Voice from the young musician: Jazz is not forgotten

Interview with Jonas Seetoh

[Photo: from VCG]

For many youngsters today, the original Jazz music is a symbolic type of music often associated with dancing clubs of old Shanghai; Sometimes, it's too symbolic to be identified as Jazz but recognized as "the old Shanghai music." This genre has therefore become a subculture rather than mainstream. For these reasons it's been struggling to survive in China.

Even so, there are still a decent number of die-hard fans devoted to developing and promoting Jazz music in China. 

Today, we have invited Jonas Seetoh to join our discussion on this topic. Jonas is a leading singer, songwriter, producer and educator in China. Recently, his new album "Mr. Seetoh" gained rapid attention on the Internet in China because of how well it communicated to audiences. 

Questions discussed in the interview:

1. How did you personally get involved with the world of Jazz? 

2. What's the difference between learning music in China & in UK? Why did you choose U.K. instead of U.S for Jazz learning? 

3. You are a big fan of your own professional Tina May. How does her music or her teaching have an influence on your music? And who else have played important role in your career? 

4. Louis Armstrong once said " If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." So let me ask this way, what key messages do you want to pass to your audience? 

5. Being a musician over these years, what are your main sources of inspiration? Please share some stories behind your songs with us. 

6. Among all your works, which one you love most and why? Any stories behind it? / Any stories you'd like to share with us about a certain work?

7. Can you tell us about your recent album and share why you made the change in style?

8. What are the challenges of doing Jazz music in China?

9. Internationally, people are wondering whether or not Jazz is a dying genre, including the original place of Jazz, the U.S. Why is the case?

10. China already had limited culture, history and resources for Jazz music, and given the unpleasant international background, why shall we be confident that Jazz will survive and thrive in China? 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI]