World’s oldest jazz band in Shanghai a rare constant amid China’s breakneck modernisation
A fixture at Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace Hotel since the 1980s, the Old Jazz Band has played to dignitaries including former US presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, and its six current members have no plans to call time yet

Frequently described as the oldest jazz band on the planet and once recognised as such by Guinness World Records, its six wizened members range from a relatively youthful 63 to a scarcely believable 97-year-old trumpeter.
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They are an institution in Shanghai and a rare constant in a city and country that are modernising at breakneck speed.
“I have been performing jazz for at least 40 years,” says Li, an alto saxophonist with a soft face and gentle air, moments before going on stage once more in a red bow tie, crisp white shirt, pristine white blazer and black trousers. “I got this saxophone in the 1960s and have played it ever since.”

Born during the tumult and war following Japan’s late-1930s invasion, Li – like other Chinese his age – has witnessed remarkable change.