Jo-Yu Chen: Rendezvous - Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More

New York-based pianist and composer Jo-Yu Chen treats the great composers like most jazz musicians treat the Great American Songbook: a familiar musical foundation upon which to build a musical style.

Chen trained at Juilliard but was seduced by jazz's siren song. Her first four albums: Obsession (Sony Music, 2011), Incomplete Soul (Sony Music, 2012), Stranger (Sony Music, 2014) and Savage Beauty (Sony Music, 2019) featured her compositions before she engaged the classical canon with Schubert & Mozart: 'Round Midnight (Sony Music, 2024). Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More continues that classical fusion as she interprets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky and Ravel with her jazz trio.

The album begins with a Beethoven mashup as Chen riffs on "Moonlight Sonata" and the Fifth Symphony with stabbing, Monk-ish chords. Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Reed Flutes" features bassist Chris Tordini playing pedal point while Chen improvises over the familiar melody.

Chen recreates the emotional turbulence of the Second Movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 (Pathétique) in a solo performance that reminded me of Keith Jarrett's improvisational style (without all the humming).

Tordini is the highlight of both "Swan Lake" and "Romeo and Juliet." His bass introduces Tchaikovsky's famous balletic melody, which Chen refashions with dotted figures before an extended improvisation. Chen answers Tordini's extended solo on Prokofiev's "Dance of the Knights" ("Romeo And Juliet") with jagged shards of the famous melody.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition: The Old Castle" is barely recognizable amidst Tommy Crane's complex syncopation. An album highlight is Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 played as a slow march. Chen's chiming chords fit into a tight rhythmic pocket then fade to silence.

The album closes with Ravel's "Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte" ("Pavane For A Dead Princess") which the composer insisted be played slowly, like a dirge. Chen resists the urge to speed it up as many pianists do, evoking Ravel's pathos for a life taken in its bloom.

Chen seems barely able to contain her prodigious talent as her musical voice matures. She is advancing the jazz trio with a singular style that favors the avant-garde of Paul Bley while evoking the sweet, delicate balladeering of Michel Petrucciani. She will no doubt find more worlds to conquer.

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