Liu Yuan (musician)
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| Hanyu Pinyin | Liú Yuán |
Liu Yuan (pinyin: Liú Yuán, pronounced [ljǒu yǎn]; January 1, 1960 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese musician, who plays tenor and baritone saxophone as well as the Chinese wind instrument called suona. He is recognized as one of the two most prominent jazz musicians in China, the other being the saxophonist Du Yinjiao.
His father was a player of the suona, a traditional Chinese wind instrument, and this was also Liu's first instrument. At about the age of eight, he began his performing career, playing in a government-run children's musical group.
He continued his suona studies at the Beijing Art School, graduating at age 19, at which time he entered a danwei (work unit) called the Beijing Song and Dance Troupe. With this group, Liu had the opportunity to travel, both inside and outside of China.
In 1978 and 1980, the troupe toured Europe, performing in Romania, France, Switzerland, and other nations. While in Romania, in a city near the Hungarian border, Liu and some friends went to a cafe where they heard jazz performed live for the first time:
Liu became enamored of this form of music, and, in particular, the saxophone. In 1984 he was able to purchase a saxophone and, over time, gradually acquired skill playing jazz. Jazz recordings were scarce, and at first he had only a single tape, by Grover Washington, Jr., to study.
Also in the 1980s he was a founding member of the band of China's first rock star, Cui Jian (a fellow performer in the Beijing Song and Dance Troupe), for which he also acquired fame. He also contributed an instrumental piece to the 1992 Taiwanese movie Dust of Angels soundtrack.
Liu favors the tenor and baritone saxophone as his primary instruments, though he also uses a modernized version of the suona for some songs in Cui Jian's band, in which he still performs. He made use of a modernized large-keyed suona in the 1985 song "Nothing to My Name" (一无所有; pinyin: Yì Wú Suǒ Yǒu), as well as on Cui's 1994 album Balls under the Red Flag (Hongxi xia de Dang).
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