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Linda May Han Oh: In Search Of Strange Heavens

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Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on bassist and composer Linda May Han Oh.

Linda's a Grammy winner who's recorded with Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, and Joe Lovano. She was even the model for the bassist character in Pixar's Soul. But it's her own work that brings us together.

Her latest album, Strange Heaven (Biophilia Records, 2025), explores why we choose familiar hells over strange heavens—why we stick with what we know even when change might save us. It's a question that cuts through everything from personal relationships to political choices. Linda approaches her albums like journals, each one capturing where she is as an artist and a person. Since becoming a mother, she says her music has become more direct, more distilled—less about ego and more about emotional truth.

She's here to discuss creative honesty, her work promoting women composers in jazz through the New Standards project, and why making music with emotional directness matters more than ever.

Lawrence Peryer FOLLOW Lawrence Peryer and get notified whenever a new article published.
Longtime music industry executive who relocated to the PNW from New York City in 2016. Host of the award-winning podcast The Tonearm (f/k/a Spotlight On), featuring the people and ideas moving culture forward.


About Linda May Han Oh

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