A performance video featuring jazz bassist Vincent Hsu (徐崇育) and his ensemble, Soy La Ley Afro-Cuban Jazz Band, premiered on Facebook on Friday.
The performance was the result of a collaboration between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New York and the Rhode Island-based organizer FirstWorks.
The video is to be available on the FirstWorks Web site (http://first-works.org/events/vincent-hsu-soy-la-ley-afro-cuban-band) until Friday.
Photo: CNA
The performance, titled “Jazz Changed, Jazz Changes, Jazz Changin’,” aims to show that jazz is alive and well beyond its birthplace, and as suggested by the title, shows how the genre is always evolving, the organizer said.
The video also features interviews with prominent musicians and academics, including Hsu’s mentor, bassist Cecil McBee, historian Loren Schoenberg, drummer and educator Jerome Jennings, and poet and writer Naomi Extra.
“Jazz is one of the ultimate fashions of expressing oneself, especially because it is spontaneous. No wonder the world at large loves this music, because it never repeats itself,” McBee said.
The video was shot in four locations: Tianhou Temple (天后宮) in Changhua County’s Lukang Township (鹿港), the Jianguo Market in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), the Museum of Old Taiwan Tiles in Chiayi County and the Lavender Cottage tourist area in Taichung.
The music changes and shifts in each location, becoming attuned to the local area while maintaining the essence of jazz, organizers said.
“I think the definition of jazz is the tradition, and the tradition is whatever it is you. The second thing is contemporary times and contemporary culture. And you add those two things, and you get what I think is jazz of 2020,” Schoenberg has said.
Hsu has been heavily influenced by New York’s Spanish Harlem, where he launched his music career, and his music brings together elements of New York jazz, Latin music, African polyrhythms and Taiwanese composition.
During a tour in 2019, Hsu told reporters that an Asian man playing jazz in the US was similar to a foreigner performing in gezai opera in Taiwan.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS