Mina Cho: Beat Mirage

Korean-born, Boston-based pianist Mina Cho's Beat Mirage represents a marriage between western contemporary jazz and traditional Korean rhythms and percussive modulations. The question that arises is this: on what basis should such a hybrid be evaluated? While it isn't strictly jazz, neither is it entirely Korean and thus devoid of such jazz components as interplay and improvisation.

The album's title, Cho writes, "encapsulates a broad spectrum of how beats are perceived." The concept of "grace beat," Cho explains, "was born from [her] curiosity to explore the intricate gestures of individual musicians as they execute rhythms and offer a variety of their tasteful interpretations—much like 'grace notes' in music." There is no doubt that Cho's quartet (Larry Ridley, bass; Insoo Kim, Korean traditional percussion; Yeongjin Kim, drums) traverses a broad span of rhythmic variations, orthodox and unconventional, as it unravels seven of Cho's diverse original compositions.

While there are some improvisations—mainly by Cho and Ridley—they are overshadowed by the session's cardinal pupose, which is to effect a merger of western and Korean rhythmic concepts within a jazz framework. It is here that one who is not well-versed in such disparate styles must listen carefully to discern what the musicians are trying to accomplish and how well they are succeeding. While Cho and her teammates are clearly exploring fresh and—for the most part—uncommon territory, their footing is sure and they seem to know precisely where they are heading.

That should be enough to assuage the purists. What remains is to assess the music itself, which is, generally speaking, quite charming and, needless to say, rhythmically impressive, even though hard to paint in words. Cho has a keen ear for melody, which she spells out at the keyboard while leaving the metric details to her colleagues. Beat Mirage isn't essentially jazz, nor is it especially Korean—which is precisely the point. Its target audience seems to embody those whose ear buds are primed to welcome something that is new and essentially different.