Music students from the JZ School were invited to strut their stuff at the JZ Festival in Century Park last weekend on the Ensemble & DJ Stage.

On Saturday 17 October and Sunday 18 October 2009, festival-goers were treated to sets from JZ Kids, JZ Jazz and JZ Rock Ensembles alongside bands from a number of Shanghai’s international schools.

Led by JZ School tutors, Robbie Melville, Curtis Ostle, JQ Whitcomb and Davide Bertelone, four jazz ensembles and one rock ensemble took to the stage while JZ Kids played two sets under the tutelage of Robbie Melville and Adam Gaensler.

I caught up with Jazz Ensemble No. 4 on Sunday afternoon and spent a very pleasant half hour listening to their easy blend of swing and bossa nova and catching up backstage with band members, John Auerbach (piano), Karolina Pek (drums), Sherry Dong (guitar), Davide Bertolone (bass / tutor) and Jason Yu (vocals).

 
Jazz Ensemble No. 4 with their tutor, bass player Davide Bertolone, on left

The five-piece treated the audience to two vocal numbers, one a classic, “Honeysuckle Rose”, the other a French song, “Que Reste-il de Nos Amours” (“I Wish You Love”) by Charles Trenet. Considering these guys had only played together for five classes, their light touch and laid-back feel did them credit. The rhythm section provided an uncluttered backing for vocalist Yu’s charismatic vocals while keyboards and guitar played thoughtful solos that suited both genres well.

While the band grooved quietly in the background, Jason Yu was an exuberant and entertaining frontman. A consultant with Price Waterhouse Cooper, Yu started singing jazz two years ago after an earlier love affair with opera. His tutors had to ask him to change to a more natural approach when he first came to JZ School and it’s certainly worked. Yu has a classic jazz voice and is at ease with swing, bossa and his new love, bebop. I asked him if he’d done any scatting and he confessed to experimenting under tutor Steve Sweeting but says he still has some way to go!

Vocalist, Jason Yu

Yu studies at weekends at JZ School as it’s the only time he can get away from the office. I suspect that in another life he’d have been a full-time jazzer. Music runs in his family – his auntie trades in guitars and violins and exhibited at last week’s Music China – and he loves to perform at Price Waterhouse Cooper’s annual dinners. He’s a great advertisement for JZ School as he encourages all his colleagues to come along to classes and, as someone who clearly thrives on the music, an equally great advertisement for jazz education.