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Jazz Articles about Jen Shyu
Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri: Oedipe Redux
by Neri Pollastri
Pur se da venticinque anni residente negli U.S.A., il pianista Lucian Ban non ha mai smesso di coltivare le sue radici rumene, che spesso anzi caratterizzano sottilmente la sua prolifica produzione artistica. In particolare, assieme al violista Mat Maneri --con il quale collabora assai spesso, contribuendo recentemente al suo album Ash --ha più volte proposto apprezzati lavori ispirati alla tradizione popolare rumena (Transilvanian Dance (ECM 2013), Transilvanian Folk Songs (Sunnyside 2020), mentre già nel 2010 aveva presentato sempre per Sunnyside ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: Miniature America
by Alberto Bazzurro
Ventidue miniature svarianti da uno a sei minuti, con impegnati sottoinsiemi (o microgruppi, se preferite) estrapolati dal totale dei dieci elementi, sette strumentisti e tre cantanti, coinvolti nell'operazione, è quanto ci offre questo nuovo lavoro discografico (il dodicesimo, ci viene detto) a nome del cinquantenne chitarrista Miles Okazaki, con la partecipazione di svariati musicisti di punta dell'attuale scena newyorchese (e non). Ogni episodio possiede--fisiologicamente, verrebbe da dire--un aplomb cameristico di sicuro fascino, anche se è inevitabile che il ...
Continue ReadingOther Minds Festival 2021
by Roy Strassman
The Other Minds organization is the musical brain child of Charles Amirkhanian, who himself is a musician in addition to composer—and since 1993, also a producer. Other Minds is devoted to bringing both experimental and avant-garde music to a wider audience. What they often present falls most closely into the modern experimental (classical) music and free jazz realms. The OM 'association' presents an annual festival, which is always exciting and cutting edge. “Moment's Notice," the title this of year's festival, ...
Continue ReadingOther Minds 25, Day 1
by John Chacona
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 Taube Atrium Theater Other Minds Festival San Francisco, CA October 14, 2021 When the organizers of San Francisco's Other Minds Festival chose Moment's Notice as the name of its 25th edition, it might have been with the hope that the difficulties of making pandemic-dictated snap decisions were behind them. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Travel plans for Wadada ...
Continue ReadingJen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses
by Hrayr Attarian
Calling vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu brilliant, and her style unique, underestimates both her ingenuity as a composer and the distinctiveness of her oeuvre. Shyu has forged her own path in creative music with an intrepid spirit and restless innovation. Her eighth release as a leader is the intensely personal Zero Grasses: Ritual For The Losses. A cycle of songs which is equally about bereavement and injustice as it is about solace and hope, its message transcends the individual, reaching ...
Continue ReadingJen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese
by Angelo Leonardi
Viene spesso definita una vocalist sperimentale Jen Shyu, ma questo disco conferma che è molto di più. Dopo aver collaborato stabilmente con Steve Coleman e ancora con Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte, Mark Dresser, Chris Potter e altri grandi, la cantante americana di genitori orientali (Taiwan e Timor Est) ha compiuto negli anni scorsi ricerche etnomusicologiche, recandosi a Cuba, in Brasile e per lungo tempo in estremo oriente (Taiwan, Corea del Sud, Indonesia, Cina, Timor Est) per indagare sulle musiche tradizionali ...
Continue ReadingJen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese
by Hrayr Attarian
The dramatic and sublime The Song of the Silver Geese is vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu's magnum opus. On it Shyu draws from her dual cultural ancestry as well as other east Asian heritages to craft memorable performance art replete with dynamic spontaneity, unique instrumentation and exquisite poetry. The nine-piece suite is divided into “doors" and each segment brims with a mystical ambience and a surreal air. Shyu opens “Door 4: Sinom Semarangan" for example, with her resonant ...
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