Peace Hotel Old Jazz Band
Jasmine Chen (vocals); Jibin Sun (saxophone); Honglin Gao (tenor sax); Mengqiang Lu (trumpet); Jingyu Zhang (piano); Mingkang Li (bass); Zhengzhen Bao (drums).
The Peace Hotel Old Jazz Band is the world's oldest band, with
musicians aged between 65 and 90. For over thirty years, the
ensemble has been playing every night in the Old Jazz Bar, part of
the Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China. The band consists of trumpet
player and band leader Mengqiang Lu (90 years old!), Mingkang Li on
the double bass, drummer Zhengzhen Bao , Jibin Sun on sax, Honglin
Gao on alt sax and the pianist, who at a 'mere' 65 is the youngest
of the lot. Now old gentlemen, they have done over 11,000
performances in their black suits and hope to be playing music for
a long time yet.
This summer, the band will enjoy its biggest adventure so far: a
performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival. Because the event is so
extraordinary, it will be filmed for prosperity. The musical
documentary will not only show the road to Rotterdam; through the
eyes of the musicians, the viewer will also see the stirring
history of China during the Japanese occupation and the Chinese
Cultural Revolution.