Lao Dan

Lao Dan / Deng Boyu: TuTu Duo

by John Sharpe
January 11, 2022

The profile of jazz and improvisation from China rates roughly the same as the chances of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, or an anti-vaxxer's feel for community (if neither of those comparisons sits comfortably, just make up your own)—vanishingly small. So the release of TuTu Duo by reedman Lao Dan and percussionist Deng Boyu, on the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint, arrives as something of an ear-opener. It presents an idiosyncratic blend of fire music-inclined free playing and folk-inflected melodies ...