NYO Jazz 2026 ensemble poses for a group photo before they head for China tour. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Backstage at the SFJAZZ Center on Aug 4, Malcolm Clark and Annie Meyer were already dressed for the bandstand: black jackets, red pants and black canvas shoes.
A trip to China was ahead of them.
Clark, 18, a trombonist from Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, had traveled outside the United States before, but never this far. Meyer, also 18, a guitarist from Boston, was thinking about Chinese food, coffee recommendations passed along by a guest artist and the technology she had heard so much about.
But when the two musicians talked about what they most hoped to find on the other side of the Pacific, they kept coming back to something they already knew how to do: listen.
