Home » Jazz Musicians » Jen Shyu

Jen Shyu

Born in Peoria, Illinois, USA, from Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrant parents, 2016 Doris Duke Artist Jen Shyu (Chinese name: 徐秋雁) is an experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, producer, and Fulbright scholar. Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist and 2014 MacArthur Genius Fellow Steve Coleman since 2003 and having collaborated with innovators Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte, Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, and David Binney to name a few, she has performed her own music around the world in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin Museum of Art, Ringling International Arts Festival, Asia Society, Roulette, Blue Note, Bimhuis, Salihara Theater, National Gugak Center, and National Theater of Korea and festivals around the world.

A Stanford University graduate in opera with classical violin and ballet training, Jen had already won many piano competitions and played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb Minor, 3rd Movement, with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra by the age of 13. She has also studied traditional music and dance in Cuba, Taiwan, Brazil, China, South Korea, East Timor, and Indonesia, extensive research which in 2014 culminated into Solo Rites: Seven Breaths, directed by renowned Indonesian filmmaker Garin Nugroho. Shyu has won commissions and support from the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards (2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award), MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works, New Music USA, Jazz Gallery, and Roulette, as well as fellowships from Asian Cultural Council, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Korean Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Tourism.

Jen has produced six albums as a leader, including Synastry (Pi, 2011) with co- bandleader and bassist Mark Dresser, which made her the first female artist and vocalist as bandleader on Pi Recordings; and most recently the critically acclaimed album Sounds and Cries of the World (Pi, 2015), which landed on many “Top 10 Best Albums of 2015” lists, including the New York Times and The Nation. It features her band Jade Tongue currently comprised of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, violist Mat Maneri, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Dan Weiss. Ben Ratliff of the New York Times calls it her "latest and best album" as well as calling her concerts "the most arresting performances I’ve seen over the past five years. It’s not just the meticulous preparation of the work and the range of its reference, but its flexibility: She seems open, instinctual, almost fearless." Larry Blumenfeld writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Her voice, a wonder of technical control and unrestrained emotion, tells a story dotted with well-researched facts and wild poetic allusions. She claims both as her truths.”

Read more

Tags

5
Live Review

Other Minds Festival 2021

Read "Other Minds Festival 2021" reviewed by Roy Strassman


The Other Minds organization is the musical brain child of Charles Amirkhanian, who himself is a musician in addition to composer—and since 1993, also a producer. Other Minds is devoted to bringing both experimental and avant-garde music to a wider audience. What they often present falls most closely into the modern experimental (classical) music and free jazz realms. The OM 'association' presents an annual festival, which is always exciting and cutting edge. “Moment's Notice," the title this of year's festival, ...

7
Live Review

Other Minds 25, Day 1

Read "Other Minds 25, Day 1" reviewed by John Chacona


Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 Taube Atrium Theater Other Minds Festival San Francisco, CA October 14, 2021 When the organizers of jny: San Francisco's Other Minds Festival chose Moment's Notice as the name of its 25th edition, it might have been with the hope that the difficulties of making pandemic-dictated snap decisions were behind them. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Travel plans for ...

7
Album Review

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses

Read "Zero Grasses: Ritual for The Losses" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Calling vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu brilliant, and her style unique, underestimates both her ingenuity as a composer and the distinctiveness of her oeuvre. Shyu has forged her own path in creative music with an intrepid spirit and restless innovation. Her eighth release as a leader is the intensely personal Zero Grasses: Ritual For The Losses. A cycle of songs which is equally about bereavement and injustice as it is about solace and hope, its message transcends the individual, reaching ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese

Read "Song of the Silver Geese" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Viene spesso definita una vocalist sperimentale Jen Shyu, ma questo disco conferma che è molto di più. Dopo aver collaborato stabilmente con Steve Coleman e ancora con Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte, Mark Dresser, Chris Potter e altri grandi, la cantante americana di genitori orientali (Taiwan e Timor Est) ha compiuto negli anni scorsi ricerche etnomusicologiche, recandosi a Cuba, in Brasile e per lungo tempo in estremo oriente (Taiwan, Corea del Sud, Indonesia, Cina, Timor Est) per indagare sulle musiche tradizionali ...

3
Album Review

Jen Shyu: Song of the Silver Geese

Read "Song of the Silver Geese" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The dramatic and sublime The Song of the Silver Geese is vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu's magnum opus. On it Shyu draws from her dual cultural ancestry as well as other east Asian heritages to craft memorable performance art replete with dynamic spontaneity, unique instrumentation and exquisite poetry. The nine-piece suite is divided into “doors" and each segment brims with a mystical ambience and a surreal air. Shyu opens “Door 4: Sinom Semarangan" for example, with her resonant ...

Album Review

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Sounds and Cries of the World

Read "Sounds and Cries of the World" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Nota al pubblico del jazz per la decennale collaborazione con Steve Coleman (ma l'abbiamo ascoltata anche con Anthony Braxton, Bobby Previte, Chris Potter e altri nomi di primo piano), Jen Shyu è strumentista e vocalist d'impronta sperimentale, che trae ispirazione da ricerche d'etno-musicologia presso popolazioni tradizionali del Centro e Sud America ma soprattutto di Cina, Sud Corea, Indonesia, Taiwan e Timor Est. Queste due ultimi Paesi sono anche le regioni d'origine dei suoi genitori e sono stati a ...

4
Album Review

Jen Shyu and Jade Tongue: Sounds and Cries of the World

Read "Sounds and Cries of the World" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu's Sounds and Cries of the World is both raw and sophisticated, fiercely compelling yet intimately fragile and, above all, terrifyingly beautiful. Her sixth album as a leader, it is a collection of seven original compositions and three folk melodies all inspired by the traditions of Korea, Indonesia and East Timor. The exquisitely realized music balances the spontaneous and the choreographed resulting in a superbly dramatic effect. On the dreamlike “Moxa," for instance, Shyu ...

Read more articles

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Chucho Valdés & Joe Lovano, Jen Shyu, "Jazz Explosion," and more

Jazz this week: Chucho Valdés & Joe Lovano, Jen Shyu, "Jazz Explosion," and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Here's what's happening with live jazz and creative music over the next few days in St. Louis... Thursday, November 10 Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu will present a free, public artist's talk and workshop at the Lewis Center, the Washington University School of Art building located off-campus at 721 Kingsland Ave in U City. Also on Thursday, Native American flautist Mark Holland and his band will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; singer ...

1

Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jen Shyu's "Solo Rites: Seven Breaths"

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jen Shyu's "Solo Rites: Seven Breaths"

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, who's performing here in St. Louis in a concert presented by New Music Circle next Friday, November 11 at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Shyu, who's now in her late 30s, was born in Peoria, IL to parents who immigrated to the US from Taiwan and East Timor. She was something of a child prodigy, winning many piano competitions and performing a Tchaikovsky piano concerto ...

159

Recording

Jen Shyu and Mark Dresser - Synastry (Pi Recordings, 2011)

Jen Shyu and Mark Dresser - Synastry (Pi Recordings, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Vocalist Jen Shyu and bassist Mark Dresser are uniquely qualified to perform in a duet setting together. After Shyu began studying with saxophonist and musical theorist Steve Coleman, she was soon invited to join his band, adding a fascinating new dimension to his recent albums. Mark Dresser has had a very successful career in all aspects of jazz and improvisatory music, performing with a wide range of luminaries and recording many albums under his own name, but really seems to ...

100

Performance / Tour

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets @ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets @ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Vocalist Jen Shyu performs ritual invocation about Chinese laborers in 19th Century Colonial Cuba at The Jazz Gallery September 27, 2007 (One Night Only) 2 Sets: 9:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, New York, NY $12 ($10 members) New York, NY - Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Jen Shyu takes her own group and compositions to the Jazz Gallery for one night ...

67

Performance / Tour

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets@ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue at the Jazz Gallery September 27th Sets@ 9:00 P.M. & 10:30 P.M

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

JEN SHYU & JADE TONGUE

Steve Coleman Vocalist Jen Shyu performs ritual invocation about Chinese laborers in 19th Century Colonial Cuba at The Jazz Gallery

September 27, 2007 (One Night Only) 2 Sets: 9:00 p.m. & 10:30 p.m. Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, New York, NY $12 ($10 members)

(New York, NY) - Known mostly for her virtuosic singing with saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Jen Shyu takes her own group and compositions ...

100

Performance / Tour

Gnu Vox Festival: Alison Wedding/ Rebecca Shrimpton (Mon) Jen Shyu Band & Yoon Sun Choi and Kyoko Kitamura (Tue) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Gnu Vox Festival: Alison Wedding/ Rebecca Shrimpton (Mon) Jen Shyu Band & Yoon Sun Choi and Kyoko Kitamura (Tue) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Aug 13 6:00PM GNU VOX FESTIVAL: ALISON WEDDING (Alison Wedding, voice;Pete McCann, guitar) GNU VOX FESTIVAL: REBECCA SHRIMPTON (Rebecca Shrimpton, vocals;Dan Tepfer, piano;Eric Hofbauer, guitar) Tue Aug 14

“I suppose there have been other people like JEN SHYU: disciplined vocalists who speak and sing in multiple languages, work with improvisation and composition and movement, feel at home both with quick-change rhythmic patterns and meditative long tones, use narrative poetry as a basis for songs, and use a two- stringed Taiwanese moon lute in a New Yorkish and vanguardish jazz context. I just can't think of any right now."

"Instead of thinking about her categorically, you can focus on how beautifully and generously she uses sound.” - Ben Ratliff, NY Times (Read HERE)

"Ms. Shyu is among New York's most invigorating vocal presences. And perhaps the most enigmatic.” - Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal (Read HERE)

Read more

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Oedipe Redux

Sunnyside Records
2023

buy

Song of the Silver...

Pi Recordings
2017

buy

Sounds and Cries of...

Pi Recordings
2016

buy

Sounds and Cries of...

Pi Recordings
2015

buy

Synastry

Dilapidated Barns
2011

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.