Pianist/composer
Helen Sung has an announcement to make. In fact, declaration might be a more
appropriate word. The artist’s musical statement can be heard at the center,
literally and figuratively, of her Concord Jazz debut and her sixth album
overall. Anthem for a New Day, a ten-song set that positions her at the
forefront of a talented and diverse sextet, is set for release January 28,
2014, on Concord Jazz.
“I have
been working on and ‘trying on’ different approaches in jazz music,” says Sung,
who made the leap from classical to jazz piano in college and began performing
in and around Boston and New York before releasing her first album in 2003.
“With my previous albums, I was searching, experimenting – not that that ever
ends. But this is the first project where I feel the most comfortable with who
I am as an artist, where I am as an artist, what I’m doing as an artist. It
brings the different pieces of my experience together in a way that’s organic
and authentic. That kind of clarity is very exciting.”
Exciting
enough for Sung to fly her colors with a sense of conviction that hadn’t
existed previously. “When I hear the word ‘anthem,’ I think of flags or
banners,” she says. “This album is my way of planting my flag in the ground.
The journey continues, but at this point, I feel a confidence unlike before.”
Some of
that confidence evident on Anthem for a New Day comes not just from Sung’s own
diverse experience but from the talented crew backing her on this project:
saxophonist Seamus Blake, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Reuben Rogers,
drummer Obed Calvaire, and percussionist Samuel Torres (saxophonist John Ellis
also lends his bass clarinet on a tune). In addition, guest artists Regina
Carter (violin) and Paquito D’Rivera (clarinet) make outstanding appearances.
Sung
also shook things up a bit with her own instrumentation. “Along with the piano,
I played Rhodes as well, which I haven’t done on my previous albums,” she says.
“Classical and jazz are the two primary genres I’ve been immersed in since I
started playing music as a child. Early on, I played classical concertos and
sonatas with their diverse and grand textures; then when I started jazz, in my
quest to really swing, I found myself primarily just playing single lines in my
right hand while playing chords with my left. Now I feel like it’s all starting
to come together – in my playing, my improvisation, my writing, and with my
arranging. All of this makes for an album that’s much bigger in terms of the
sonic space it occupies.”
She
stakes out that territory early on with “Brother Thelonious,” an effervescent
opening track with an interesting origin. Sung originally wrote it as the
commissioned “theme song” for a Belgian ale of the same name, crafted by the
small North Coast Brewing Company located in Fort Bragg, California. “The
owners are jazz fanatics, and I got to meet one of them through a connection
with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance [Sung is a graduate of
the program’s inaugural class when it was housed at the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston]. I had recorded an earlier version of the song
for them, but then I revamped it a bit and recorded a stronger version this
time, and it became the lead-off track for the album. North Coast is a fabulous
outfit. They do so much good – not just for jazz but for a variety of causes.”
The
lively “Armando’s Rumba,” a Chick Corea composition, gets plenty of Latin
mileage with a minimum of instrumentation. It’s just piano and clarinet –
courtesy of Sung and D’Rivera – along with some very organic percussion
techniques. “I was excited to contribute some non-piano musical material on
this album!” says Sung. “After first laying down the instrumental tracks
(clarinet, piano, and cajon), Samuel, Obed, and I then overdubbed the handclaps
and foot stomps. It was so fun to work on this piece!”
“Hidden,”
a composition by Sung, derives much of its melancholy sensibility from Regina
Carter’s stirring violin as well as Ingrid Jensen’s cascading trumpet lines –
two voices that establish themselves early in the track. Further in, Sung’s
solo work on Rhodes adds a shimmering layer to the entire piece.
Sung
indulges her occasionally ironic sense of arrangement in a rendition of “It
Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” that includes occasional nods
to her classical roots. While the title – and the original intent – of the Duke
Ellington classic may have been all about swing, “my arrangement has hardly any
swing sections in it,” says Sung. “It was intended to be tongue-in-cheek in
that sense. Whether playing live or recording, I’ve always tried to present
something familiar in unexpected ways.”
The
title track gets under way with a quiet interlude, then segues into a rousing
interplay between Rhodes, saxophone, trumpet, and the rhythm section of bassist
Reuben Rogers and drummer Obed Calvaire. The result is everything an anthem is
supposed to be – energized, unabashed and daring. And in this case, it’s one
artist’s declaration of creative identity.
Anthem
for a New Day includes a unique reading of Monk’s “Epistrophy” that resulted
from a tug-of-war between planning and spontaneity. “I’ve been working on
‘Epistrophy’ for a while and it actually started out as a totally different
arrangement,” says Sung. “What a luxury to have musicians who can hang with my
tendency to tinker, and that’s kind of what happened in the studio with
‘Epistrophy.’ More than once, we would try something, after which I’d say, ‘No,
that’s not it.’ And the band would say, ‘Are you sure?’ Finally we did this
take, and I said, ‘That’s it!’ It was awesome to see everyone really ‘get’ the
arrangement.”
A solo
piano rendition of “Equipoise” closes the album on a note that’s reflective and
full of promise. “In some respects,” says Sung, “this album is my way of
saying, ‘This is me, take it or leave it,’ instead of something more tentative
like, ‘Okay, let me work on it a little more.’ Not that I don’t want to keep
growing and developing, but I’m happy to be in a place where I’m more confident
about the kind of artist I am becoming. I can’t believe how rare that feeling
has been in my experience. That this coincides with the opportunity to release
the album on Concord Records is a great blessing, and I’m excited to share it
with the world: this is a new chapter, a new day, and I invite you to join me
in the celebration of this album and music!”
~ concord music
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