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Have music, will travel: Swiss jazz pianist Claude Diallo

PERFORMANCE NOTES: WHAT: One Night of Jazz on the Love River, featuring Swiss jazz pianist Claude Diallo, vocalist Angela Wang, drummer Toshi Fuji and bassist Vincent Hsu WHERE: Outdoor music plaza at Kaohsiung City Music Hall (高雄市音樂館), 99 Hesi Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市河西路99號); behind the Kaohsiung Museum of History (高雄市歷史博物館) WHEN: Sunday at 7:30pm ON THE NET: www.claudediallo.com

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Switzerland doesn’t sound like a place of driven, forward-looking jazz musicians, but Claude Diallo could change your mind.

The 27-year-old pianist and composer has just released his sixth CD, entirely self-produced, and has been working on a masters degree in music at Queens College in New York City, his current home. On top of that, he maintains a seasonal concert schedule in his home country, playing 50 dates a year.

Diallo, who has collaborated with such accomplished jazz artists as vocalist Denzal Sinclaire, performs at a free outdoor concert at Kaohsiung City Music Hall

(高雄市音樂館) on Sunday, which is being held by academic think-tank Asia Pacific Research Foundation (亞太綜合研究院) as a “cultural exchange.”

His repertoire comprises

“re-harmonized and re-arranged” jazz standards, including a Latin-tinged rendition of Cole Porter’s Night and Day and Chick Corea’s High Wire (The Aerialist), which are on his latest release, Traveling With Music.

In keeping with the CD’s title theme, Diallo’s own compositions are marked with uplifting tempos and melodic themes that evoke wonder and optimism. People often say his music sounds “too happy,” but he doesn’t care. “I’m just a happy person,” he says.

Sunday’s event also aims to promote jazz from Taiwanese musicians: Diallo will be joined by singer Angela Wang, Diallo’s girlfriend and fellow alumnus from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, as well as drummer Toshi Fuji and bassist Vincent Hsu (徐祟育).

“I think it’s really important for people to support jazz from their own country,” said Diallo, who believes that the jazz idiom has moved beyond its American origins.

Diallo says that nearly every country in Europe has its own distinctive jazz scene, and European musicians today appear more innovative than their American counterparts, who are bound by a fear of breaking from tradition.

“Europeans don’t care if they sound like Charlie Parker ... we use the language [of jazz] as a base,” he said. “European jazz is having no fear of making a mistake ... The music is so free, so fresh.”

Despite the fact that “there is no market” for independent jazz musicians such as Diallo, positive feedback from audiences keeps him going: “[When] they love what I do, the love I feel, I want to return it.”

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