In the back of Shanghai's Club JZ sits a woman with flaming red hair and a glass of wine in her hand, waiting for the musicians to pick up their instruments. She leans on the bar with a slight smile, warmly greeting friends and glancing towards the stage to see if the show has started yet. It's Saturday night and an elegant crowd is filing down the stairs in anticipation of local favorites, the 15-piece JZ All Star Big Band. The warm, candle-lit glow of the tables in the audience cast flickering shadows across the old photographs on the red and gold walls, creating a particularly intimate feeling this evening.

"I like Tuesdays and Thursdays at Club JZ. And Saturdays too. Any night actually. I'm always here. If anyone needs to find me I'm always here. It's my second house,” says Alice Jagtman, who is at Club JZ to promote her new book "Shanghai Jazz: A Photo Journey of the Contemporary Shanghai Jazz Scene.” It is an expansive 152 page photo collection of the last two years of Shanghai jazz performances and features photographs of locally based jazz talents in the city as well as several international players. With accompanying text in both English and Chinese, virtually every jazz venue in the city is represented, as is the eclectic and multicultural styles that have come to comprise contemporary Shanghai jazz as a whole. The book has won Jagtman acclaim in both local and international media and, as the only comprehensive photo collection of contemporary jazz performances, it is sure to stand as a valuable documentation of Shanghai's burgeoning jazz revival. Jagtman first came to Shanghai 15 years ago to study Chinese at the Shanghai Normal University. During this period she traveled around China and specialized mainly in street photography. Although she had previously taken photographs of live jazz shows in her native Holland, it was an energy-infused performance by the locally-based saxophonist Alex Haavik which first inspired Jagtman to focus her camera on Shanghai's jazz scene. In the beginning, she started taking photographs for her own personal enjoyment, but later, after attending hundreds of performances and having taken thousands of photographs, Jagtman realized she should bring them together in a book as a tribute to the musicians who have given her so much inspiration. "They deserve attention from the world,” Jagtman says.

Appreciation of jazz is something that "runs in the family,” says the mother of two. Both her daughters, who live in Holland, attend the same jazz festivals she used to when she was living there and Jagtman herself was first introduced to jazz by her father; "As a small kid I listened to Charlie Parker. But I also like Charlie Hagan, Miles Davis and Coletrane. Big names.” Her eyes really light up, however, when asked about the local Shanghai performers she likes: "Greg [Smith] at Cotton Club, Sugar Mama [Jacqui Staton], Coco [Zhao], J.Q. Witcomb and of course Alec Haavik.” When asked why Shanghai's jazz scene seems to be gaining so much momentum these past few years, Jagtman mentions China becoming more open to the outside world and the fact that more and more international musicians are calling Shanghai home. "As international players and Chinese are playing together, something new [is happening in] Shanghai,” says Jagtman.

The photographs themselves are done entirely in black and white and allude to Shanghai's golden age of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. They have a classic feel and the simplicity of the direct black and white pallet enables the power and purity of the performers to shine through. Frank and unstylized, the photographs are starkly authentic.

The book itself has made Jagtman one of the more famous regulars in Shanghai's jazz bars. "Before, nobody knew who I was,” she says. "Maybe just a bored tai tai housewife with a camera taking pictures. But now musicians see me taking pictures with my camera and they pose. But I never take pictures of them when they are like that. I wait until they don't notice. It's my trick.”

The photographs communicate an unplanned naturalism and immediacy that recreates the best moments of the concerts themselves. In many instances, the performers are caught in an extremely candid and revealing light. Interestingly enough, the pictures belie what a private and personal experience performance can be. "I was touched by the performances of Alec [Haavik] and Greg [Smith]. They give me inspiration," says Jagtman. "It's about love, sensuality, anger, sadness, loneliness.”

As Jagtman sits at the bar after her book launch party, she muses over future possibilities for her photography. "I love China, but I don't know the future. Well, Tokyo jazz,” she says suddenly. "Yes, I think a book on Tokyo jazz would be good.”

Details

Although not sold in bookstores, the RMB488 "Shanghai Jazz: A Photo Journey of the Contemporary Shanghai Jazz Scene” is available at Club JZ, the Cotton Club, the MOCA shop and directly from Alice Jagtman herself (e-mail alice.jagtman@gmail.com, tel: 021-6225-9890).