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Jo-Yu Chen: Rendezvous - Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More
by Frank Housh
New York-based pianist and composer Jo-Yu Chen treats the great composers like most jazz musicians treat the Great American Songbook: a familiar musical foundation upon which to build a musical style. Chen trained at Juilliard but was seduced by jazz's siren song. Her first four albums: Obsession (Sony Music, 2011), Incomplete Soul (Sony Music, 2012), Stranger (Sony Music, 2014) and Savage Beauty (Sony Music, 2019) featured her compositions before she engaged the classical canon with Schubert & Mozart: ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Jo-Yu Chen's artistic mission can be described in her words: “When the music is right, it brings us back to the true essence of music, beyond labels and boundaries." But a discussion of labels and boundaries is necessary when addressing her album Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More. First, some background: Chen has established a top-level jazz career since moving from her native Taiwan to New York City at age 16 to study at ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Savage Beauty
by Angelo Leonardi
La brava pianista taiwanese allieva di Kenny Barron e Jason Moran è tornata a incidere dopo quattro anni di silenzio, confermando il suo valore e le linee di fondo della sua estetica. Anche in quest'album Jo-Yu Chen aggiunge al suo stabile trio un ospite (Mark Turner prende il posto di Kurt Rosenwinkel) e conferma la co-produzione con Aaron Parks. Una piccola sorpresa viene dal look trendy e un po' sexy che la pianista mostra nelle foto in copertina ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Savage Beauty
by Dan McClenaghan
The cover art of pianist Jo-Yu Chen's fourth album, Savage Beauty, is provocative and beautiful. So is the music. There is a sense of a “stepping up of the game," in terms of public persona and artistry. Chen has always taken the physical product—the hard copy of her CDs—seriously, beginning with her debut, Obsession (Sony Music Taiwan, 2009), through Incomplete Soul (Sony Music, 2012), then Stranger (Okeh, 2014). On Savage Beauty she embraces an over-the-top glamor mode in this regard, ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Stranger
by Angelo Leonardi
Messasi in luce qualche anno fa con due ricercati lavori in piano trio per la Sony Music (Obsession e My Incomplete Soul) la pianista taiwanese Jo-Yu Chen, allieva di Kenny Barron, Jason Moran e Sam Yahel, pubblica il suo terzo disco confermando i partner ed entrando nella sussidiaria Okeh, storica etichetta molto attenta ai giovani talenti. Questo lavoro conferma il tocco limpido, il fraseggio cantabile, la sapienza armonica e l'attenzione della pianista per raffinati equilibri sonori ma ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Stranger
by Dan Bilawsky
The title of pianist Jo-Yu Chen's third album refers to strangers of two different sorts: those who were once strangers but became part of Chen's life, and those who took the reverse course. Chen notes that as a Taiwanese artist living in New York, she's often felt like a stranger herself. That may be the case, but her music never betrays that fact; she plays like an insider looking out, not the other way around. Stranger finds ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Stranger
by Dan McClenaghan
The short version of pianist Jo-Yu Chen's biography: Born in Taiwan, started with music in the classical realm, moved to New York to study oboe and piano at Julliard School, and fell under the spell of jazz. That's not an unusual back story in the world of jazz, with the exception of her Taiwanese roots. The pianist self-produced two CDs, Obsession (Sony Music Taiwan, 2010) and My Incomplete Soul (Sony Music, 2011), and now--as the first Taiwanese jazz artist signed ...
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