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Jen Shyu

Born in Peoria, Illinois, USA, from Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrant parents, 2016 Doris Duke Artist Jen Shyu (Chinese name: 徐秋雁) is an experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, producer, and Fulbright scholar. Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist and 2014 MacArthur Genius Fellow Steve Coleman since 2003 and having collaborated with innovators Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte, Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, and David Binney to name a few, she has performed her own music around the world in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin Museum of Art, Ringling International Arts Festival, Asia Society, Roulette, Blue Note, Bimhuis, Salihara Theater, National Gugak Center, and National Theater of Korea and festivals around the world.

A Stanford University graduate in opera with classical violin and ballet training, Jen had already won many piano competitions and played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb Minor, 3rd Movement, with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra by the age of 13. She has also studied traditional music and dance in Cuba, Taiwan, Brazil, China, South Korea, East Timor, and Indonesia, extensive research which in 2014 culminated into Solo Rites: Seven Breaths, directed by renowned Indonesian filmmaker Garin Nugroho. Shyu has won commissions and support from the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards (2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award), MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works, New Music USA, Jazz Gallery, and Roulette, as well as fellowships from Asian Cultural Council, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Korean Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Tourism.

Jen has produced six albums as a leader, including Synastry (Pi, 2011) with co- bandleader and bassist Mark Dresser, which made her the first female artist and vocalist as bandleader on Pi Recordings; and most recently the critically acclaimed album Sounds and Cries of the World (Pi, 2015), which landed on many “Top 10 Best Albums of 2015” lists, including the New York Times and The Nation. It features her band Jade Tongue currently comprised of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, violist Mat Maneri, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Dan Weiss. Ben Ratliff of the New York Times calls it her "latest and best album" as well as calling her concerts "the most arresting performances I’ve seen over the past five years. It’s not just the meticulous preparation of the work and the range of its reference, but its flexibility: She seems open, instinctual, almost fearless." Larry Blumenfeld writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Her voice, a wonder of technical control and unrestrained emotion, tells a story dotted with well-researched facts and wild poetic allusions. She claims both as her truths.”

Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri: Oedipe Redux

Read "Oedipe Redux" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
August 5, 2024

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 ...

Album Review

Miles Okazaki: Miniature America

Read "Miniature America" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 31, 2024

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 ...

Live Review

Other Minds Festival 2021

by Roy Strassman
October 31, 2021

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, ...

Live Review

Other Minds 25, Day 1

by John Chacona
October 20, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses

Read "Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 28, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese

Read "Song of the Silver Geese" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
June 18, 2018

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 ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese

Read "Song of the Silver Geese" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
December 18, 2017

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 ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Chucho Valdés & Joe Lovano, Jen Shyu, "Jazz Explosion," and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
November 10, 2016

Here's what's happening with live jazz and creative music over the next few days in St. Louis... Thursday, November 10 Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu will present a free, public artist's talk and workshop at the Lewis Center, the Washington University School of Art building located off-campus at 721 Kingsland Ave in U City. Also on Thursday, Native American flautist Mark Holland and his band will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; singer ...
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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jen Shyu's "Solo Rites: Seven Breaths"

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
November 6, 2016

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, who's performing here in St. Louis in a concert presented by New Music Circle next Friday, November 11 at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Shyu, who's now in her late 30s, was born in Peoria, IL to parents who immigrated to the US from Taiwan and East Timor. She was something of a child prodigy, winning many piano competitions and performing a Tchaikovsky piano concerto ...
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Recording

Jen Shyu and Mark Dresser - Synastry (Pi Recordings, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
August 27, 2011

Vocalist Jen Shyu and bassist Mark Dresser are uniquely qualified to perform in a duet setting together. After Shyu began studying with saxophonist and musical theorist Steve Coleman, she was soon invited to join his band, adding a fascinating new dimension to his recent albums. Mark Dresser has had a very successful career in all aspects of jazz and improvisatory music, performing with a wide range of luminaries and recording many albums under his own name, but really seems to ...
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Performance / Tour

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets @ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
September 26, 2007

Vocalist Jen Shyu performs ritual invocation about Chinese laborers in 19th Century Colonial Cuba at The Jazz Gallery September 27, 2007 (One Night Only) 2 Sets: 9:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, New York, NY $12 ($10 members) New York, NY - Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Jen Shyu takes her own group and compositions to the Jazz Gallery for one night ...
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Performance / Tour

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets@ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
September 6, 2007

JEN SHYU & JADE TONGUE

Steve Coleman Vocalist Jen Shyu performs ritual invocation about Chinese laborers in 19th Century Colonial Cuba at The Jazz Gallery

September 27, 2007 (One Night Only) 2 Sets: 9:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, New York, NY $12 ($10 members)

(New York, NY) - Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Jen Shyu takes her own group and compositions ...
read more

100

Performance / Tour

Gnu Vox Festival: Alison Wedding/ Rebecca Shrimpton (Mon) Jen Shyu Band & Yoon Sun Choi and Kyoko Kitamura (Tue) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
August 14, 2007

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Aug 13 6:00PM GNU VOX FESTIVAL: ALISON WEDDING (Alison Wedding, voice;Pete McCann, guitar) GNU VOX FESTIVAL: REBECCA SHRIMPTON (Rebecca Shrimpton, vocals;Dan Tepfer, piano;Eric Hofbauer, guitar) Tue Aug 14
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“I suppose there have been other people like JEN SHYU: disciplined vocalists who speak and sing in multiple languages, work with improvisation and composition and movement, feel at home both with quick-change rhythmic patterns and meditative long tones, use narrative poetry as a basis for songs, and use a two- stringed Taiwanese moon lute in a New Yorkish and vanguardish jazz context. I just can't think of any right now."

"Instead of thinking about her categorically, you can focus on how beautifully and generously she uses sound.” - Ben Ratliff, NY Times (Read HERE)

"Ms. Shyu is among New York's most invigorating vocal presences. And perhaps the most enigmatic.” - Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal (Read HERE)

"Instead of thinking about her categorically, you can focus on how beautifully and generously she uses sound.” - Ben Ratliff, NY Times (Read HERE)

"Ms. Shyu is among New York's most invigorating vocal presences. And perhaps the most enigmatic.” - Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal (Read HERE)

"The singer Jen Shyu, singing parts of her piece “Solo Rites: Seven Breaths” in Korean and English, playing various lutes and zithers and percussion instruments, combined movement, acting, singing, and playing into long-form songs that could remind you of ancient court music or Joni Mitchell. Everything she did — every turn, every breath — came with mindful emphasis.” – Ben Ratliff, NY Times, on Solo Rites: Seven Breaths at Winter Jazz Fest, 2015 (Read HERE)

“Her voice was remarkable, moving from a whispering, almost silent, call to a wailing goddess, and then into a straight singing and dancing spirit.” – Ken Vermes, Jazz Police, on Solo Rites: Seven Breaths at Center for New Music, 2015 (Read HERE)

“The vocalist’s control is remarkable, weaving odd serpentines from low, guttural plunges to the crystalline shimmer of “Kind Of Nine.”” –Shaun Brady, Downbeat Magazine, on Pi Recordings’ Synastry with Mark Dresser, 2011 (Read HERE)

“Shyu is a remarkable phenomenon, shifting registers with startling ease and tonal resourcefulness, moving from conventional pitching to a yodel-like ambiguity without fuss. She blends fragile, light sounds with dark, low notes, ruminative hummings and improv in a personal language that fuses English, Taiwanese, Mandarin and several others.” – John Fordham, The Guardian, on Synastry, 2011 (Read HERE)

“Shyu matches their [David Binney, Shane Endsley, Dan Weiss] virtuosity and sings with palpable nerve, her enunciation of Chinese an outflow of unpredictable timbres….It's a remarkable achievement, with rich theatrical implications for the concert setting.” – David Adler, Time Out, on Jade Tongue, 2009 (Read HERE)

“Shyu deftly integrates ethnographical research with innovative new musical structures, producing work that is both cerebral and visceral.” – Wilbur Mackenzie, All About Jazz, on Jade Tongue, 2009 (Read HERE)

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