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Linda May Han Oh
Based in New York City, GRAMMY award-winning Linda May Han Oh is a bassist/composer who has performed and recorded with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen and Vijay Iyer.
Originally born in Malaysia and raised in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, she has received many awards including a 2022 Deutscher Jazz Preis, 2nd place at the BASS2010 Competition, a semi-finalist at the BMW Bass competition and an honorary mention at the 2009 Thelonious Monk Bass Competition. She was voted the 2018-2021 Bassist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist’s Association, as well 2022 Bassist of the Year in Jazztimes. Linda also was voted 2019 Bassist of the Year in Hothouse Magazine and was the 2020 recipient APRA award for Best New Jazz Work. In 2023 she received the prestigious Herb Albert Award for music.
Linda has had five releases as a leader which have received critical acclaim, her latest – a quintet album entitled The Glass Hours on Biophilia Records. Her latest commissions include “Littoral Tales” a solo piano piece in two movements for Gloria Cheng, and “Ephemeral Echoes” written for percussion trio and piano trio as well as “Mirrors and Shadows” written for piano and bass duo.
Linda has written for large and small ensembles as well as for film, participating in the Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch and composing for several of sociologist/film maker Sabrina McCormick. Linda also composed and produced music for a collaborative film project with non-profit, “Hoperaisers” based in Korogocho, Kenya by film-maker Kizito Gamba and contributed music to his latest documentary “Calling the Shots” co-directed by Kore Abong about aspiring African women in the film-industry.
Linda is currently Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music in the bass department and is also part of the Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice led by Terri Lyne Carrington. Linda was featured on bass in the 2020 Pixar movie "Soul" under the musical direction of Jon Batiste (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) alongside drummer Roy Haynes and was the model for the character in the film - bassist “Miho.”
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Michael Dease: City Life: Music of Gregg Hill
by Paul Rauch
Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill is on a remarkable roll, authoring an impressive run of compositions represented on eight albums released on the Origin Records label. Each has featured a bandleader associated with the top shelf staff at Rodney Whitaker's jazz program at Michigan State University. City Life (2025) is the third under the leadership of trombone great Michael Dease. The two-disc release includes 19 compositions from Hill, and features a cast of some of the most powerful voices in jazz ...
Continue ReadingMichael Dease: City Life: Music of Gregg Hill
by Dan McClenaghan
Jazz trios featuring a horn, bass and drums get right to the core of musical expression. With, most commonly, a saxophone--see Sonny Rollins' blueprint for the horn and trio setting, the 1957 Contemporary Records album Way Out West--the music flows freely. The players do not need to chase chords around. The result is a stretching of the melodies with freewheeling rhythmic finesse. Trombone, bass and drums outings are rare, but Michael Dease goes for it on CD 1 ...
Continue ReadingGeorge Colligan: Live At The Jazz Standard
by Carl Medsker
During its relatively brief life, the Jazz Standard hosted many wonderful evenings of creative music. Artists performing in the basement beneath the barbecue restaurant ranged from Houston Person to Roy Haynes to Wadada Leo Smith. The Mingus Big Band held forth on most Monday evenings. Sadly, the club succumbed in 2021 to the economic pain caused by the pandemic. In memorium, we now have a robustly recorded live set from 2014 by the George Colligan trio. It is ...
Continue ReadingLinda May Han Oh: The Imperative
by Carl Medsker
Congratulations to Linda May Han Oh for adding the 2025 Jazz Journalists Association Bass Player of the Year award to her collection of accolades. Since emigrating to the United States from Australia in 2006 (she was born in Malaysia), Oh has built an impressive career, making significant contributions to works by Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron and many others. Her playing in Vijay Iyer's trio with Tyshawn Sorey is massive. Melodic, flowing, rhythmically complex, expressively performed ...
Continue ReadingBenjamin Lackner: Spindrift
by Mario Calvitti
Il nuovo lavoro del pianista berlinese Benjamin Lackner, Spindrift, non si distacca molto dal precedente Last Decade, anch'esso pubblicato da ECM un paio di anni fa. La differenza principale è la presenza di una seconda voce strumentale, quella del sax tenore di Mark Turner, che si affianca alla tromba di Mathias Eick nell'esposizione e elaborazione dei temi lirici composti dal pianista (tutti ad eccezione di “Chambary" firmata dal batterista). Il sassofonista non è l'unico nome illustre che ha ...
Continue ReadingBenjamin Lackner: Spindrift
by Jack Kenny
Benjamin Lackner has a vision and his album is a coherent statement of his ideas: a radical statement of lyricism, gentleness, restraint and understatement. It was a long-time dream. For some time, Benjamin Lackner has had a wish to record with ECM. In an interview, he outlined his attempts to produce music that would impress ECM's Manfred Eicher. Benny Lackner became Benjamin. He experimented with different formats, eventually achieving his ambition with Last Decade (2022), his first album ...
Continue ReadingVijay Iyer: Compassion
by Mario Calvitti
L'ottavo album da titolare del pianista Vijay Iyer per la ECM è anche il primo a riprendere una formazione già utilizzata, per la precisione nel precedente Uneasy pubblicato nel 2021, non considerando un altro disco in trio ma con differenti interpreti (Break Stuff, del 2015). Negli altri lavori Iyer ha spaziato dalla suite cameristica con un quartetto d'archi (Mutations) al sestetto (Far from Home), dai duetti con Wadada Leo Smith e Craig Taborn (a cosmic rhythm with each stroke e ...
Continue ReadingRecent Listening: Linda May Han Oh
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Recent Listening In Brief: Linda May Han Oh, Aventurine (Biophilia) The album title, aptly, seems to suggest adventure. Indeed, the CD contains plenty of that attribute in the bassist-composer’s instrumentation, textures and rhythmic values. The name was suggested, however, by a certain shiny translucent mineral that seems to glow from within, as does much of Ms. Oh’s music in this collection. The inspirations for her compositions, her choices of fellow performers and the way she writes and presents much of ...
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Bassist Linda Oh Interviewed at All About Jazz
Source:
Fully Altered Media
In an arena that is overwhelmingly dominated by her male counterparts, bassist Linda May-Han Oh is going to be a force with which to be reckoned. Her auspicious self-produced debut, Entry (2009), was lauded by critics, and was one of pianist Vijay Iyer's top picks for 2009. Her technical know-how is solidified by visceral, emotive and gutsy performance. Oh walks softly and lets her double-bass do the boasting, and does so impressively. With the buzz slowly getting out about her ...
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Have You Heard Linda Oh?
Source:
The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
Like most who've heard the young Aussie bassist Linda Oh, my starting point was hearing her fresh debut recording “Entry“. Besides the fact that she just kind of materialized on the scene untethered to advance hype, the record was first of all curious because Ms. Oh took the hang-fly route and played her music with a lean and mean trio, including other promising peers drummer Obed Calvaire and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. The presence of those young firebreathers further stirred the ...
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The Jazz Session #139: Linda Oh
Source:
Michael Ricci
Bassist Linda Oh was born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, grew up in Perth, Australia, and now plays the bass in New York City. Her debut recording, Entry (self-produced, 2009), is a strong trio statement featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire. In this interview, Oh discusses her decision to challenge herself on her first recording; her upbringing and how it influenced her decision to become a jazz bassist; and how she has dealt with stereotypes about Asian women ...
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Kris Monson
bass
Aretha Tillotson
bass, acoustic
Amine Dhouibi
guitar
Monique Chao
band / ensemble / orchestraPhotos
Music
Movie Theme
From: City Life: Music of Gregg HillBy Linda May Han Oh
See You Again My Friend
From: SpindriftBy Linda May Han Oh
CARAVAN
From: LongingBy Linda May Han Oh
Praise
From: Songs My Mom LikedBy Linda May Han Oh
Duke Ellington's Sound of Love
From: LongingBy Linda May Han Oh
Longing
From: LongingBy Linda May Han Oh
West 4th St
From: LongingBy Linda May Han Oh
The Door of No Return
From: What Place Can Be for Us? - A...By Linda May Han Oh
Haven't Meta Yet
From: Same Moon in the Same WorldBy Linda May Han Oh
Stablemates
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
Straight Talk
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
MR 2
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
Mental Self Defense Fitness
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
Let's Get Tropical
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
Glacier Lake
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
MR 4
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
Trio 3
From: Let's Get TropicalBy Linda May Han Oh
The Gulf
From: Orange AfternoonsBy Linda May Han Oh
Videos
Linda May Han Oh
Location: New York City
Instrument: Bass, acoustic
Born: August 25, 1984
Management: Music Works International
Publicist: Fully Altered Media
