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| Jason Kao Hwang/ Edge Celebrates The Release Of Their New CD  Jason Kao Hwang/ Edge (Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet/ flugelhorn), Andrew Drury (drum set), Ken Filiano (string bass), Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/ viola) Celebrates New CD, "Crossroads Unseen" FRI, SEPT 23rd at 5C Cultural Center and Cafe. Over the course of two sets, we will play music from our new CD Crossroads Unseen and from our earlier releases. This is a great concert to hear the creative journey EDGE has traveled since 2005. 5C, a veritable East Village jazz institution, is an intimate venue that serves healthy, delicious food.Crossroads Unseen will be on sale at the concert. My second new release, Symphony of Souls performed by Spontaneous River, an orchestra of string improvisers and drum set, will also be on sale. Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/viola) has created works ranging from jazz, classical, "new" and world music. Jason Kao Hwang's jazz quartet EDGE, founded in 2005, has released three CDs: EDGE (Asian Improv, 2006), Stories Before Within (Innova, 2007), and now Crossroads Unseen (Euonymus, 2011). EDGE will tour Poland this October with music from Crossroads Unseen. Also, being released simultaneously, is Symphony of Souls (Mulatta), performed by his improvising string orchestra, Spontaneous River. Downbeat Magazines Critics Poll recently voted Mr. Hwang as #2 Rising Star of 2011 for Violin. Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983, featuring the collective quartet that was Mr. Hwang's first band, was voted as "2010 Reissued Recording of the Year" by the New York City Jazz Record. His octet Burning Bridge, commissioned by Chamber Music America/ New Jazz Works, recently performed at the Chicago World Music Festival, the Freer Gallery (Washington, D.C.), and Edgefest (Ann Arbor, MI). Mr. Hwang has also received support from the Nationa Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer/New Residencies, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, US Artists International, and others. As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Reggie Workman, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Vladamir Tarasov, Henry Threadgill and many others. "For Crossroads Unseen, each composition is a language of vibrations that accrues into the energy and mass of an emotive landscape. Improvisations cross this primal land confronting life and death rhythmically, as sounds are born and pass away unceasing. Throughout these life cycles, the edge shifts between cultures and genres as individual vibrations tune into the whole sound of the land. The quest is towards full resonance, a journey that is purifying and transformative. " — Jason Kao Hwang Hwang's writing embraces freewheeling improvisation and rigid through-written composition in equal measure, allowing ample room for interpretation. Balancing intuitive call and response ensemble interplay with rousing chart-driven passages, "Edge" is an avant garde thrill ride, and a high water mark in Hwang's already impressive discography. — All About Jazz, Troy Collins write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |