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Song Yi Jeon
Hailing from South Korea, Song Yi Jeon is a singer and composer who deftly combines modern jazz harmony and odd time signatures with singable melodies that instantly catch the ear of the listener.
She studied classical composition at the University of Music and Fine Art in Graz, Austria, and Jazz vocals at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland and Berklee College of Music in Boston, in the US where she developed her unique sound. Through her background in classical composition, she uses her understanding of harmonic structure to create incomparable improvisations.
In 2013, as the inaugural Quincy Jones CJ&E fellow, she studied at the Berklee College of Music where she was also awarded the Billboard Endowed Award.
Song Yi made her Blue Note debut in New York to great acclaim for her mini album release in early 2015, and in 2018 she released her first album Movement of Lives with her Quintet, featuring Vitor Goncalves, Kenji Herbert, Peter Slavov, Jongkuk Kim and Rogerio Boccato. Release concert was held at the Jazz Gallery NYC. In November 2022, Song Yi released her duo album HOME with a Brazilian guitarist Vinicius Gomes by the label of Dave Douglas’ Greenleaf Music, and received rating of 4.5 by the Downbeat Magazine. Recently Song Yi released an album Solitary Bloom in trio with a Brazilian drummer Pauo Almeida and Italian pianist Lorenzo Vitolo.
Song Yi has played at many clubs/festivals including Blue Note NY, the Jazz Gallery NYC, the Falcon, Bimhuis Amsterdam, Opus Budapest, Moods Zürich, Bird’s Eye Jazz club Basel, Jarasum Jazz Festival in Korea, European Jazz Fest in Korea, Offbeat Jazzfestival Basel, and more. She performed with many illustrious colleagues including Guillermo Klein, Bill McHenry, Jeff Ballard, Vadim Neselovskyi, George Garzone, Tiger Okoshi, Alain Mallet, Peter Slavov, Billy Drewes, Simon Shaheen, and many more.
After she moved to Switzerland, she participated in an emerging artist program called “FOCUSYEAR” at the Basel Jazzcampus, performed with Wolfgang Muthspiel, Ambrose Akinmusire, Billy Childs, Ambrose Akinmusire, Julian Lage, Django Bates, John Hollenback, Guillermo Klein, Norma Winstone and more.
Song Yi was recently selected to be part of Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor & Protége 23-24, and as a Music Protégé she will be working closely with five-time Grammy Winner Ms Dianne Reeves.
Awards
- Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor & Protégé 2023-24 working with Dianne Reeves
Tags
Gaia Wilmer, Ra Kalam Bob Moses: Dancing with Elephants
by Angelo Leonardi
Questa collaborazione tra la sassofonista e compositrice Gaia Wilmer e il batterista/bandleader Bob Moses, è stata progettata dieci anni fa, quando i due si sono incontrati al New England Conservatory, nei ruoli di allieva e docente. Il giudizio che Moses esprime in copertina sulle doti di scrittura di Gaia può apparire eccessivo (la paragona a Charles Mingus, Hermeto Pascoal, Gil Evans, Maria Schneider, Michael Gibbs) ma basta ascoltare il suo ultimo album orchestrale (Folia, Sunnyside 2023) per capire ...
Continue ReadingEugenia Choe: So We Speak
by Dan McClenaghan
New York-based pianist Eugenia Choe's first two trio albums on SteepleChase Records, 2016's Magic Light (review here) and 2018's Verdfant Green (review here), featured her trio with bassist Danny Weller and drummer Alex Wyatt. For her third album release, So We Speak, Choe goes with a trio once again, this time teaming with vibraphonist Yuhan Su and vocalist Song Yi Jeon. The result is less the traditional jazz trio mood of her debut and its follow up, and more of ...
Continue ReadingDominik Schürmann: The Seagull's Serenade
by Richard J Salvucci
Insularity is a funny thing. With globalization on everyone's mind--one way or another--it is ironic that parochialism affects the fine arts in any important way. It is not as if Pablo Picasso or Gustav Mahler were merely local celebrities. In classical music, composers have long been peripatetic figures--think of G.F. Handel, as likely regarded as British as he was German. And celebrated figures are nothing today, if not international. And yet--it is only an impression--jazz seems a bit different. Of ...
Continue ReadingSeulah Noh Jazz Orchestra: NOhMAD
by Jack Bowers
On her debut album, NohMAD, South Korea-born, New England-educated Seulah Noh is listed as composer, arranger and conductor. She could be described as “painter" too, as she uses her seventeen-piece orchestra (enlarged to twenty-one by strings on three numbers) as a palette on which to render sophisticated--and sometimes daring--portraits in sound that are generally progessive but seldom boring. Several impart an East Asian flavor, especially the three-movement Traveler's Suite, which presumably depicts Noh's long journey from Korea ...
Continue ReadingChase Kuesel: Space Between
by Bruce Lindsay
Drummer and composer Chase Kuesel is based in Brooklyn, but his debut release as leader, Space Between, arose from a year spent studying in Basel as part of a select group of young musicians funded through the Focusyear Artist Grant. It's an album that's notable for Kuesel's ambitious compositions--drawing on influences including Olivier Messiaen, Norma Winstone and Guillermo Klein, to whom Kuesel dedicates “Axis (For GK)"--and for the stylish interpretations crafted by the drummer and his bandmates. Four ...
Continue ReadingSong Yi Jeon: Movement Of Lives
by Jerome Wilson
Song Yi Jeon is a vocalist from South Korea whose voice and music can be as ethereal as ectoplasm or as penetrating as a laser. She recalls the mystical flexibility of Sheila Jordan and the raucous improvisations of Patty Waters in her sound but comes up with her own brand of hypnotic beauty. On this CD, only two songs have lyrics--the opening track, the standard “Invitation," and the closing track, a Korean folk song. On the rest, Jeon ...
Continue Reading“This is an amazing duo with a beautiful chemistry and musicality. The music is fresh and flows naturally like a river full of great surprises.” — Lionel Loueke
“This duo plays very engaging music; it is joyous, infectious and demands a lot of technique from both artists. Great guitar playing and vocal flexibility of the highest order!” — Norma Winstone
Reviews
“Home... glows from within and impresses on multiple levels. A powerful empathic link binds[Song Yi Jeon and Vinicius Gomes] as they explore a near-perfect example of a duet project." - Josef Woodard from Downbeat Magazine Rate 4.5!!!
Dianne Reeves
vocals
Luciana Souza
vocals
Betty Carter
vocals
Billy Childs
piano
Avishai Cohen
bass
Fred Hersch
piano
Brad Mehldau
piano
Guillermo Klein
piano
Jorge Rossy
drumsPhotos
Music
Reinvented
From: AgmaBy Song Yi Jeon
Chorinho for Spring
From: Solitary BloomBy Song Yi Jeon
Job's Blues
From: Job's TrialsBy Song Yi Jeon
