Jon Jang

Jon Jang is a composer and jazz pianist who has studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and toured at major concert halls and music festivals in China, South Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States. He is featured on over ten albums and has composed commissions for many theater productions and major concert halls. REVIEW: Reviews Author: Art Lange Source: Pulse! from March 2000 issue Just as drummer Max Roach was at the the forefront fo the '40s bebop musical revolution and the subsequent civil rights movement that grew in part from its strong self-determination message, pianist Jon Jang is a key member of the burgeoning Asian American awareness and reparation movement. And while their first-time musical meeting may not confront any specific social or political agenda, the music reveals them to be remarkably compatible. Jang's compositions draw from Chinese folk melodies and modalities, and his piano playing encompasses tremolos and cascades energized by splashy free jazz choral baranges. Working on Jang's terrain, Roach displays his mesmerizing lyricism and sensitivity, cleanly articulating rolling, melodically-accented rhythms that support the music with welcome muscle and sinew. Jiebing Chen's erhu (a bowed, two-string fiddle) adds color and counterpoint, darting and drifting like a butterfly, and gives voice to the alternately melancholy ("Fallen Petals"), bittersweet ("Heart in a Different Place") and jubilant ("Now's the Time!") moods. (Four Stars) This piece was originally produced for the Crossing East Asian American history series as 5-minute news fill pieces.