Du Yinjiao (; born 1965 in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) is a Chinese saxophonist. He began his musical career in a music regiment of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

. In the 1980s he became interested in jazz music, which was at that time virtually unknown in China. In the face of official disapproval, he taught himself to play jazz by studying and transcribing contraband jazz tapes and books. Since the 1990s Du has been one of the two most prominent Chinese jazz musicians (the other being the saxophonist Liu Yuan). He directs an 18-piece big band and leads a weekly

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...

at the Sān Wèi Shū Wū (三味书屋, Three Flavor Teahouse) in Beijing, where he lives. He was also involved in the organization of the former Beijing Jazz Festival. He has recorded with the Chinese jazz pianist Xia Jia. Du plays

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

, tenor, and

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

saxophones, and is currently developing the "Du Yinjiao saxophone," a Chinese-made line of saxophones bearing his name.

External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20051208032421/http://www.yinjiaosax.com/
by Amy Wu, from Asiaweek.com (1997)

by Dan Ouelette, from Salon (1998)
"First Views: Beijing International Jazz Festival"
by Dan Ouellette (1998) {{DEFAULTSORT:Du, Yinjiao 1965 births Living people Chinese jazz saxophonists 21st-century Chinese musicians 21st-century saxophonists