Pianist/composer
John Chin's sophomore album, Undercover, boasts a unique approach to music that
his working band, with Orlando le Fleming (bass) and Dan Rieser (drums), has
cultivated over many years of gigs. Recorded live in one room in Brooklyn, with
no preconceived arrangements and no edits, Undercover features original
compositions from Chin, plus rhythmic, elastic, and ultimately singular takes
on music from Ellington ("Caravan"), Shorter ("Edda" &
"Fall"), Chaplin ("Smile") and Coltrane
("Countdown"). Chin explains, "All of the tunes began with some
kernel that one of us came up with and we would just run with it. It really is
a snapshot of the continuing evolution of the arrangements of songs that we had
been playing over several years, and it struck me as being important to
document what the trio had been working on. Undercover is all about instinct,
the moment, just like our live performances. Every tune, even the original
compositions are treated as frameworks for improvisation.
Pianistically,
Chin has been working on polyphonic improvisation of late, broadening his
technique in order to improvise several lines at the same time. Chin explains,
"when I was a teenager, I got to hang out with the late, great Dorothy
Donegan and she would show me what she was doing in spectacular fashion. I've
also read about Keith Jarrett talking about this approach, and have heard Brad
Mehldau execute it as well. You hear it all over the place in jazz and
classical music actually. Art Tatum and Erroll Garner would pull it off all the
time with a counter line in the middle of all this other activity and it would
always floor me! In Bach, it's built in. And, some of my favorite moments in
music have been found in the works of Rachmaninoff and Ravel. I'd been checking
out all this stuff trying to soak it in and wanted to integrate it into my own
playing. My approach to it is something relatively new and is something that I
explore on Undercover."
John
Chin, born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, was introduced to the
piano at age four. He began studying jazz at California State University, which
he attended at the age of fourteen as part of the Early Entrance Program for
Gifted Students. Upon receiving his B.A. in Music at nineteen, Chin continued
his musical studies at the University of North Texas, before pursuing a Masters
of Music degree from Rutgers University (under the tutelage of master pianist
and composer Kenny Barron), and an Artist Diploma from the world-renowned
Juilliard School. His extensive experience in the classroom would lay the
foundation for his own pedagogy; his experience and reputation have led to
teaching opportunities the world over, while helping to sustain a New York
studio of his own, located in Brooklyn's history-rich Prospect Park. John has
performed internationally as a leader and sideman, at many major festivals, as
well as some of America's most important and storied jazz rooms. He has shared
the stage with Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Jaimeo Brown, Alan Ferber, Mark
Turner, Marcus & E.J. Strickland, Dayna Stephens, Irvin Mayfield, Terrell
Stafford, Donny McCaslin, Joel Frahm, John Ellis, Chris Cheek, Gregory
Hutchinson, and Rudy Royston, among many others. Chin is a prolific composer,
drawing inspiration from the jazz, pop, and western classical traditions, with
two releases as a leader to-date: 2008's Blackout Conception, and his most
recent project, 2014's Undercover.
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