活动推荐 ｜ 新的一周 新的爵士盛宴！

Louise Zhu：jazz singer, pianist，arranger. Louise combines different music genres with Anita O'Day’s rhythm and Peggy Lee’s sexyness. According to Jason Olaine & Greg Scholl (Executive Directors @ Jazz Lincoln Center, New York), Louise is a “music storyteller” “possessing a rare, smooth & silky voice”. Louise is now a regular on the jazz music circuit and was invited to perform at the Shanghai JZ Festival and Shanghai Concert Hall. She was the first musician to get invited to cooperate with New York Jazz at Lincoln Centre in Shanghai.  

Sousell Chai was born in an artistic family in China, her mother is a violinist. She started to learn piano at 4 age with a Chinese famous composer of the Central Conservatory of  Music called Wang Bingzhen. She gave her first public performance as a pianist when she was only 8 years old. She started to learn vocal(bel canto) at 12 years old with a Chinese great singer Guo Tao.She had the particular musical gifts and intelligent instinct in her young age.

After the rigorous vocal training, Sousell began to learn jazz. She was influenced by Sarah Vaughan、Ella Fitzgerald、Billie Holiday、Carmen McRea、Nancy Wilson、Anita O’day、Dianne Reeves、Charlie Parker、Miles Davis、Herbie Hancock and so on. Sousell’s teachers and mentors, whilst in the USA, included jazz diva, composer, educator Charenee Wade, the great french singer Cyrille Amie, English jazz vocalist Tina May, amongst many other musicians and educators, including saxophonist Victor Goines, jazz pianist Amina Figarova and so on.

During her studies, Sousell had the opportunity to play at several different venues all over the country. She started to built her own band named Adventure since 2011 as a composer and a singer, and release her self-titled debut album Adventure in 2012, also she finished a tourist performances all over the country in the same year. From 2013 to 2015, Sousell had the opportunity to go abroad for exchange learning of jazz vocal, during the training, she had cooperate with loads of great jazz musicians and bands. In 2017, Sousell moved to Shanghai and Sousell Quartet was selected to perform at JZ Club at the same time she was invited to play at Shanghai Jazz Festival from 2017 to 2018. In addition to performing the Great American Songbook and bebop and Vocalese classics, Sousell is also a passionate devotee of 20s and 30s music and has sung with the Grammy winner John Chin, Walter Blanding, Jerome Jennings, Quincy Phillips, Hila Hulik, Jianyi Huang, Danny Zanker, Brian Hurley, Nicholas McBride, Steinar Nickelsen. In 2019, Sousell has recorded with great saxophonist Walter Blanding as a duet album. Sousell also recorded with Israel jazz guitarist Ofer Landsberg in United Kingdom.

She performed at top venues in China, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common—they all loved her.

Jiangyi Huang is a jazz pianist, composer, educator and headmaster of JZ School. Graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor's degree in Piano, Berklee College of Music and Rutgers University with a Master's degree in Jazz Piano. He is the founder and keyboardist of  fusion jazz bands J3 Trio and J3+. In 2015, J3 Trio and its new album "Red Man" won the Best Band and Best Fusion Album at the first Chinese Jazz Awards. In 2017, he won the LivePower Awards for Best Live Jazz Band of the Year. “Crystal Violet” was nominated for Best Jazz Record by the CMIC Music Award in 2018.

In 2016, he was the composer of the kunqu oratorio "Huan Sha Ji" starring the famous kunqu actress Shen Yili, which was successfully staged at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in September. 

Annular Eclipse is a Latin jazz band formed in 2004 and expanded from a trio to a sextet, making it one of the few active Latin jazz band in China. According to Yang Hongbin, one of the founders of the band, "Annular Eclipse is a visual representation of a ring, and I felt that it was a circle, similar to the rhythm and movement of Latin music." With the musicians' outstanding talent and skillful skills, Annular Eclipse band will bring a unique auditory experience by reinterpreting the vitality of classical music with Latin enthusiasm.

Rebirth Vocal Ensemble is good at  jazz and classical fusion pop styles as well as  polyphonic works.

Hippies on the Road is a Hardbop band project started by young guitarist Junyi Liang and young saxophonist Wang Yu. The band's style is influenced by Blues, Soul and other roots music, while constantly absorbing new sounds from Postbop and New Age Jazz. The band's repertoire includes mainstream jazz tunes from Horace Silver, Paul Desmond, Cannonball Aldderley, Kenny Burrell, Fred Jackson, etc., with the band members' own interpretations, restoring the classics while continuing to innovate. They hope to give listeners a jazz communication through time and space.

These South Americas musicians have traveled far and wide, sharing their brand of Cuban music at every stop. Being the most strong and dynamic Latin band on the scene of Shanghai, this group brings all the best rhythms from Latin America, performing with passion and happiness and giving a perfect match for the night. Drawing from their diverse cultural backgrounds, you will hear influences from their South American roots. Armed with a variety of instruments, their sound evokes feelings of excitement and beauty. When the Latin Project takes to the stage, don’t be surprised if their music moves you to dance!

Sunny Yang graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree. Later, he went to the United States for further study. In 2018, he received a master's degree in Jazz Piano from Queens College. During the school, he won the scholarship many times. Since 2019, he has studied contemporary music writing and electronic music production at Berklee College of Music. Sunny Yang cooperates with many different musicians, and has been guided and praised by many jazz masters such as Victor Wooten, Billy Kilson, Antonio Hart and Alan Mallet.

His rich overseas study experience and many years of performance experience enable him to have a deeper understanding of the application of jazz in the field of contemporary music. Through constant research and exploration, he combined jazz with more diverse music and formed his own unique musical style. He has held a successful piano trio concert "When Classical Meets Jazz" at the Shanghai Summer Music Festival, released the jazz big band album "From Broadway to Paramount" to pay tribute to old Shanghai songs, and was invited to attend the Shanghai JZ Festival and Taichung Jazz Festival.