2024 WORLD TOUR #7 TAIWAN - MEDIA PLAYERS
TAIWAN LIVE JAZZ - MELTING POT | 爵犬 (JOE TRANE) EVENTS
Melting Part started with a basement jam in Taipei, where dancers, musicians and grafitti artists came to play.
Since 2022 they’ve been hosting cross-disciplinary jams, representing a close-knit community of artists, audiences and venues, showcasing the rich arts and culture ecosystem that Taiwan has to offer.
“爵犬 (Joe Trane)” literally translates to “jazz dog” in Mandarin is one of Melting Part’s most celebrated and long-running projects, shining a light on Taiwan’s buzzing jazz scene, every performance selling out.
The first Studio Monkey Shoulder Joe Trane event was held 27th July at Laylow in Taichung. Hosted by WADE DAO and D.J. Kool Klone, featuring Mike Tseng (Keys), Benny Lin (Drums), Jenni Tsai (Flute), and Han (Bass) and joined by a very special guest–Taichung’s very own JOYCE 914.
Head to the Joe Trane Instagram page for more info.
Source: WorldWideFM
Live Jazz from Taipei: So Beautiful ft. Star Wu, WADE DAO | 爵犬 JOE TRANE at Basement Café
2024 WORLD TOUR #7 TAIWAN - ALBUMS
甘 Aftertaste
DEBBY WANG 王思雅
Released 24 February 2024
Debby Wang Music Studio
*****
Through three months of field recordings and self-interviews, the aim is to showcase the sounds of Taiwan, allowing audiences outside Taiwan to better understand its culture.
Debby Wang is a vibist, composer, and educator. She studied at Studio Percussion School in Austria, Graz in 2009, and majored in classical percussion performance at the University Of Performing Arts and Music Vienna in 2015. She then switched her path in 2018 for Berklee College Of Music, dual majoring in jazz vibraphone performance and jazz composition. In 2021, she moved back to Taiwan to continue her music career as a performer, educator, and conductor.
"Aftertaste" contains 9 songs, all conveying a sense of identity and self-awareness.
Breaking away from the typical fixed lineup of albums, each track in this album has a different instrumentation, and the musicians vary as well. From solo marimba, vibraphone trio, sextet, to a big band, different instrumentations presenting the exploration of the doubts and self-doubt that have arisen during the artist's drifting across various places over the past 13 years.
The use of electronic sound effects and noise represents the artist's connection to Taiwan. Having studied classical music in Taiwan since childhood, encountering jazz in Austria, and traveling to the United States, where diverse sounds were encountered, I searched for myself in the world of sound. Cultural innovation is incredibly important, but the preservation of culture is also an indispensable part. Through field recordings, the most authentic sounds of Taiwan, interviews, and musical performances, connecting the present, future, and past together like drinking tea; swallowing the bitterness of the tea, leaving the final sweetness behind as the Aftertaste.
Read more ... Debby Wang, Bandcamp
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Land Forms (EP)
YENTING LO
GIN LIN, DEBBY WANG, SHAOHUAN HUNG
Released 22 February 2024
Yenting Lo
****-
After walking on various kinds of landforms, Taiwanese jazz singer-songwriter YenTing Lo puts her observations and memories into a series of musical poems.
YenTing Lo is a jazz singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, pianist, flutist and cross-media producer, based in Taiwan. Beginning with a musical foundation of classical piano and flute at a young age, YenTing grew up singing in choirs and playing in school orchestras. Self-taught as a singer-songwriter, YenTing stepped into the world of jazz after she attended the Taipei International Summer Jazz Academy. Since then, her musical adventure has brought her to Tokyo, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Spain, Italy, etc. After graduating from the Conservatory of Amsterdam, YenTing has lived in the Netherlands for almost 6 years and moved back to Taiwan in 2021. She’s currently active in all kinds of stages from jazz to pop, from classical to musicals.
In collaboration with the Bebop Artist Project, YenTing invited three other Taiwanese jazz musicians: Shaohuan Hung (sheng), Gin Lin (guitar) and Debby Wang (vibraphone) to this afternoon live session, to explore how such special instrumentation portray four different landscapes - fierce winds on the mountain ridge, desert that swallow time, ripples that wave between islands.
Read more ... YenTing Lo, Bandcamp
Recent Releases
UTINGLING
Released 2022 - 2024
Utingling
****-
Utingling / YuTing Chiu is a sound designer, instrument maker and multimedia artist based in Taipei who is creating absorbing and innovative music that draws upon cultural and environmental sources - ancient, modern and all between - and field recordings from her travels.
Taipei artist Utingling (ala Yuting Chiu) has not yet released a full album, but already her work is noteworthy. When it is placed alongside the work of Debby Wang, Sabiwa, Tsuzing and Yenting Lo, we see a fascinating Taiwanese subgenre of experimentation that incorporates field recordings, electronica and heritage music, drawing from sources modern and traditional, local and international.
The three releases included here are:
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her 6-track 2022 EP "晴 穹 Natureverse",
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her 2023 cover of Cantopop diva Sally Yeh's classic song "瀟灑走一回" and
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her 2024 single "Cloud Leoparded"
Her profile on Bandcamp summarises her approach as "building up her soundscape by blending ethnic and electro elements, layering field recordings from her many travels, experimenting sound with the rainmaker she create, those sounds highlight the detail of the imagery and inviting the audience to create their own experience along with the musical journey".
We love that the final line of her self-penned Spotify bio: "- just a teacup celebrating time with music -"
Read more ... Bandcamp
Built In System
Live in New York
CHIEN CHIEN LU
Released 6 October 2023
Feeling Good Music
*****
Lu leads from the front with a controlled virtuosity rooted in the soul and drama of modern jazz, and nudges the direction of the music from within.
Classically trained in contemporary percussion in her native Taiwan, Chien Chien Lu, the emergent vibraphonist is best known for recording and touring with Jeremy Pelt Quintet but made her recording debut with her 2020 solo release "The Path", her genre melding debut as a leader. She was backed by an elite cast of musicians, sourced principally from Pelt's ensemble and with his blessing. In fact, Pelt himself appeared here alongside bandmates Richie Goods (acoustic & electric bass), Allan Mednard (drums) and Ismel Wignall on (congas & percussion).
Built In System is the New York based artist's third release for the year 2023 and like it's predecessors it continues her strongly collaborative approach with Pelt, Goods and Mednard once again joining her in performance.
Lu dedicates the album to "all the people and things that have inspired me", adding that "as a woman from Taiwan, I view the world with my eyes and heart, seeking direction and peace. In the process of searching, I use the most familiar tool from my childhood, "music," to compose the sounds that exist in my imagination. I am happy and grateful for the significant individuals who have appeared in my life".
The album was selected by The Times of London as one of the best jazz and world albums of 2023.
Read more ... Jazzwise, Bandcamp
A Connected Holiday
CONNECTED
RICHIE GOODS & CHIEN CHIEN LU
Released 23 November 2023
Richaman Music
*****
What truly elevates this album to the forefront of seasonal fare is the admission of featured vocal contributions from Lisa Fischer, Imani-Grace, Andromeda Turre and Smithsoneon - the result of the creative collaboration that has become a defining characteristic of this duo.
For their second collaborative release as "Connected" and having previously recorded and toured together in the Jeremy Pelt Quintet, Jeremy Goods and Chien Chien Lu here tackle their first "Holiday Album" project with spectacular success. They have produced an innovative and enjoyable set of seasonal staples by mixing the the very familiar and sacred ("O Holy Night", "We Three Kings", "Carol of the Bells", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel") with the lesser known (Mary, Did You Know") and secular ("Baby It's Cold Outside", "All I Need").
Their signature mix of vibes and bass underpins this lively set of interpretations, but the album is lifted to the upper ranks of seasonal music by it's inspired vocal contributors and such is the quality that the set may be enjoyed in its own right, regardless of the time of year.
We note sadly that all vocalists are uncredited on Spotify, but are relieved to see them identified in YouTube.
SunNeverSetsOnMusic's searches suggest that this album has received little or no attention from the music press. We hope it will be re-released later this year and receives the attention it deserves.
SunNeverSetsOnMusic
Connected Vol. 1
CONNECTED
RICHIE GOODS & CHIEN CHIEN LU
Released 2 January 2023
Richaman Music
*****
Goods and Lu have craftily blended jazz and R&B to deliver a provocative statement with a gentle ambience that speaks to the peaceful world they long for.
Renowned bassist Richie Goods and respected vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu are documenting what looks to be the first in a series of collaborations. Connected Vol. 1 is their first complete album, one themed on unity and focused on undeserved violence against African American and Asian communities. Most of the compositions are co-written and they are performed with a slew of supporting musicians and guests with guitarist Quintin Zoto, drummer Lil John Roberts, and percussionist Danny Sadownick among the most prominent as Lu plays vibes and marimba and Goods plays mostly electric bass, saving the upright for two of the tracks. Other guests include vocalists Sy Smith, Jamison Ross and Pastor Dr. Adolfus Lacey, drummers Allan Mednard and David Frazier Jr., keyboardist Big YUKI, Shedrick Mitchell on organ and piano, Brett Williams on keys and Rhodes and Mike King on Rhodes and organ.
Read more ... Making A Scene
美麗的灣 Wonderful One
CHILL QIN
Released 23 September 2023
Multi Music
*****
Chill Qin continues to exemplify how traditional instrumentation, songs and sounds can be brought forward in a modern context that is both respectful, tasteful and beautiful.
Since the initial release of their debut EP "Guān 笑琴 - 觀" on Muti Music in 2020, Chill Qin has become a well known production team from Taipei Taiwan, labeling themselves as ‘cross-field’ producers, as the music no doubt crosses some boundaries.
In 2021 Chill Qin and Wen Ching Hao created an outstanding 12 minute sound design composition, named "43251", that was synched to custom visuals, and it was displayed at Taipei Fine Art Museum, as well as released on video and audio on Muti Music.
Chill Qin returns to Muti Music once again with another epic cross genre-bending cultural journey.
"美麗的灣 Wonderful One" feels like music should feel, when it’s a mini vacation from the mundane and generic and takes you somewhere for a little while.
On this release, the sound design is incredible, production top notch and the colorful melodies, vocal contributions and unique blend of styles, all together, make this a thoroughly enjoyable journey.
A similarly noteworthy release by Chill Quin is their 2022 album "萬象 The Poem For All Beings",
Read more ... Bandcamp
绿帽 Green Hat
TZUSING
Released 31 March 2023
PAN
*****
绿帽 Green Hat is unashamed to lean into its layered concept and the album never loses its well-rehearsed dancefloor momentum. Tzusing has been through many metamorphoses during his career, but it's here where sounds most eager to unify his interests and inclinations.
Growing up between Singapore, Taiwan, China, and the USA, Tzusing was living in Chicago when his love of music turned into an obsession. After relocating to China for work, he cut his teeth DJing at The Shelter in Shanghai and began refining his personal musical signature.
The album, which is named after an expression that Chinese use when a woman cheats on her husband or boyfriend because the phrase sounds similar to the word for cuckold.
The album meditates on China's complicated history of patriarchal heteronormativity, and how these archaic double standards continue to dominate the culture in pervasive, often invisible ways. Even in progressive circles, internalized male inadequacy and its inevitable projection of possessiveness and aggression has been brushed underneath the rug, so by addressing it head-on, Tzusing attempts to question these structures using a level of aesthetic anxiety and thematic intensity that's hard to ignore.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Island No. 16
Memories of Future Landscapes
SABIWA
Released 14 April 2023
Phantom Limb
****-
"Sabiwa dances between the line of electronica and ritualism. Her oeuvre is abstraction made sound; a creative amalgamation that weaves together elements from natural and synthetic sources." - METAL Magazine
Rising Taiwanese sound designer / sonic experimentalist Sabiwa's first Phantom Limb release of new album "Island No. 16 - Memories of Future Landscapes" is a strange and beguiling journey through traditional Taiwanese folk musics, turned concréte.
In her new album the Kaohsiung-born, Berlin-based Sabiwa employs bass heavy rhythms, dissected field recordings and exploratory extended vocal technique. Often beginning the compositional process with her own voice and ancient, nature-mimicking musics from the Thau, Bunun, Atayal and other tribespeople of her native Taiwan and also recording from south asia recorded by Kink Gong, Sabiwa processes and slices source material beyond recognition, opening sonic pathways to mesmerising, transcendental new dimensions. Glitching samples and indistinguishable language merge with evolving organic texture, forming a strange, dreamlike, transportive unreality. SABIWA’s background in classical and academic music (she has played the cello since childhood) also shines through, lending a deep and engaging musicality to the brain-melting psychedelics of the record.
Read more ... Bandcamp
Sent
9M88
Released 6 October 2023
Jazz Baby
****-
Chill Qin continues to exemplify how traditional instrumentation, songs and sounds can be brought forward in a modern context that is both respectful, tasteful and beautiful.
9m88 (real name Joanne Tang Yu-chi) and affectionately known as Baba, is a R&B singer-songwriter from Taipei, based in New York. Her music is heavily jazz-influenced but well-blended with R&B, Free Improvisation, Neo-Soul, Hip-Hop and Pop music. Her soulful voice and her lyrics often emphasize both the female sensibility and rationality, she's adept in fusing styles into poetic songs.
This, the artist's third album, follows within a year of her second, August 2022's “9m88 Radio”, which featured guests from worldwide artists such as Oddisee (USA), SUMIN (S.Korea), Mitsu the Beats )Iapan) and StarRo (Japan).
"Sure" relies almost entirely on the talented 9m88's mellow vocals but she incorporates a wide range of vocal styles. First single "What If?", a cover of a song by a 1990's era singer, songwriter, producer Chang Yusheng, for which she adopts an easy going jazz approach and features Takuya Kuroda, one of the most famous trumpeters in Japan.
Opening song, “Hair,” is an acoustic jazz ballad. Title track "Sent" features vocal and folky guitars, "足久無見 Tsiok Ku Bo Kinn (Long Time No See" is truly funky, "Fauvism" (which is a style of painting and art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century, led by Matisse, among others) adopts a Brechtian cabaret fee, while “Farewell Summer,” is a breezy bossa nova number. It is an entertaining mix.
Read more ... 9m88
Way Out
壞特 WHYTE
Released 19 June 2023
Monzilin / Sony Music Entertainment Taiwan
****-
Working closely with producer Chen Junhao, Whyte unabashedly reveals private emotional stories, care for women's issues and deeply depicts various forms of powerlessness.
壞特 Whyte (pronounced "Why - Ta") is a singer-songwriter known for her jazzy and laid-back voice. Deeply influenced by jazz and soul music, she started to write songs after two years of learning guitar.
Whyte first began to attract attention on the Internet in 2019 with her two songs "Cazzo" and "Can't Sleep", which were a mix of Chinese and English lyrics.
Keeping her identity mysterious, she released her first album “A Bedroom of One’s Own” in 2020 with her producer Tower. The lo-fi album embeds jazz, blues, funk, soul music, hip hop, and Latin into its soundscape. Her music tolerates simplicity, embraces imperfections and fully expresses her low key attitude towards life.
With his lazy voice and mysterious figure - always wearing a hat and sunglasses - she has become a gentle companion for the "late-at-nighters" and the lonely.
However, the seemingly dormant days of the past three years were actually a period of chaos for Whyte. This experience forced her to confront life's issues, and she found that she longed for inner peace and freedom more and more. Deciding not to be disturbed by external emotions, she learned to meditate, observed the changes in her mind inwardly and was ready to run her own music world again.
Read more ... Sony Entertainment Taiwan
這一切終將過去
This Will Pass Eventually
楊斯琪 SZUCHI
Released 1 September 2023
楊斯琪
****-
"Sabiwa dances between the line of electronica and ritualism. Her oeuvre is abstraction made sound; a creative amalgamation that weaves together elements from natural and synthetic sources." - METAL Magazine
The album concept is an unexpected combination of vocals and jazz instrumental arrangements, integrating the singer-songwriter's narrative style with Szuchi's unique and melodious melodies and warm vocals. The suite of nine songs takes the audience on an emotional journey of reflection upon interacting with life and others.
Movie soundtracks from different periods have given Siqi a lot of creative nourishment. In the second half of the album, listeners can treat the songs as movie soundtracks like watching a movie.
Read more ... Spotify profile
Music For The River Jazz Suite: The Spirit of Love River and Mississippi River
徐崇育 VINCENT HSU
& THE JAZZ SUPREME ORCHESTRA
Released 20 October 2023
Vincent Hsu
****-
This innovative new work finds common ground between two seemingly disparate great rivers: Love River of Hsu’s hometown of Kaohsiung, Taiwan and the Mississippi River, integral to the birth of jazz.
Fused with Afro-Cuban undertones, of which Hsu has played extensively for most of his career, Music for the River Jazz Suite is truly a singular and unique work of cultural and musical fusion.
Hsu’s fourth album as a bandleader allows listeners to hear Hsu’s compositions brought to life by a large ensemble for the very first time. Music for the River Jazz Suite captures the raw thrill of the concert atmosphere, recorded live at Taiwan’s Weiwuying Recital Hall. Breathing life to these deeply emotive and soulful works, Hsu is joined by saxophonists Hank Pan, Shen-yu Su, and Jonas Ganzemüller, trumpeter Wen-feng Cheng, violinist Yu-chen Tseng, clarinetist Chieh-an Fan, trombonist Yi-chun Teng, guitarist Shih-chun Lee, pianist Musaubach, drummer Kuan-liang Lin, and conga player Carol Huang.
The seeds for this incredibly creative project were planted over 15 years ago, when Hsu visited New Orleans for the first time. It was 2007, and Hsu took a trip on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. “I got to thinking about how jazz has been played on the boat since the 1920s. I also saw how the movement and the waves of the river share the same kind of motion of jazz music when it comes to the swing feel,” he shares. Observing that the Mississippi River passes through so many important musical cities such as Nashville, Memphis, Clarksdale, and New Orleans, he