Now entering its 12th year, the JZ Festival has established itself as one of the premiere jazz festivals in Asia and the largest of its kind in China. Once again, they’ve put together an impressive bill with 44 acts rocking five stages from October 15-16. Here are a few acts that can’t be missed. For more, check out our feature on the return of JZ and the full program for JZ Festival 2016.
Oct 15-16: Corinne Bailey Rae
The two-time Grammy Award winning singer has topped the UK charts while selling over five million albums. Her self-titled debut produced huge hits like ‘Put Your Record On’ and ‘Like a Star,’ but the soulful singer isn’t living in her impressive past. This May, she released her third album and first in six years, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, to great acclaim. Recently, Stevie Wonder asked her to be a special guest at his Hyde Park concert where she wowed a crowd of over 60,000. Even NASA and the International Olympic Committee are fans, recently recruiting her for songs and for advertisements.
Oct 15-16, 8.45-10pm. The River Stage.
Oct 15: Balaio Invites Randy Brecker
Over a sterling five-decade-long career, trumpeter Randy Brecker has won six Grammy Awards while working with everyone from Charles Mingus to Parliament-Funkadelic. After connecting with percussionist, producer and composer Marco Bosco in Tokyo, Brecker’s interest in Brazilian music was revived leading to the Grammy Award winning disc Randy in Brasil. With help from the band Balaio, Brecker will bring the Latin jazz sounds to life on stage.
Oct 15, 7.45-9.15pm. Stella Artois Jazz Harbor.
Oct 15: Eddie Gómez Quartet ft. Li Xiaochuan
Cutting his teeth in the legendary Bill Evans Trio (watch above), Gómez has worked with icons like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Chick Corea. The two-time Grammy Award winning double bassist has been paying it forward by spreading his jazz insight to young acts like Chinese trumpeter Li Xiaochuan, who remains the only jazz artist to be awarded by CCTV Music Channel. Mentor and student will team up for this exciting collaboration in front of Li’s adopted hometown, Shanghai.
Oct 15, 3.45-5pm. Stella Artois Jazz Harbor.
Oct 15: WDR Big Band Köln
Dubbed by JZ laoban Ren Yuqing as “the best big band in the world,” the German ensemble headlines the October 14 reopening of JZ Club in its new Found 158 digs. The next day, they’ll be bringing their wide ranging style to the JZ Festival big stage for an evening performance.
Oct 15, 6.30-7.30pm. The River Stage.
Oct 15: Jeffrey Kung
The Golden Melody Award winning singer-songwriter was also the creator and host of China’s first street culture radio show, The Park. The hip-pop star returned with a vengeance three years ago with his critically acclaimed comeback album, Suspended Memories, and he currently has three songs of the China charts. He teams with Wes Chen for this stage headlining performance.
Oct 15, 8-9.30pm. Stella Artois Jazz Harbor.
Oct 15: ChaCha + Aivilox
Whether its as one half of the bewitching homegrown duo AM444 or under her DJ guise as Faded Ghost, ChaCha is an institution in Shanghai’s underground. She teams with rising DJ and producer Aivilox, and the duo memorably tore it up at Shanghai’s inaugural Boiler Room.
Oct 15, 6.30-7.30pm. Lipton Earth Lounge.
Oct 16: Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau Duo
Emerging out of the 90s young jazz lions period that helped produce the neo-traditionalist neo-bop jazz movement, saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau have racked up Grammy nominations as leaders of their own ensembles. However, they rekindle the partnership that led to such great albums from the Joshua Redman Quartet early in their careers with this intimate duo performance. While it debuted five years ago, they’re touring again due to popular demand as they prep for the upcoming release of a live album for the celebrated label Nonesuch Records.
Oct 16, 7.30-8.45pm. Stella Artois Jazz Harbor.
Oct 16: Death in Vegas
Emerging out of the 90s electronica boom, the English group has been widely praised for taking the road less traveled by adding more live instrumentation while dabbling in disparate sounds from techno to psychedelic rock. They’ve reemerged from a five-year hiatus, linking with the actress and writer Sasha Grey on this year’s Transmission. United by their love of early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle and Nitzer Ebb, the collaboration has been praised for its early 80s IBM take on techno. Their live A/V performance debuted this summer in Berlin to great acclaim.
Oct 16, 8-9.30pm. Lipton Earth Lounge.
Oct 16: Soul-ciety
Hunan Province singer Tia Ray is one of the mainland’s acclaimed neo-soul singers thanks to her role as frontwoman of the funk-hip-hop-soul group ThaKnutZ, performances on The Voice of China and award-winning albums like T.I.A. Chang Shilei is a Golden Meloday award winning singer, who was the original voice to ‘You and Me,’ memorably performed by Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan at the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games. Together, they debut their new project Soul-ciety with special guests Evan Guo, Erica Lee and an all-star team of musicians.
Oct 16, 6.30-7.30pm. The River Stage.
Oct 16: Soulspeak vs. Ttechmak Ft. Danimal
This partnership between acclaimed Beijing based producer Soulspeak and Shanghai based trumpeter Toby Mak has resulted in one of the finest Mainland albums of the year, despite the two of them only working together once in the same space. They’ll be bringing the album to life in one of their rare live performances with Detroit techno veteran Danimal joiing in on bass.
Oct 16, 6.30-7.30pm. Lipton Earth Lounge.
Oct 16: 独木难支 Ft. Max Shen+ Deep 19
Promoters Say Yes are bringing some of the city’s finest DJs and producers on both days of the JZ Festival. On Sunday, they’ll be pairing Max Shen, manager of Arkham, with homegrown house and techno stalwart Deep 19, who released an EP earlier in the year with rising Shanghai label/collective Co:Motion.
Oct 16, 4-5.30pm. Lipton Earth Lounge.
JZ Festival: Oct 15-16, noon-11pm, RMB260 (per day). Expo Park.
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