T A B L E_T A L K Have you ever traveled somewhere that you absolutely hated? Share the wheres and whys of it in the Wanderlust area of Table Talk R E C E N T L Y Among the hooligans By Ethan Zindler World Cup scenes: Threat and theft among the hooligans in Lens, France (06/30/98) Among the Colombians By Matthew Yeomans A Welshman watches the Colombia-England World Cup match from a Colombian bar in New York (06/30/98) Irredeemably wealthy in Patagonia By Mark Schatzker A bittersweet idyll in paradise (06/29/98) Mondo Weirdo Hooked on Thaipusam: An astonishing religious rite in Malaysia (06/26/98) Mondo Weirdo Going natural Wanderlust asks: What's your favorite nude beach? (06/26/98) Browse the Wanderlust Feature archives		JAZZ SWINGS INTO Beijing Even better than President Clinton, jazz in China is spreading a message of liberty. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BY DAN OUELLETTE [EDITOR'S NOTE: President Clinton's diplomatic trip has offered the world a new view of contemporary China through international media coverage. When jazz writer Dan Ouellette covered the Beijing International Jazz Festival last November, he was able to view China's cultural and political evolution through a different lens.] Jazz swings and bops its way to the most unlikely places, even the command center of the People's Republic of China. It's a chilly November day, and I'm at the sound check for opening night of Beijing's week-long festival celebrating America's indigenous music. Adorned with blue and gold insignias and gold tassels, the music stands are spread across the stage as the Chinese big band members, most wearing black leather jackets, black T-shirts and black slacks, unleash a cacophony of sound as they warm up on their trumpets, trombones and saxophones. Behind them is a huge sign with Jazz 97 written in hot pink. These preliminaries could be at a jazz concert anywhere. But this is communist China, after all, where people are only beginning to utter the J-word because the music is officially frowned upon as a pollutant of Western culture. The young pianist pounces on the keys to cue the band's chug into "Take the A Train," the Billy Strayhorn composition made famous by Duke Ellington's band, while gray-around-the-temples conductor Dieter Glawischnig shouts sternly, yet encouragingly, in his thick German accent, "More sving, more sving!" "We only worked together on this set for two weeks, so don't be too critical," Glawischnig tells me. He conducts the Hamburg radio band NDR and performs in the Ensemble for New Improvised Music, which is also playing at the festival. Today he's tutoring these Chinese jazz neophytes in the fine art of swing. He informs me that the band will perform two other Ellington classics, Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" and a Chinese folk tune arranged for a big band especially for the show. "It's called 'Evening Song.' It was President Jiang Zemin's favorite when he was a child." That's a politic move if you want to play jazz in Beijing. It's an even more strategic repertoire decision if you're the People's Liberation Army Big Band, which, under Glawischnig's direction, makes its jazz debut tonight. As improbable as it seems in a country notorious for its clampdowns on anything remotely related to free speech (in the case of jazz, free improvisation), the adventurous Beijing International Jazz Festival is celebrating its fifth year. Tonight's show, like most of the concerts this week, is already sold out. Later this evening the 1,400-seat house will be filled with the emerging middle class of Chinese citizens, who are reaping the benefits of the influx of Japanese and American capital jump-starting the Chinese economy. But tonight especially, it's a given that the audience will also include high-ranking soldiers in the PLA, who will scrutinize the big band's music, and officials from the Ministry of Culture, which rubber-stamps the festival each year. These cultural guardians (read: police) will make sure nothing gets too far out of hand. I'm "unofficially" here covering this best-kept secret of the jazz world for Down Beat magazine. A point of clarification: I'm on assignment to write about the festival for DB, but in the eyes of the Chinese governmental bureaucracy, I'm a tourist, not a journalist. In fact, according to my visa, I'm a road manager for the Jon Jang Sextet, one of the two American bands performing here. As Jang told me back in San Francisco, identifying oneself as a journalist immediately raises a red flag with Chinese officials. And, he added, it's not the right red flag. Prior to my visiting the Chinese consulate to request my visa, my contact in Beijing fired off an urgent fax: "Please, Dan, do not indicate that you work for the media. Everything that smells like foreign journalism is suspect in China and must be approved by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after very complicated and long procedures." Because getting official accreditation and work permits would require jumping through more hoops than the festival was willing to or could handle, it was either bend the truth or jeopardize the story. I hear Glawischnig shouting for more "sving" as I leave the International Theater at the Poly Plaza Hotel and walk outside for the first time since landing in Beijing the night before. I'm not exactly seeking fresh air, just a change of scenery. It's a good thing because, as I soon discover, Beijing is one of the smoggiest cities in the world. There's a gray gauze over everything -- a combination of car exhaust and grimy residue of burnt coal, the country's primary heating source. I go back inside and seek out David Moser, a teacher of English and translation at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. In the two months prior to my Beijing visit, I e-mailed Moser, a jazz aficionado playing in a band with several Chinese musicians, asking him what to expect. A 30-something guy with glasses and gray-streaked brown hair, Moser is hanging with his buddy Du Yinjiao, a saxophonist and the moving force behind the PLA Big Band. Du beams when Moser explains that I'm here from Down Beat, which is not only the oldest international jazz magazine but arguably the most respected. Du is eager to reveal his jazz experiences in China and agrees to meet two days later with Moser acting as translator. Where should we rendezvous? Come to the barracks, Du says via Moser. I ask: The army barracks? Are you sure? He laughs and nods, yes, of course. N E X T+P A G E | Chairman Mao would not have approved