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Rin Seo: City Suite
by Angelo Leonardi
Il nome di Rin Seo si aggiunge al numero delle talentose musiciste di origine asiatica che nell'ultimo ventennio hanno mostrato d'aver creativamente assimilato l'idioma musicale afro-americano. Tra esse non mancano le orchestratrici che ottengono risultati eccellenti anche grazie alla solida preparazione negli studi classici. Nata in Corea 36 anni fa, Rin Seo s'è laureata in composizione classica a Seul e s'è trasferita negli Stati Uniti per studiare al Berklee College of Music. Dopo il diploma ha conseguito un master ...
Continue ReadingHelen Sung Big Band: Oracles
by Katchie Cartwright
"The jazz bandstand is where true democracy lives," the great saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath told a young Helen Sung. Everyone must understand their role and come prepared by doing the hard work of study and practice," he said. Each person will get to say their piece, but it is in the act of integrating as a band that the musicians ultimately create something bigger, richer, and deeper." Oracles launches into a time and place where divisions are deep and ...
Continue ReadingRin Seo: City Suite
by Jack Bowers
There is no doubting which metropolis Korean-born composer Rin Seo had in mind when writing City Suite, the panoramic opening salvo and centerpiece on the debut recording by her fourteen-member Rin Seo Collective, as the suite's first movement is titled The Big Apple." Seo moved to New York City, her present home, after coming to America to study jazz performance and composition at Boston's Berklee College of Music. The suite's three movements are thematic, and Seo's portrayal ...
Continue ReadingDanny Jonokuchi Big Band: A Decade
by Jack Bowers
For trumpeter, vocalist and bandleader Danny Jonokuchi, the path to success--in music and in life--has never been smooth or trouble-free. Born with a congenital lung disease, Jonokuchi needed life-saving surgery while in high school to treat a collapsed lung, which caused him to put his trumpet playing aside, at least temporarily. Years later, and almost a continent away from his native Los Angeles, Jonokuchi was viciously attacked in south Philadelphia, resulting in traumatic injuries to his mouth and embouchure. This ...
Continue ReadingDanny Jonokuchi: A Decade
by Pierre Giroux
A Decade is arranger-composer, trumpeter and vocalist Danny Jonokuchi's celebration of personal and musical evolution, encapsulating his growth over the last ten years as a musician and leader of his big band. The album draws on jazz's rich traditions while also serving as a reflection of the enduring spirit of the genre. The release features compositions that outline the signature flourish of Jonokuchi's writing, standing as a testament to his ability to overcome personal obstacles. The ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Angelo Leonardi
Uno degli eventi al Monterey Jazz Festival del 2021 è stato il concerto dell'M_Unit di Miho Hazama, la giovane compositrice e bandleader giapponese che s'è imposta tra le figure più innovative della sua generazione. In quell'occasione Hazama ha presentato la suite in tre movimenti Exoplanet" che--incisa poi in studio--costituisce il fulcro del disco appena pubblicato dalla Edition Records. Chi conosce i suoi lavori di questi anni, sa quanto la scrittura della bandleader risulti coinvolgente per l'abilità di ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Chris May
Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief ...
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