Four great New York Jazz concerts in Hong Kong
Jazz lovers can look forward to hearing the authentic Big Apple jazz sounds of greats such as Joey Alexander, Antonio Sanchez, Teriver Cheung and Chok Kerong, and Chris Botti, who will soon be performing live in Hong Kong
Just why is New York the epicentre of jazz? Jazz critic Ted Gioiapondered this question in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal last year. It hadn’t always been like that: at the beginning of the 20th century every jazz player had to be in New Orleans; by the 1920s – the “Jazz Age” – the best players were in Chicago, which offered better economic opportunities for black musicians.
And then by 1930, despite some of the top jazz musicians’ initial resistance and New York audiences’ initial hesitation, it was all about the Big Apple. And it still is. And if jazz has gone global, with brilliant musicians coming out of every major country on every major continent, New York is the one city they just have to move to.
“Great jazz artists often don’t come from Manhattan, but they struggle to build a reputation and gain career traction if they don’t come to Manhattan,” Gioia wrote in the City Journal.
In the next few months Hong Kong will be hosting no fewer than four top musicians from New York. None of them is a New York native – they come from Hong Kong, Bali, Mexico City and Portland, Oregon via Italy – but they all made their names there, and going to see any (or indeed all) of them could be seen as a great education in current jazz trends and top names.
Joey Alexander
First up is the youngest (by a long way).
Fourteen-year-old Indonesian jazz pianist Joey Alexander, who’ll be playing his Hong Kong debut on November 9 at the Asia Society in Admiralty (together with Dan Chmielinski on bass and Ulysses S Owens Jnr on drums), taught himself to play using a mini electric keyboard when he was six.
