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About Jason Kao Hwang
Jason Kao Hwang: Myths of Origin
by Jerome Wilson
Violinist and composer Jason Kao Hwang has worked with groups of every size, from duos up to full orchestras. “Myths of Origin" is one of his large-scale pieces, an imposing 42-minute work for an improvising string orchestra and drum set. It runs without interruption, but the recording breaks it down into nine sections. The music starts slowly, rising in a mass of seething bowed strings with a slight trace of Asian melody. It progresses into a dense cloud ...
Continue ReadingJason Kao Hwang: Soliloquies, Unaccompanied Pizzicato Violin Improvisations
by Mark Corroto
Violinist Jason Kao Hwang is the kind of collaborator every creative improviser dreams of having. His résumé reads like a who's who of avant-garde jazz, including partnerships with Butch Morris, Henry Threadgill, William Parker, Ivo Perelman, Anthony Braxton, and Steve Swell, among others. Hwang's musical versatility and deeply intuitive improvisational sensibility have made him a sought-after voice across a wide spectrum of exploratory music. With Soliloquies, Hwang steps away from the dynamic interplay of ensemble work to present ...
Continue ReadingJason Kao Hwang: Soliloquies, Unaccompanied Pizzicato Violin Improvisations
by Richard J Salvucci
Jason Kao Hwang is a child of Chinese immigrants, and previously recorded in Book of Stories (2023), Uncharted Faith (2022), and Human Rites Trio(2022), a CD completed during the Covid-19 pandemic. He places his music, on viola and violin, within the category of avant-garde-jazz-soul-folk. In the abstract, he calls his music “a celebration of life." Some might think his playing most akin to that of a mandolin, for that is the sound he conjures up. Fans ...
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Joëlle Léandre: Lifetime Rebel
by Neri Pollastri
RogueArt presenta questo cofanetto di cinque dischi interamente dedicato alla figura della leggendaria contrabbassista francese Joëlle Léandre, documentando la sua presenza al Vision Festival 2023, tenutosi presso il Roulette di Brooklyn, e aggiungendovi un concerto tenutosi pochi mesi dopo in Francia ed un DVD con un video nel quale l'artista suona alcuni brani in solo durante un'intervista in cui parla della sua carriera. Il primo disco, registrato appunto al Vision Festival il 13 giugno 2023, vede all'opera il ...
Continue ReadingJoëlle Léandre: Lifetime Rebel
by Mark Corroto
Joëlle Léandre is the definition of a force of nature. She is unstoppable, unforgettable, and full of boundless energy. It is the nature of her force that recordings like Lifetime Rebel attempt to capture. These four CDs--plus an interview and solo performance DVD--capture a moment, but just a moment of her inexhaustible spirit, before she moves on. Recorded in 2023, Léandre was honored with a lifetime achievement award during New York's Vision Festival. The performances captured are by diverse and ...
Continue ReadingDino Duo: J.A. Deane & Jason Kao Hwang: Uncharted Faith
by Karl Ackermann
The idiosyncratic nature of Jason Kao Hwang's work lends itself to a broad range of collaborative possibilities. Uncharted Faith, a duo recording with electronics artist J.A. Deane, is unique because of both its experimental essence and its personal backstory. Deane (aka, Dino) lost his life-partner in 2019 and went into wooded seclusion to finish a book. The composer & violinist Hwang and Deane had discussed a project and the latter requested some Hwang material to improvise around. On only two ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
by Karl Ackermann
If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projects—one dating back ten years—with some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to “all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...
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