 |
| A double Skype selfie... |
Sid is three quarters of the way through a visit brokered by the British Council, working with the Sichuan Opera and the Chongqing Troupe. It's his third trip.
Tell me where you are, and what you can see?
I'm in Chongqing – Jiangshen avenue. I'm by the new Opera House, in the new Northern District. I'm looking at a new Spaghetti Junction, right outside my window. There's a Spaghetti Junction every couple of miles in this place...You're a regular visitor now, so you can see the changes.
2006, 2007 and now. Even in the time since 2007, I've noticed a massive change. Significantly. But you know, the conditions for working musicians are excellent out here.Are you talking about state funding like they have here, and to a much greater extent in Europe?
No – there's no funding,. But you can make a living. Since I've been here, I've been offered jobs. They want musicians in bars, in hotels. I've seen a lot of musicians, not all of them that good, who are making a living, at functions and so on. If the guys at the level of working musicians in Birmingham came out here, they could make a living.But you look out your window and you see Spaghetti Junction.
It has its charms. I'm looking out the window now, at 1 in the morning. I see a girl walking home, high heels, miniskirt, walking home. Safe. No fear at all.What about air quality? You're a singer or a horn player, you need your lungs.
It's not good. Another problem is that they smoke in the bars, everywhere. Look, it's a bit rugged, a bit rough. But if you want anywhere near that experience of the 40s or 50s, this is the place to be.Don't your hosts simply want your Western music chops?
I think so. But you know, they love the Irish songs as well.Tell me about the work you're doing there?
There's lots of musicians and arts organisations that want to meet up. So I'm being ferried about to meet lots of different people. Making some really good friendships that I think will be long term. Getting on really well. We've just done a concert in an arts theatre space: a group of Chinese musicians, a jazz pianist and a drummer from Birmingham. A guy called Max. I don't know his surname.What do the Chinese musicians want from you?
You brought that into the mix?I'm working with the Sichuan Opera – that's my main thing – we're just in final rehearsals right now. I think what I'm getting from them, is that they always have to read from the score, they always have to play the tune 'as it is'. What they like now is that they're improvising, making it up as they go along – they're loving it.
When you hear them play, it sounds like they've been improvising for ever.But don't some forms of Chinese music leave room to improvise within a structure?
I think there is, in some areas. But you know, some of the stuff I was doing last night, it was pretty crazy. Free improvisation. Last night, as well, I recited Alan Ginsberg's 'Howl' – they went ballistic. That might have been a China première performance...Wow. Of course, when he wrote it, back in the day (1955) he was challenging everything. It''s in your face, full of drug references and stories of repression, and urban decay....and of course it was stamped on by the powers that be. He deliberately set out to upset the apple cart. How did it go down?
I'm not sure how many people understood what I was saying – not that many people speak English...But the rhythm, the sound, the patterns....
Yeah! One girl, a guzheng player, said that when she came to it, she had to decide could she do this or not? And they all decided they could. Guys are all over it in an instant. They decide, and it happens.I can only judge by the footage that's presented to us here in the UK. The picture I'm getting is of rampant consumerism and a hoovering up of western styles. Last week they showed footage of a rock festival, with a metal band delivering stereotypical stadium rock, and the crowd could have been from anywhere in the world.
It's the same as in the UK. In the UK, you go to a metal concert, and it's packed out. Go to something a bit more independent and weird, and you'd be lucky to get a hundred people there.
Certainly. I think this has been a good trip because it's given people I've been working with the reason to do something different. There was young guy, pianist guy, who was giving me these pieces, and then after we'd done a performance, he was playing like Cecil Taylor. Giving all these clusters with the whole left hand. Totally no fear in having a go. There's a really good jazz guitarist... Now, I'm probably only the second best jazz guitarist in Chongqing, in a city of thirty-three million. But in a city of one million, Birmingham, I'm pretty low down in the ranks. And he just... opened up. So the sort of things we're talking about now is a band of musicians coming out for three months.You're coming to the end of your current stint, heading back to the UK next week and resuming duties with your bands (Surge and Peacock Angell). So have you thought about touring your own bands?
I would love to. Love to. But Surge is a sixteen piece band. And we're turning into a twenty-six piece band, we're adding ten strings to it. We're going to have to get some healthy funding. We're hoping that my contact here from China is going to come over to see that.
The intention is to take Peacock Angell band over to China. We're a six piece so it would be cheaper! Steve Tromans has joined, and then we've added drums...And have you collected any more new instruments?
I've got quite a few Chinese instruments. I'm looking at things and going 'I've got to stop this...'
Links
Sid Peacock's website, which has a lot more about the China trip.
See more music posts on Radio To Go
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the mailing list
No comments:
Post a Comment