YangYing-Chinese Jazz Lady

The Nine Gates Jazz Festival has been soothing 1 the ears of China's jazz fans since it started September 9. This week, China's own Yangying has returned to Beijing with her American band, Ping Pong Jazz Band, for a spot at the Sixth Nine Gates Jazz Festival.

Yangying is originally from China but has lived in America the last fifteen years. Her musical background is quite diversified 2 in that her education has encompassed 3 diverse genres 4 including Chinese traditional music, American Jazz, and Chinese rock. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

If you think the first Chinese female rock band, the ancient Chinese two stringed erhu and American jazz don't have anything in common, then you haven't heard what those influences can create.

Andrea Hunt has more:

 

Chinese classics such as the two stringed erhu and Peking Opera don't usually conjure 5 up the contemporary melodies of American jazz. But Yangying is not your typical Chinese musician. She was raised on Chinese instruments, and then took her passion for music to the United States where she wrapped her roots around a love for American jazz.

One Beijing day in the late 1980s started it all.

"I had a first chance to hear the live jazz and rock music at the American Embassy. When I heard that, I had so much in my heart. I was tired about something and I had felt that I had something in my heart that those repertoires 7 couldn't really express my feelings. And afterwards, I heard this music that attracted me, I think traditional Chinese music combined with this rhythm. So, from that time, I have had my dream to combine those two fusions 8."

But her traditional Chinese music career actually started long before then. Yangying grew up in a small town in Henan Province, but had anything but the typical childhood of a small town girl. She developed an erhu soloist 9 career that led her around the world playing for famous presidents such as Nixon and Carter.

Every morning, her father woke her and her brother up at 5 am to go practice in the park so they wouldn't disturb the neighbors.

"My father is a strict teacher and the most important thing he taught me was, if you want to do something well, you have to put your whole heart there. So, he wouldn't really let me play with other girls at all, so all I was doing was going to school and coming back to practice my instrument. It's kind of a hard life but after growing up I really appreciated what my father did for the family and of course for me…"

She has played for the Central Song & Dance Ensemble 10 of China and her abilities won her recognition in the book, "Famous Persons of China" in 1996. She also plays bass 6 guitar and keyboard and founded "Cobra," China's first all girl rock band.

Critics laud 11 her knack 12 for beautifully weaving improvisation 13 in her musical performance onstage.

"So, that's really why I wanted to come to America to study because I think Jazz is famous for improvisation and I wanted to learn what that was. But after I came to here to study for awhile, I realized that there are many similarities between traditional Chinese music and American jazz. If you have the skill and you have many things in your heart, improvisation is a natural expression."

Yangying's eclectic mesh 14 of many worlds will be returning to China for the first time in eight years this September 16 and 17 with her, "Ping Pong Jazz Band."

She's looking forward to seeing how jazz in China has changed since she left. She hopes to show the younger generation of Chinese that merging 15 cultures is possible through music.

"I use a traditional Chinese instrument to play jazz standard will probably make people think, Jazz is not something so far away. It's about music and music is the universal language so maybe more people will be interested in doing this."

Music may be a universal language but she says that her experience is what drives it. Her most defining quote is, "Life is input 16, and music is output."

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.