If you like jazz, in all its forms and riffs, then the National Concert Hall and Liberty Plaza are the places to be this weekend as the National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) Summer Jazz program heads into its final two weekends.
There are indoor concerts, outdoor parties, international musicians and home-grown talent, shows free and ticketed, something for just about everyone.
From 2pm to 5:30pm on Saturday there will be the NTCH Summer Jazz Party at the Concert Hall, or as the NTCH calls it “Jazzy afternoon with fresh groove,” — a free tea party with some of the nation’s best young musicians.
Photo Courtesy of National Theater Concert Hall
The line-up includes a quartet led by saxophonist Cheng Hao-wein (鄭皓文), singer Tsai Wen-hui’s (蔡雯慧) trio, another trio led by Hong Kong-based drummer Huang Tzu-yu (黃子瑜) and a quartet led by guitar player Lee Shih-chun (李世鈞).
An hour later the action switches to the plaza for the Summer Jazz Outdoor Party, which is to run from 6:30pm to 9:30pm with a line-up that includes the Muddy Basin Ramblers (泥灘地浪人) and the Timeless Fusion Party (無限融合), a jazz fusion band led by pianist Fred Lu (呂聖斐) and Tony Tung (董舜文), as well as with Bunun-Puyuma R&B singer Jia (家家) for a mix of old-fashioned jazz, blues and swing.
For Ramblers’ fans, frontman David Chen says his group will be on for an hour, starting at 7:40pm.
Photo Courtesy of National Theater Concert Hall
On Sunday, the action returns to the Concert Hall for the NTCH Summer Jazz Project featuring Cliff Almond, which begins at 2:30pm.
The program has been specially arranged by famed trumpeter Michael Mossman and will also feature locally known artists such as Stacey Wei (魏廣皓), Yohei Yamada, pianists Hsu Yu-ying (許郁瑛) and Lee Cheng-yu and Yabu Mowna as well as Nick Javier, Go Yamada and Masanori Okazaki.
You have to pay for this show and tickets run from NT$500 to NT$2,000.
Photo Courtesy of National Theater Concert Hall
On Thursday, the Concert Hall will play host to award-winning drummer/singer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Experience, which starts at 7:30pm and the only remaining tickets run from NT$500 to NT$1,200.
Carrington, who will be making her first appearance in Taipei, was the first female musician to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
The NTCH Summer Jazz Party wraps up on Friday next week with a concert by 10-time Grammy Award winner trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and his sextet in the Concert Hall.
The legendary Cuban artist will be making his second visit to Taipei with a concert program featuring Dizzy Gillespie and other jazz standards.
The others in his group are John Belzaguy, Tiki Pasillas, Dave Siegel, Johnny Friday and Kemuel Roig.
Tickets run from NT$800 to NT$2,000.
■ Tickets are available at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com.tw and at convenience store ticketing kiosks.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist