Now, and Now Again
British Jazz Live Photography Exhibition
China
Time
2014.10.8 – 2014.10.30
*Open to ticket-holders during the show time from Oct. 8 to Oct. 30
Venue
B10 Live, North District of OCT-LOFT
Photographer
Zheng Yu
Introduction of the Exhibition
Jazz is a music genre in which improvisation plays a very important part. Live Jam is always considered the most interesting and charming factor of jazz. The photographs taken by Zheng Yu of this exhibition present the moments of jazz lives played by different British jazz musicians. The pictures were taken from various lives: Ronnie Scott’s: the oldest jazz club in UK; prominent Barbican Center; London Jazz Festival: one of the biggest and most influential jazz festivals nowadays; and Swanage Jazz Summer Weekend which is taken place in a seaside town; etc. The photography works taken by Zheng Yu is not only a portrait of Britain’s jazz music scene, but also visual documents of live as the essence of jazz music.
This exhibition is related to Zheng Yu’s talk “British Jazz on the Way”.
Words by Zheng Yu
Jazz music is born for live. But I did not have that many chances to see live when I first found myself attracted by jazz. Afterwards, watching live seemed not so fresh to me since I was familiar with Beijing’s local jazz musicians. It didn’t make much sense to me until I went to Britain for my study 3 years ago. I lived in Bristol back then and I would go to different live performances every week. And I realized that watching live is important to me as much as my own life. The connection between jazz and me is no longer just records but also live. And it even changed the way of my thinking about life and music. It seemed that it led me to the past and present at the same time every time I went to a live performance.
I didn’t intend to present delicate portrait photography as a professional photographer does. In fact, most of my photographs were limited. But the moments I captured were flowed with music. I wanted present the music within the picture, not just the picture as it is. Then as I supposed, this photos can really make sense as jazz means to me: being there and born for live.
The name of this exhibition “Now, and Now Again” is originated from a song composed by my favorite trumpeter Kenny Wheeler. For me, the name summarizes the spirit of jazz live vividly, which is exactly I’d like to present.
Then, as I supposed, these photos are really meaningful for jazz, which is born for live and being there. The name of this exhibition “Now, and Now Again” is originally from the title of a song composed by my favorite trumpeter Kenny Wheeler.
Introduction of the Photographer
Zheng Yu, known as Liamaerd, is a die-hard jazz fan. And he is also the organizer of Douban group Jazz Record and co-founder of Chinese Jazz Writing Collective. He studied in UK in 2011 and watched hundreds of jazz lives there.
Douban
http://www.douban.com/people/liamaerd/
Chinese Jazz Writing Collective