US-based steelpan jazz fusion group Jonathan Scales Fourchestra are to hold concerts and participate in other cultural activities in Taiwan later this month, as part of this year’s American Music Abroad program, co-organized by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
The jazz group is to visit Taipei, New Taipei City, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung from Thursday next week through Feb. 15, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, which is co-organizing the program.
In cooperation with local governments, the three Jonathan Scales Fourchestra members are to give free concerts, attend workshops and give speeches in an effort to promote bilateral exchanges, the institute said.
The three concerts are to be held in New Taipei City on Friday next week, Yilan on Saturday next week and Taitung on Feb. 13, with several Taiwanese musicians joining the US group to perform, it said.
In addition to the concerts, the US group will also perform a show outside Taipei MRT Zhongshan Station on Thursday next week, so that local residents can get a taste of authentic US street music, the institute said.
Formed in 2002, the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra explodes onto stages with “a Thelonius Monk-like attitude with a Mozart creativity,” according to a review on panonthenet.com.
Steel pannist and founder Jonathan Scales’ “compositional skill mixes with tasteful, avant-garde improvisations to form an unmistakably unique approach to an instrument often associated with cruise ships and tropical music,” the review added.
American Music Abroad is a people-to-people cultural exchange program designed to promote US music and culture around the world.
As part of this years “American Music Abroad” program, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra is scheduled to visit Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Indonesia as cultural ambassadors, the institute said.
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