SK Jazzed Up
Jazz Pianist Immortalizes Sai Kung
David Braid had only been to Sai Kung twice when Explore spoke to him before his Asian Tour, but he had such a special feeling for the district that he couldn’t wait to get back.
On his first trip to Hong Kong he was invited out to fellow jazz musician Peter Scherr’s Sai Kung home and, as the taxi made its way from high rise to seascape, David marvelled at the transitions and grasped the amazing qualities of Sai Kung as he approached.
As he put it: "the transformation from Hong Kong to Sai Kung struck me – modernization was dissolving as we drove…when I got to Sai Kung, I felt like I was experiencing the underlying fabric of what Hong Kong might have been like."
"Even when it started to rain," he said, "the rain drops were huge – not like in Canada – it was intense and electrifying…"
He decided immediately he had to take the thematic elements and 'weave a piece (of music) out of them…the drama…the intense beauty…all of this had to be woven into the composition.' Sai Kung became one of six original compositions on his brand new album, Zhen.
David grew up in Hamilton, a city in Canada's heartland situated on Lake Ontario. A piano student from the age of three, he decided he'd had enough of his teacher's intimidating style of teaching and completely quit at the age of 12.
He enrolled in Computer Science at the top-ranked Canadian university, University of Toronto at the age of 18 and, on a whim, decided he’d try out for a music minor, auditioning in both classical and jazz piano. He explained: "I failed classical miserably but…in the jazz audition, I was asked to do things I didn’t know anything about but – somehow I did them right!" That audition earned him a scholarship into the faculty and, still stunned by his 'luck', David decided to reverse his emphasis from computer science to music.
He quips about his reputation in the faculty where he is now teaching. New students often come up to him to ask if it is true that he spent his entire four years holed up in a tiny concrete piano practice room? He says it's true – that's how he made up for six years away from his chosen instrument.
Now one of Canada’s most gifted young pianists and composers, David has over 50 compositions to his credit and has collaborated with a number of jazz greats, including the 'Dean of Canadian Jazz', Phil Nimmons.
Hong Kong and Sai Kung has the pleasure of a third visit from David in late September as part of the Asian Tour of the David Braid Sextet. Fittingly, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Centre for the Arts) will be the location of the Hong Kong debut of Sai Kung (Thursday 28 September, 1:00pm).
When Explore chatted with him, not only was David looking forward to being caught between the mountains and the sea but also to tucking into a great seafood dinner on the waterfront.