Shanghaiist has had many opportunities to speak to great musicians over the past year: whether they were simply passing through town, or working hard to enrich our lives with a local music scene, these artists have enlightened us with their spirit, passion, and overall love of music. Without further ado, we present our favorite music interviews of 2009: more ›

JQ Whitcomb has been deep in Shanghai's jazz scene since arriving in 2003, performing regularly all over town as well as teaching at the JZ School and directing the music side of things at China's biggest foreign-owned radio broadcaster, Soulfire. Today, he writes about the best jazz acts that hit Shanghai this year. more ›

Dee Dee Bridgewater, the illustrious Jazz singer, has been one of the premier artists in Jazz for the past forty years. From her early days performing with major Jazz legends and winning Tony Awards on Broadway to her more recent work on Billy Holiday, NPR and beyond, Dee Dee has been shaping and defining the way people all over the world understand and appreciate Jazz. To kick off this weekend's JZ Jazz festival, Dee Dee will be gracing Shanghai with a performance this Friday at the Yunfeng theater, sharing the stage with a big band of both local and international musicians. We had the chance to chat about her accomplishments both on and off the stage, her views on Jazz from the past to the present, and her unbeknown love of Chinese art. more ›

2 days…3 stages…37 bands…20 DJs….What better than the hard facts to advertise an event as noteworthy as the upcoming JZ Shanghai Music Festival? From October 16th to the 18th, Pudong Century Park will play host to a constant stream of artists set to fill the city with music. Don’t be fooled by the festival’s name- one might be quick to assume that a jazz festival would be monopolized by the baritone sax and Louis Armstrong tribute performances, but each of the three stages actually specializes in a subset of music. more ›