By Weng Shihui (Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-04 09:57

Old Shanghai really loved to dance to classic jazz and in the 1930s and 1940s, 1,000 trendy people at a time filled the Paramount Dance Hall, swinging to "Rose, Rose, I Love You" and "Shanghai Night." A concert series revives the jazz - but not the dancing.

Any night back in the 1930s and 1940s, you put on your best clothes and dancing shoes, paid one yuan (13 US cents) and danced to classic jazz at the Paramount Dance Hall - one of 1,000 people who could fill the springy dance floor. It was hot, but it was heaven.

Today, starting Friday, you can pay 60 yuan, 120 yuan or 200 yuan (depending on seats) to hear - not dance to them - concerts of classic jazz through the year-end. Numbers include "Rose, Rose, I Love You," "Shanghai Night" and others made famous by the Jimmy King Jazz Band, the first all-Chinese jazz band.

The Shanghai Oriental Art Center will stage the "Weekend Jazz Salon," performing many popular jazz oldies for those who have a sense of nostalgia, and for those who want to get acquainted.

The programs for the salon feature music popularized at the legendary Paramount Dance Hall, known as the "No. 1 Dance Hall in the Far East." It's still a night spot near the Jing'an Temple.

It could accommodate 1,000 dancers at one time, and it was known for its springy floor and Filipino jazz band, during the 1930s and 1940s.

Numbers today will include "Shanghai Night," "Give Me a Kiss," "New York, New York," "American Patrol," "Beyond the Sea" and modern pop music.

One of the songs to be performed in the first concert, "Besame Mucho," was an original Latin-style piece transcribed for jazz by Zheng Deren, an 85-year-old artist who was once a bass player in the Jimmy King Jazz Band. That was the China's first all-Chinese jazz band that performed in the Paramount in the 1940s. "Sleepy Lagoon," a waltz beloved at that time, was also transcribed by Zheng.

The art center will hold eight concerts. Bass performer Zheng and famed trumpet player Chen Yulin will be among the performers. After 60 years of preservation, a piano played by Jimmy King will be played once again after many years.

Shanghai was regarded as the cradle of China's "big band jazz," also know as "classical jazz." Compared with modern jazz that is more spontaneous, improvisational and free in style, the numbers in classical jazz are shorter and have a main melody.

"Classical jazz is gradually losing its fans as the old generation passed away," says Zheng. "However, every time I listen to or play jazz, it will inevitably remind me of the bygone glamorous days in old Shanghai."

The first all-Chinese jazz band in China was formed in 1947 in Shanghai, led by Jimmy King, a Shanghai playboy from a wealthy family. King learned to play the trumpet from Filipino bands that dominated the Shanghai ballrooms in the 1930s.

Bass performer Zheng was once a member of a 19-man big jazz band. They played every night at the Paramount and soon won the hearts of the locals. Gradually, their reputation surpassed that of any other Filipino jazz bands in the city.

Shanghai was a melting-pot metropolis that mixed up notions of the Orient and the Occident. By the 1930s, Shanghai was an exotic stew of nationalities. Even the economic privation and the Japanese occupation of the international settlements didn't wreck the jazz party scene. The band played on.

From the 1920s to 1950s, Shanghai was the country's heart and it beat to the rhythm of jazz. The coolest music emanated from the Paramount, performing the trendiest movie theme music transcribed or "recomposed" by King and Zheng.

"At that time, American movies were popular on TV, but it was impossible to get a movie music score," says Zheng. "I memorized the melody and recomposed it with the rhythm suitable for jazz. It is no exaggeration to say that we made the reputation of the Paramount."

"If you are drinking a coffee, they will remind you not to move your head and to sip it slowly and elegantly," Li adds, who very much admires those gentlemen's attitude toward life.

Li also says that all the old jazz lovers bring a pair of extra shoes especially for dancing. "No matter how hard life is, there is something spiritually unchanged in their body," Li says.

"For our younger generation, enjoying the jazz music from Paramount is like experiencing the old tradition and culture, which is only accessible otherwise through movies and fiction," he adds.

Date: Every Friday, September 7-December 28, 7:45pm
Address: 425 Dingxiang Rd, Pudong
Tickets: 60-200 yuan
Tel: 021-6854-1234/3842-4800