"The
way I write, I want to tell a story in every composition," says Chan, 36,
a classically trained pianist born and raised in Hong Kong. "My pieces
tend to be open-ended. I go into different scenarios. They can read rough,
jumping from one place to another, breaking grooves, but I like that kind of
phrasing because in a way that's almost like talking, the way we phrase and
rephrase things."
Most of
his big band compositions reflect the modern world in affecting ways and,
without explicitly incorporating ethnic forms, capture important aspects of the
Asian-American experience. "Compositions
that unfold and morph, challenging structures, inventive voicings and
ever-changing orchestral colors set this group apart. Chan has given Los
Angeles a jazz big band with an utterly unique tonal personality," wrote
Kirk Silsbee in a Down Beat feature published last year.
When
Chan was growing up in Hong Kong, the country was still under British rule.
Chinese music was marginalized there, and little jazz was available, so he was
exposed mainly to classical and Chinese folk music. Even when he later immersed
himself in jazz studies, he says, he never lost his connection to traditional
Asian forms.
Chan
went on to study jazz arranging with Gary Lindsay as an undergraduate at the
University of Miami in the late '90s (a time and place he nostalgically recalls
on "Shrimp Tale"), but he never thought he'd lead a big band. As a
doctoral student at the University of Southern California, he primarily studied
classical composition. (He acquired his master's in composition at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City after being part of an exchange program at
the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.)
But with
the encouragement of two distinguished composer-arrangers at USC, Shelly Berg
and Vince Mendoza, he became involved with jazz. And the more he listened to
the work of artists including Thad Jones, Bob Mintzer, Uri Caine, Hermeto
Pascoal, and the recently deceased Fred Ho, he says, "the more attractive
jazz's harmonic language became to me. It felt like a bold new world."
In 2008, Chan became a member of the BMI Jazz
Composers Workshop in New York City. Under the guidance of director Jim
McNeely, he made significant advances as a composer and arranger, incorporating
classical elements into the background of some of his pieces. That the
musicians he worked with were so adept at performing his compositions from
scratch gave him a major boost.
After
receiving commissions from around the world and having his charts performed by
such ensembles as the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Chuck Owen & the Jazz Surge,
and the Millennium Jazz Orchestra of the Netherlands, Chan formed his Jazz
Orchestra in 2011 -- the year he won the Dutch ArtEZ Jazz Composition Contest.
He was also a finalist in last year's Brussels Jazz Orchestra Composition
Contest.
The Alan
Chan Jazz Orchestra will be performing two CD release shows this summer, one on
each coast. Their appearance at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood is set
for Tuesday 7/1 at 8:30 pm. A month later, Alan will debut his East Coast band
at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, Monday 8/4 at 7:30 pm. Much of the new CD's
material was composed nearby in his studio in Gowanus. He's especially excited
to be performing this music in his beloved old Brooklyn neighborhood.
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