Liu Yuan

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This article is about the modern People's Republic of China musician. For the founding emperor of the ancient Chinese/Xiongnu state Han Zhao, see Liu Yuan (Han Zhao).

Liu Yuan (刘元, pinyin: Liú Yuán, surname Liu, b. Beijing, China, January 1, 1960) is a Chinese musician. 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:

"There was a music group that performed," he recalls, "in a cafe where we went to eat one night. It was jazz. They had a sax, and things like that, and it was jazz. And we said..." Liu sucks in his breath at the memory. "...aiyo!"[1]

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.

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.

In May 1999 Liu became the manager of a jazz club called CD Cafe in his home city of Beijing, where he performs regularly with his Liu Yuan Jazz Quartet.

Liu's given name is sometimes pronounced "Yuar" (the Beijing dialect pronunciation of "Yuan").