the door. The

audience was very diverse and cultured, with about 1/3 non-Chinese. royal's

ensemble dedicated its performance to Dr. David McAllester, a pioneer in world

music, ethnomusicology, and inspiration to generations of scholars, teachers,

and performers. Dr. McAllester had died the previous week and his passing cast

a sadness over the music.

The concert included Material for Thought, Anlo Kete, Flowing

Stream/ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, David Bindman's High Definition Truth, and the

group also performed a Navajo song by Ed Lee Nate in honor of David

McAllester. (McAllester was a specialist of American Indian music and had

worked with the Navajo people for many decades). The audience gave the group

a standing ovation and Serve the People, Organize the People, All Power to the

People! from Fred Ho's Black Panther Suite was played as an encore.

On May 6th, the ensemble set up and sound-checked for a recording

session at the Midi School recording studio. Midi president Zhang Fan arranged

for the school's audio engineers, Lorenz Kirchner and Xie Ming, to record the

group. He also worked with the Gibson/Baldwin company to supply a grand

piano for the recording. The result was highly successful and generated the

material for the group's double compact disc, blood drum spirit: the royal hartigan

ensemble live in china. Eighteen pieces were recorded from May 7-9, including

Material for Thought, Anlo Kete, Flowing Stream/ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, High

Definition Truth, A Night in Tunisia, Threads, Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental

Mood, Sonny Rollins' Oleo, a drum composition called gati shadows within, based

on South Indian gati (beat divisions), solkattu (rhythmic vocables), and tala (time

cycles), David Bindman's Song for Your Return, and Art Hirahara's Peace

Unknown. Other compositions were two suites arranged by royal hartigan. The

first consists of two piano / drum duets, Owl's Nightmare, and We'll Be Together

Again, followed by the jazz standard Tenderly, the other connecting a Bindman

solo saxophone piece Hazel Clark and hartigan's drumset solo adaptation of the

West African Asante people's funeral dance drumming known as Adowa. These

two works were complemented by solo pieces from bassist Brown and pianist

Hirahara.

On Wednesday May 10th the ensemble began a tour that had been

arranged by Jon Campbell. Our first stop was Shenzhen city in Guangdong

province. This newly developed city since the late 1970s is a special district that

has been given economic privileges by the late Deng Xiao-Ping to foster

economic prosperity. On arrival we were met by Liu Zheng, who had secured

performances in Shenzhen and Hong Kong for us. Liu holds a degree from

London University in England, and returned to China to go into the music

business. He told us the musical tastes of the Shenzhen people still need to be

cultivated because it is a new city and its population is drawn from all parts of

China.

Our first concert was set in Hong Kong on May 11th at the Innonation

performance space. We took a train to Hong Kong in the morning and went to a

family mini-hotel near Innonation in Causeway Bay, which is the most active

part of Hong Kong. Innonation is a music school in Hong Kong,whose students

range from three years to older adults. the school is only three years old and

occupies a large space in a high-rise building, in Causeway Bay, the mid-

Manhattan area of Hong Kong. The rehearsal hall of the school, used as a

performance space, is lovely. On the stage there was a Kawai grand piano, an

acoustic bass made in China of excellent tone, and a drum set. The president of

the school, Justin Siu, is a young musician, who had studied cello for many

years. He received his degree in computer science, and worked in information

technology business in Silicon Valley for four years. While in the Bay Area he

heard and fell in love with jazz music and decided that his future was in music.

He returned to Hong Kong and opened the Innonation music school. Switching

from cello to contrabass for jazz playing, he also has his own band and performs

in Hong Kong.

Justin told us that in Hong Kong people do not usually go out on

Thursday nights so we would not expect a large audience. The audience was

small but very attentive and seemed to be following the intensity of the music. A

few journalists from the South China Morning Post were also in the audience.

blood drum spirit played one long set of an hour and half but only four pieces:

Material for Thought, the Eve Suite, a jazz arrangement of West African Eve

people's songs and rhythms by royal, Flowing Stream / Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, and

Invitation. royal also taught the audience how to clap 11/8 and 7/8 time cycles.

On Friday afternoon we went to the Blue Door jazz club for sound check.

This club shares its space with the Yellow Door restaurant, and so the

performances have to start late, at 10:30 pm, after dinner is served. The manager

of the club, Liu Jin (Lau Chun in Cantonese) took us to lunch and showed us a

portion of Hong Kong before we did the sound check. The space is not large

possibly due to of the high cost of land and buildings in central Hong Kong. For

our performance the space was full, and there was an air of intensity in the

audience. We performed two sets from 10:30 pm to 1:45 am, including the pieces

Material for Thought, Eve, Flowing Stream/ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, High Definition

Truth, Invitation, A Night in Tunisia, Threads, and We'll Be Together / Tenderly.

We were happy to meet an old friend, Tong Kin-Woon at the performance.

He was our schoolmate at Wesleyan University in the 1980s. He came to the

concert after his own recital on guqin (Chinese zither) the same night. We had

not seen each other for almost 20 years, therefore this was a very happy reunion.

Tong also knows the owner of the restaurant/ club, Lau Kin vVai, who is the

father of Lau Chun, and a writer, calligrapher, and connoisseur of music. Lau

told us that he really enjoyed our performance because he was bored by

listening to the mainstream jazz, which he astutely felt is too conservative and

lacks innovation. In our performance there were many original compositions

and elements of world music that sounded fresh to him. He invited us to return

to Hong Kong as his guests.

On Saturday morning, May 13th, we went to Hong Kong's Victoria Park,

only two blocks from where we stayed. We took many pictures there for publicity

and promotion. We then took the train back to Shenzhen for the performance at

the True Color East Gate performance space and restaurant. It is a very large and

luxurious complex with many rooms and stages located in the East Gate

shopping center. The stage we played at is a good-sized mounted stage with

grand piano, drumset, and contrabass, as well as a place for performers to rest or

change. Following our trip from Hong Kong, the band members were tired, so

we spent our after-dinner time before the concert sleeping in one of the green

rooms with the sound of karaoke and excitement of partygoers as a backdrop.

We had sound check at 6:00 pm and the three-set performance began at

10:00 pm, consisting of Threads, Anlo Kete, A Night in Tunisia, Invitation, the

Tenderly Suite, Flowing Stream/ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Material for Thought, and

High Definition Truth. The audience gave use strong applause in appreciation of

our music. We spent considerable time between sets and after the performance

personally greeting the listeners, who were interested in and motivated by the

originality of the compositions and improvisations.

On Sunday, May 14th, before going to the airport for Hangzhou, Weihua's

relative, Feng Jia-xun, gave our group a farewell party at a seafood restaurant.

Our local host, Liu Zheng, also joined us and expressed real satisfaction for our

performance and invited us to return, and promised that he would find more

performance venues for us next time.

Monday May 15th was the only rest day in our tour. We were fortunate to

be in the beautiful and famous historical city of Hangzhou. Weihua's former

student, Li Cui-tao, now the top singer in Hangzhou, took us sightseeing to the

fabulous West Lake. We went to see the Leifeng Pagoda, which is one of the ten

views on the lake and saw unique historical and cultural places at the lake front.

Li and her husband, Jin De-zhong, the leading trumpeter in the Hangzhou

Symphony Orchestra, treated us at a five-star restaurant at the foot of the

pagoda. In the evening some members of the the ensemble went to the JZ Club

and listened to the house band. The pianist was from Rumania, but planned to

return home soon. There was a singer from Shanghai. They played mostly jazz

standards but very competent and interesting.

The next day we went to the JZ Club, adjacent to West Lake, for sound

check. Afterwards, our host, Zhang Zheng, took us to another restaurant within

the West Lake grounds for dinner. The JZ performance space was full of people

waiting to hear our music. Because of the festive atmosphere, it was very noisy

and smoky (smoking is popular in China, and it is not prohibited in public

areas). royal's ensemble played two one-hour sets including the same basic

repertoire as at the True Colors space in Shenzhen. The audience consisted of

local Chinese, international expatriates, writers, and other musicians who came

to hear jazz. They gave us a warm reception and like the other venues on the

tour, were emotionally moved by our connections with them through the music.

Zhang Zheng and his manager Joey Feng invited us to return.

The next afternoon we traveled to Shanghai in a van provided by the

presenters, since the JZ clubs in Hangzhou and Shanghai are related. After the

two-hour trip we arrived at the Yellow House JZ Shanghai space and did a

sound check. The club has a similar physical layout to the Hangzhou venue,

and both places often book the same groups. The owners of the club are an older

couple from Beijing and their son, Liu Yuqing, manages the club. He was

formerly a full time bassist, but now occasionally plays with a group. In both JZ

Clubs they have good instruments, including a grand piano, drumset, and

quality contrabass, which is not always easy to find. We played a three-set

concert with the same basic compositions as our Shenzhen and Hangzhou

performances, but added Art Hirahara's meditative Peace Unknown as the final

piece of the evening and of our tour. Stormy weather affected the size of audience

but the people listened intently. Two American musicians living in Shanghai,

were among the audience. One, the drummer Craig Haynes, is the son of the

great jazz drummer, Roy Haynes. We spent sometime socializing following the

concert in the early morning hours.

The next day, May 18th, David, Wes, and Art went to the airport to return

to the United States while royal and Weihua flew to Zhangjiajie in West Hunan

province to do research on traditional music.

This year's trip in China is the most successful of our three tours. Not only

did we make excellent recordings of three plus hours, we added Hong Kong,

Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Shanghai to Beijing on our itinerary, with each venue

presenting the music with a high level of integrity. We not only communicated

with a wider range of serious audience people but also were exposed to a wider

jazz scene in China. The group was paid much better than last time, which

indicates that festivals, clubs and restaurants are making money because of a

more appreciative crowd of listeners. Many presenters and listeners had asked

for our CDs but we did not bring enough. Our active tour schedule, playing most

nights, gave us little chance to hear many groups at other jazz venues, and

explore the nightlife in China. From the festivals' and clubs' programs and

brochures we did get some idea of the groups that were playing in China. We

were invited to come back by all the hosts and some of them even offered to pay

for the international airfare that will make a return much easier.

From this May 2006 tour we made stronger connections with the people,

culture, and music of China. Our arrangement of the traditional Yunnan folk

song Flowing Stream genuinely affected audiences, and this, along with the

originality and intensity of our compositions and jazz improvisations, gave us a

closeness to the people who came to hear us. The seriousness of our playing

seemed to touch most listeners, including people who had never heard jazz live

before. We were similarly moved by the audiences and intend to return,

continuing our relationship with the people of this ancient and beautiful culture.

In this trip we learned once again that music is a means to personal connections

that transcend daily life, and that drumming, jazz, and heartfelt sound is spirit.