Swedish jazz hero "Red Horn Nils" - he plays a red trombone -
turned his Shanghai Conservatory of Music concert into a jazz
party. He says his combination of funky jazz and melodic Swedish
jazz is body music.
With his snazzy red Yamaha trombone, shining earrings and
passionate performance, pioneer Swedish jazz musician "Red Horn
Nils," Nils Landgren, drove the audience crazy for his blend of
funky jazz and melodic Swedish jazz.
That's what happened this week during Landgren's latest
appearance in Shanghai, at the local Conservatory of Music, where
the concert hall performance was turned into a jazz party.
Landgren teamed up with his Funk Unit and two jazz musicians
from the conservatory during the Jazz It Up Festival that runs
through tomorrow night.
"For me, jazz is more of a body music than an intellectual one,"
says Landgren. "We want to speak to people's bodies. If you can
move with our music, feel the music with your body, then you get
the message."
Landgren writes most of his own music, combining strong melodic
and rhythmic elements while keeping it simple. He improvises much
more than most funk bands and features a bigger jazz element.
People keep asking him why he chose to put jazz into funk. His
answer is simple: "I play it because I love it. We all do. I have
been doing it for years."
Taking up classical trumpet at the age of 13, he changed from a
strict classical player to an improviser when he was 19 years old.
At 51, he's still going strong, energetic and creative.
Jazz is a dynamic art form in constant change, musicians
improvise and anything can be an inspiration. Classical music is
much more limited and score-bound, despite the possibility of
interpretation.
"Jazz is a very personal language," says Landgren. "We all know
the language, yet everyone speaks in their own dialect, show their
own personality."
Musicians from Funk Unit never perform from a score. "We know the
music by heart, and we always do the interpretation from what we
feel that night," says Landgren.
Landgren set up his Funk Unit in 1981, and he has cooperated
with more than 160 musicians all over the world. "Jazz musicians
nowadays are very free-thinking people. They are continuously
exploring new ways to play," he says.
And today, blending different music styles is trendier than
ever. Landgren is a pioneer in Sweden for blending Swedish folk
music into jazz performance. Critics say he has elevated Swedish
folk music to the level of subdued works of art.
Jazz and church music shaped Landgren's childhood. His
steel-worker father was an amateur trumpet player, who took
American jazz into the family home. It was through jazz records
that Landgren first got acquainted with jazz.
However, Landgren's grandfather, a priest, forbade his son to
play jazz. Yet Landgren's father didn't give up his horn. Now at
age 90, he is still playing his trumpet.
"I will probably play my red horn too until I am old," says
Landgren. "It's the best thing in the world to be on stage, and see
the reaction of the audience."
Landgren, an inexhaustible performer, has played all over the
world, savoring different cultures.
"My constant ongoing inspiration comes from those travel
experiences," says Landgren, who travels almost 250 days a year. "I
do not need to live in a specific place, I am always somewhere
else."
Jazz It Up Festival
Date: through September 29
Address: 20 Fenyang Rd
(Shanghai Daily September 28, 2007)