Results for "Hong Kong"

Nate Wong

Nate Wong is one of Hong Kong’s most active and spirited musicians. He is a native of HK who spent his high school and college years in the United States. He attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship where he created a band named The Jazz Tellers who was signed to the Berklee Jazz, Label Revolution Records. The Jazz Tellers would tour to Hong Kong representing the Berklee College of Music and would set up Nate’s eventual return to Hong Kong.

Upon graduation Nate taught at a Berklee sister University in Ecuador and then returned to US where he joined National touring act The Reeve’s Brothers and performed in almost every State in The United States with them.

Jazz World Records: From Hong Kong with Love

by Rob Garratt
July 14, 2022

"I've had plenty of labels in the past--three or four, I can't remember--and I always swore I'd never do it again," begins Clarence Chang as he sits down to lunch. And yet here we are, chewing linguine and discussing the label he just founded, Jazz World Records. “The only true jazz label in ...

Alonso Gonzalez & Jazz Latino

Alonso González Considered by critics as a benchmark for Latin music and Latin jazz in Asia. Born in Cartagena, Colombia on January 26, 1980. Music has been part of his life from an early age, at the age of eight he began to take private lessons with renowned percussionists and musicians from the city, but when he was received by the traditional family of percussionists “Los Pintos”, Alonso began to develop amazing percussion skills. A little later, he would take classes at the Cartagena School of Fine Arts, where he not only studied drums and music with Professor Francisco Madarriaga, but also theater, painting, and pantomime. Alonso was part of the renowned Colombian children's orchestra "Energía Latina", they, for many years, shared the stage with other large groups in the country and Latin America, being considered child prodigies at that time. In his adolescence, he was part of several musical groups that worked in the best hotels in the city, performing different musical styles ranging from traditional Colombian music, salsa, merengue, Afro- Cuban music, Brazilian music, Jazz, Caribbean music, among others. It was there that he met great masters such as Jose Cabeza with whom he learned American jazz and Brazilian jazz, and Alejandro Páez who was the reference of Afro-Cuban music for Alonso, and many more with whom he had the opportunity to learn and work at the same time. After graduating from military school, Alonso began business administration studies at the Cartagena Institute of Administration and Finance. But this did not separate him from music, although it was one of the most complicated times, having to alternate studies with work at night. The first opportunity to travel to Asia as a professional musician was to Taiwan, where he worked for several months at the prestigious Formosa Hotel in Taichung. The band then travelled to Malaysia, where he met his wife and made the decision to stay in Kuala Lumpur. In Malaysia he had the opportunity to remain for around seven years, and he met wonderful musicians like Steve Thornton who is a great percussionist who has worked with great music stars like Mongo Santamaría, Miles Davis and many others. With Steve, Alonso worked with a project called AfroAsia, which consisted of 23 percussionists, piano and flutes, this project managed to travel throughout South East Asia performing at jazz and music festivals around the region. Alonso was also part of the Steve Thorntonʼs Latin Jazz Quartet, thus learning directly from the master while they worked. Other musicians such as Greg Lyons, who is a great British saxophonist, drummer Lewis Pragasan, guitarist Jose Thomas, Farid Ali, among others, were a great influence on Alonso's musical formation. In the last years of Alonso in Malaysia he created his own project which he called "Alonso Gonzalez & Jazz Latino", and record his first album "La Compostura", where he had the opportunity to work with incredible musicians from various parts of the world such as John Thomas on drums, Eric Lee on piano, Zailan Razak on bass, Eddie Wen on trumpet and many more who were part of the recording. After Malaysia, Alonso moved to Spain, there he had the opportunity to perform with local salsa bands such as José Luis Moran “El Gato Salsero”, MadridCaibo, as well as Latinos salsa artists that came to visit Spain like Andres Viafara y la suprema corte from Colombia. After three years in Spain, Alonso went back to Colombia with his family and decided to open a small jazz bar in Bogotá which he called “Maestros Jazz Bar”, many great musicians came to play at this venue

Daniel Chu at Freespace Jazz Festival 2021

by Rob Garratt
November 20, 2021

Freespace Ensemble x Daniel Chu—Game Play The Box, Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural Centre Freespace Jazz Festival 2021 Hong Kong October 29, 2021 The gods of gig scheduling work in mysterious ways and, by some strange twist of fate or malevolence, Hong Kong's two major jazz festivals ...

Hong Kong International Jazz Festival 2021

by Rob Garratt
November 19, 2021

Hong Kong International Jazz Festival 2021 Hong Kong City Hall October 27-28, 2021 Forced to restrict programming to locally based musicians, the always enjoyable Hong Kong International Jazz Festival's greatest surprise this year came early in Chi Chau's Choice, a super-ish group of HK luminaries assembled ...

Joyce Cheung, Daniel Chu, Bowen Li and Patrick Lui at Youth Square

by Rob Garratt
July 16, 2021

Joyce Cheung, Daniel Chu, Bowen Li and Patrick Lui Y Theatre, Youth Square Jazz World Live Series: Our Jazz Pianists Chai Wan, Hong Kong July 4, 2021 There was a proud sense of ownership evident in dubbing this event Our Jazz Pianists. Hong Kong's Jazz World ...

Patrick Lui Jazz Orchestra at Hong Kong City Hall

by Rob Garratt
June 30, 2021

Patrick Lui Jazz Orchestra Hong Kong City Hall French May June 17, 2021 Yes, that date above is correct--and if the world's ongoing global nightmare has offered any relief to musicians of late, it might be the fresh appreciation afforded often overlooked players in their own communities. Nightlife ...

My First Visit to China

by Gene Perla
February 13, 2020

It all started with Dome. That's drummer Adam Nussbaum. Decades had gone by without the opportunity to musically connect with him, but then Dave Liebman and I decided to put together a quartet called New Light. In 2014, along with saxophonist Adam Niewood, we hit three NYC area jazz clubs followed by a concert at Clarke ...

Kendrick Scott: Making Walls into Bridges

by Rob Garratt
January 22, 2020

Kendrick Scott authored one of the most compelling jazz releases of last year with A Wall Becomes a Bridge (Blue Note, 2019), a nuanced meditation on identity, history and prejudice, shepherded under the direction of producer and former band mate Derrick Hodge. Pairing gorgeous, searching improvisatory canvases with break beat interludes and samples from guest DJ ...

Robert Glasper Trio at Freespace Jazz Festival

by Rob Garratt
November 13, 2019

Robert Glasper Trio with DJ Sundance The Box, Freespace Freespace Jazz Festival Hong Kong November 10, 2019 What can a visiting artist hope to offer a city in turmoil, torn apart and bleeding from months of violent unrest? Distraction, escape, respite-- sure, but just maybe reflection, too. Robert Glasper couldn't ...