Saxophonist Li Gaoyang, 18, aims to bring the intimacy of jazz to China. Zou Hong / China Daily

Young Beijing saxophonist Li Gaoyang is bringing jazz to China with missionary zeal, Chen Nan reports.

While jazz still caters to a minority of tastes in China, 18-year-old saxophonist Li Gaoyang strives to reach beyond the borders of jazz and to delve further into the realm of experimentation.

Since the age of 15, the Beijing native has been performing on various stages, from live house venues to music festivals around the country.

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He opened the Nine Gates Jazz Music Festival, the country's biggest and first jazz festival this September. He also joined US-born and Hong Kong-based pianist Jim Schneider, Swedish bass player Rickard Malmsten and Australian drummer Cameron Reid to perform the opening concert of the 2012 Hong Kong International Jazz Festival early October.

He also played the 2012 Shanghai Jazz Festival and the Beishan International Jazz Festival in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, and worked as the artistic director of Gulangyu Island Jazz Festival at Xiamen, Fujian province.

The tall musician crowned with long curly hair taps his feet, closes his eyes and swings while playing. As his band members do their solos, he smiles and hums along with their playing of his original jazz compositions.

"He shines onstage," says Huang Yong, veteran bassist and founder of the Nine Gates Jazz Music Festival. "He took away the entire spotlight at the opening set. He has an improvisational originality and an individuality that is beyond his youth."

Li seldom talks onstage. The saxophonist just bowed to the applause.

But when he met American saxophonist Antonio Hart, Li used his instrument to talk with Hart onstage in improvisational performances.

"He has a great start with the right training, continuing to be humble, continuing to study from the masters, and just being open. He has a great future," Hart says after the show.

For Li, jazz is like a language, which helps him express his emotions onstage and communicate with other players. "If you think about it, even now as we're talking, there's a certain element of improvisation in this," he says.

He started learning violin at age 4. But Li, like many Chinese children who attend music classes under the arrangement of their parents, soon got bored with the instrument.

At 8, he saw the saxophone for the first time on TV, and he made up his mind to learn the instrument. It was a performance given by veteran saxophonist Hu Zhiliang that inspired his decision.

"I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The instrument's sound is so beautiful, and the player is so intoxicated," recalls Li.

As he says, learning the sax is just like learning a language naturally. He watches many live jazz shows, self-studies and practices saxophone for hours every day.

"I keep on listening to the language, imitating masters' speaking, from simple to high levels, and finally formed my own style of the language," says Li, whose idols are Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins.

During the past 10 years, Li has learned from and performed with international jazz musicians, which gives him the means of systematic and intensive study.

His first original composition was Black Cat, which he composed after he saw a black cat in Japan.

Room 222 was a composition he wrote when he attended the annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival in 2011. He stayed in an old hotel then, and the room number was 222. After days of watching the performances and communicating with jazz players, he was inspired to compose.

He also met his longtime idol Sonny Rollins, the 81-year-old American tenor saxophonist, during the festival. Rollins encouraged Li to "keep blowing".

In 2010, Li founded his quartet with musicians Shao Haha, Hu Hao and Jin Yei, playing traditional jazz tunes. Later, he formed another band, which mixed guitar, bass, percussion and orchestral instruments, to perform Caribbean calypso, funk and smooth jazz.

Zhang Youdai, a veteran DJ, who launched China's first jazz radio program All That Jazz on China Radio International, arranged Li's performance at the end of the 2011 Beijing Music Valley International Music Festival, featuring Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne.

"It was the first time in China to have a saxophonist close a pop music festival," says Zhang, who worked as the festival's artistic director. "Many people asked me who Li is, and I replied to them: 'He will become a household name one day'."

On May 18, Li performed at the opening day of the Beijing Music Valley International Music Festival.

Li admits that jazz is still a minority taste and jazz festivals are rare in China, and that is why he takes every opportunity to play onstage, whether it's a bar stage or a music festival.

But he is glad to note Beijing has more and more international jazz musicians performing and communicating with Chinese counterparts. Li plays at CD Blues, the oldest live jazz venue in the capital, with his quartet every Wednesday.

His ambition to introduce the genre to wider audiences in China keeps him busy.

He has launched his company's website, Saxfun, which offers a platform for saxophonists and fans to communicate and learn the latest information on the music.

"It takes time to bring the intimacy of this music to a big audience and a large venue, but jazz is about compatibility and being welcoming. It will come to you, as long as you are open to music," he says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.