Jazz Articles about Sizhukong

Sizhukong: Hand In Hand

by Ian Patterson
December 7, 2017

For fans of Taiwanese jazz-folk fusioneers Sizhukong it's been a long wait for the follow-up to Spin (Sony Music, 2012.) The band, formed in 2005 by pianist/composer Yuwen Peng, could never stand accused of rushing its releases but that's not a bad thing when the music produced is of a consistently high quality. In the intervening years Sizhukong has toured internationally, changed record label and personnel, but essentially, its musical identity, on this, its fourth recording, remains largely the same, ...

Sizhukong: Sizhukong: Spin

by Ian Patterson
August 30, 2012

Taiwanese band Sizhukong has come a long way in five years since its debut recording, Sizhukong (Sizhukong Music, 2007). Blending jazz idioms with traditional Taiwanese/Chinese folk music, that record announced the arrival of a unique Asian ensemble, whose exciting, highly lyrical playing sounded not just newly minted, but newly conceived. Pianist/leader Yuwen Peng had recently graduated from Berklee and wove her flowing jazz lines throughout the exotic mix. And, in a captivating collaboration with South African mbira/djembe player and singer ...

Sizhukong: Paper Eagle

by Ian Patterson
February 1, 2010

Jazz's first century has thrown up few examples of Chinese folk music which has found new voice in this idiom. Buck Clayton, in collaboration with Li Jinhui, spent two years in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, adapting Chinese folk music to ballroom jazz, but nothing was recorded. Jazz's second century should see a change in this situation, and leading the way is Taiwanese group Sizhukong, whose second CD is a stunning advertisement for the possibilities of Chinese folk music merged with ...

Sizhukong: It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Oon

by Ian Patterson
February 1, 2010

It is something of a paradox that the western world knows so relatively little about modern China, even as the awakening giant's influence in the world is increasing. Who knows exactly what music is fermenting in its endless metropolises and among its multitude of ethnicities? Who knows what musical experiments and innovations are exciting passions and inspiring its youth?

With something like 10 million people migrating every year to China's cities, it seems inevitable, though, that old musical ...