Hangzhou, May 2026

Ten years ago, I wrote about my time playing jazz in Beijing. Now that I'm playing music full-time, I had the chance to spend a month in Hangzhou playing at 爵士黄楼 (JZ Huanglou): an old school residency-style gig, playing three 45-minute sets Monday through Saturday (off on Sundays). 

First, the story of that time told through photos on film:

On the first night of our gig, 70-some sets to go. L-R front: myself, Shinya Lin (our leader), Siran Gao, Wenjun Wu (bass), Hsienwen Chen (drums); L-R back: Thomas Julienne (bass, just completed the previous residency), Jean Baptiste Loutte (drums, also on that residency)

Having a relaxing 3% ABV Chinese beer with Hsienwen before the gig (child running was unintentional but fortuitous)

Selfie at the club, shirt by Dave Treut

杭州, self-explanatory

Catching up with my old friend Bryan Qu, wng me play his Buescher "Big B" was partially responsible for my long decade-long journey in GAS, with his girlfriend Jianing

Sax hang with Reny Bao, who gifted me a lovely Moriyasu HR mouthpiece that I'm using as of July 2026

Hanging on a Sunday off-night at  杭州 BAC艺术社区 (l-r: Hsienwen Chen, myself, Shinya Lin, Wenjun Wu, Siran Gao

Cats hanging outside the club after the session (nightly on the third set)

The first quartet, taken on May 15, 2026, the last night of the first two weeks (l-r: me, Shinya, Wenjun aka "Maojun," Hsienwen)

Blurry pic of Lage Lund quartet at Hangzhou's other major jazz venue, Gucha (古茶), with Mark Turner center, Vicente Archer obscured, and Johnathan Blake with stick in motion

Mark in search of a suitable reed (labeling a reed per his own shorthand rating system)

Another selfie at the club during the day. Practice hours were from 12-6, but I often practiced upstairs (away from the A/C) if the rhythm section needed the stage.

Club entrance during the day. I got to know this place very, very well.

On the set break with Ilia Rayskin (drums) and Mathias Jensen (bass). 4 tickets per night valid for food and drink items (miniature pizza, sausage plate, fruit plate most frequently; martini with a twist became my go-to toward the end of May, pictured here)

A quiet night at the club, perfect for a rare onstage photo (my outfit completely furnished via Pinduoduo 拼多多, as I was locked out of using Taobao having only an American passport)

May 30, 2026: My last night at the club about 26 gigs later; l-r: Ilia, Shinya, me, Mathias on one leg for some reason holding the house beer, an IPA I've had more than enough of called 怂人胆

* * * * *

Many musicians from NYC and abroad have done this JZ Huanglou residency gig before, including the Brooklyn-based vocalist Annie Chen, who has been going back regular for years. It's a great chance to work out music with the same group, although the gravity of commercial appeal is unavoidable; generally groups with singers are preferred and do better with local audiences, as there's no cover to enter and the club relies on F&B to keep the business afloat. Shinya, an adventurous young spirit, initially wanted us to focus on doing original music, much of which involved graphic notation, conduction, and other elements more oriented toward improvised music and new music as opposed to groove and melody-forward jazz, but we ultimately did a mix to appease the crowds while keeping it interesting night after night.

We played 9:15–10:00 p.m., 10:30–11:15 p.m., and 11:45–12:30 a.m. each night, with the third set being an invitation-only jam session (often, that meant a welcome break for us onstage if anybody was willing to come relieve us; as the horn player, I was best-situated to avail myself of this privilege, but the rhythm section did often get a chance to take a break with a young local musician helping to relieve them). We played repertoire by Paul Motian ("Abacus," "Drum Music," "Once Around the Park"), Ornette Coleman ("Humpty Dumpty," "Chronicle," "Blues Connotation," "Law Years"), and originals, and I also threw some other tunes into the mix, including lesser-played classics like "I Want To Talk About You" and "Lush Life." Most notably, we played Albert Ayler's "Ghosts" almost every night for the first two weeks, as Shinya had a system of conduction to direct the group improvisation, but I did wear down a number of reeds trying to do justice to the exuberant, joyful Ayler style.

I documented some of the performances as shorts on my YouTube channel, but didn't end up recording every night (generally only on standards or tunes where I didn't need to use the music stand, where the phone was placed). I got tired of posting them after a while, so there are some more on Instagram, but I may post the other shorts at some point. On a somewhat related note, after playing so much, the hunger to play that was such a big defining part of my earlier years in New York and even coming out of the pandemic has finally subsided; part of that is probably also related to transitioning to full-time musician-hood at the beginning of the year, but I've noticed it and tried to adjust my practice and lifestyle to account for this shift. 

With so much more time spent onstage relative to practicing, I've seen a rapid consolidation of my recent style and approach, particularly with the sense of a core set of licks and devices that I can always fall back on—basically, a similar feeling of refinement and mastery of the stuff I've been playing the most. Having some time off now, I'm looking to break into new language and ideas, which I expect to integrate in some way into the existing language I've already built up through this recent period of extensive playing. It's really different from before when I'd practice much more than I would perform, where if felt like juggling a surfeit of ideas that didn't have sufficient airtime to solidify and be tempered. If anything, it's the opposite now: fewer new ideas to work out, many well-trodden paths that can be repurposed night to night, and a need to hack out the beginnings of new paths and trails.

Those are initial thoughts for now. I have an excessive amount of photos and screenshots on my phone, as much of the modern Chinese experience is navigating the Chinese online ecosystem, much of which is entertaining but also baffling for an outsider (probably even for locals, as I surmised from talking with new friends in town). It took me a month to get around to doing this brief round-up of film photos and initial thoughts, but hopefully I'll get to do a best-of survey of my phone before too much time passes.