Winning a
2014 Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation "New Jazz Works"
grant (given each year to support the compositional efforts of U.S. based jazz
artists) enabled pianist/composer Helen Sung to fulfill a long-time dream: to
create Sung With Words, a collaborative project with the celebrated American
poet Dana Gioia. Utilizing jazz and poetry as powerful catalysts to create new
music, Sung With Words is Sung's first recording to feature all original music,
consisting of vocal works where Gioia's poems serve as lyrics, as well as
instrumental compositions inspired by words (for example, her Lament for Kalief
Browder). She enlists longtime musical colleagues to help bring the music to
life: multi-reedist John Ellis, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Reuben Rogers,
drummer Kendrick Scott and percussionist Samuel Torres. Vocalists Jean Baylor,
Carolyn Leonhart, Christie Dashiell, and Charenee Wade interpret the words of
Gioia, whose poems have been described as "resonant with music".
Jazz writer
David Adler perceptively states in his liner notes: "The affinity between
jazz and poetry stretches back to Langston Hughes and others writing in the
"Jazz Age" of the '20s, forward to the Beat Generation and up to
today. Poets played a central role in the '60s avant-garde and free jazz, not
to mention the current intertwined exchange between jazz and hip-hop. In recent
years, Andrew Rathbun has composed works inspired by Margaret Atwood; Luciana
Souza by Neruda and Elizabeth Bishop; John Hollenbeck by Kenneth Patchen - the
list goes on."
Now, Sung
and Gioia enter the fray, and with aplomb! Sung first met Gioia at a White
House State Dinner and discovered he was a fan and champion of jazz (during his
term he spearheaded the revival of the National Endowment's Jazz Masters Award
into the robust program it is today, and his younger brother is noted jazz
author Ted Gioia). Poetry hadn't been an area of focus for the pianist/composer
so she was intrigued to meet a 'live' poet. "Dana has a fascinating story,
both personally and professionally, and one of his many gifts is his ability to
make poetry accessible and even enjoyable for the layperson, similar to how
Wynton Marsalis does with jazz," Sung says. Elaborating further,
"After high school required poetry, I stayed away, remembering how I
disliked feeling unsure of a poem's meaning, worrying that I was the only one
who didn't 'get it'."
In
conversation with Gioia, however, Sung found her footing: "I admitted my
general feelings about poetry, and he said, 'Don't worry too much about literal
meaning. Read the poem out loud, listen to how the words fall rhythmically, how
they flow, how the consonants and vowels sound, and meaning will come - usually
sideways.' It was a revelation! I also discovered when I would imagine lines of
poetry as a melodic phrase or rhythmic pattern, it would illuminate the words
and the poem would come alive with meaning. I soon thought, why not make this
into a song? This led to the desire to create a full-length album of songs, and
I couldn't think of a more exciting and inspiring collaborator than Dana when I
applied for the Chamber Music America 'New Jazz Works' grant."
Sung With
Words also reflects Sung's fascination with the direct connection vocalists
have with the listener. Unlike instrumentalists who deal purely with sound,
vocalists are armed with lyrics that can be readily understood by the listener
- they can be storytellers in a very tangible way. "It has been a great
learning experience dealing with words - building sonic worlds around Dana's
poems that express what those words mean to me," says Sung. "In my
research for writing the music for Sung With Words I found inspiration in music
where words, rhythm and sound are interwoven in ways that move me - music of artists
such as Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, A Tribe Called Quest, Me'shell
Ndegeocello, Esperanza Spaulding, Terri Lyne Carrington, etc. I have a great
respect for the art of song-writing and wanted to answer the challenge: to
present Dana's words in my own musical language - as an honest distillation of
what I hear, and how I hear."
Helen Sung
is a pianist of great breadth and excellence, able to enrapture an audience as
a soloist; one of the few pianists in the world who can perform in a duo
setting with the legendary Ron Carter; lead a trio with such fire and absolute
brilliance that it will transport you back to the heyday of Bradley's in the
80s/90s; or, dive into a larger formats ranging from Quartet to Big Band (as
evidenced by her contribution on Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2017 Blue Engine
release Handful of Keys). Steeped in the blues and post-bop, with an affinity
for Monk, but also able to expertly deal with James P. Johnson and Jelly Roll
Morton, Sung has worked with a "Who's Who" in jazz, including the
late Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, Terri Lyne
Carrington, the Mingus Big Band and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter. A graduate
of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Sung knows the tradition and uses
this bedrock to build upon and expand her artistic vision. Her recorded output
reveals a composer and bandleader, second to none: Push (2003), Helenistique
(2006), Sungbird (2007), Going Express (2010), (re)Conception (2011), and
Anthem For a New Day (2014). Sung With Words is a thrilling next step in the
pianist's glorious and inspiring evolution, and Sung fittingly declares,
"It's been a great adventure and I look forward to sharing this music with
the world!"
Upcoming
Tour Dates:
Aug 15 - Smalls Jazz Club (NYC)
Aug 16-19 - Jazz Standard (NYC)
Aug 23 - Bayside Summer Nights Jazz Series (San Diego)
Aug 28-Sept
1 - Birdland Jazz Club (NYC)
Sept 14 - CD Release at the Blue Whale (Los Angeles, CA)
Sept 15 - Christianity,
Community, Churches, and Challenges, (Irvine, CA)
Sept 18-22 - Birdland Jazz Club (NYC)
Sept 28 - Met Museum of Art (NYC)
Sept 30* - CD Release concert (LIU Post, Long Island)
Oct 5-7 -
w/Oregon Coast Jazz Party (Newport, OR)
Oct 8 - Chapel Performance Space (Seattle, WA)
Oct 9 - Edmonds Woodway High School (Seattle, WA)
Oct 10 - Monk Centennial Celebrationg (San Francisco, CA)
Oct 12-22 - Ronnie Scott's (UK)
Oct 24-25 - Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (NYC)
Oct 25 - WBGO/Yamaha Concert Series 2018 (NYC)
Nov 7-10 -
(exact dates TBC) Sydney International
Women's Jazz Festival
Nov 16 - NJPAC (Newark, NJ)
Nov 17 - Kennedy Center (Wash., DC)
Nov 18 - McCarter Theater (Princeton, NJ)
Dec 1 - CD Release at North Coast Brewing's Sequoia Room
(Fort Bragg,
CA)
Dec 2 - Healdsburg Jazz (Healdsburg, CA)
Dec 4 or 5 - CD Release at Dazzle Jazz (Denver, CO)
Dec 6 - CD Release at Kuumbwa Jazz Center (Santa Cruz, CA)
Jan 19 - CD Release at Vermont Jazz Center (Brattleboro, VT)
Jan 26 - CD Release at 2019 Trinity Jazz Festival (Houston, TX)
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