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Emy Tseng
Emy Tseng’s background in Brazilian music is extensively well-rounded, having studied with world- renowned Brazilian musicians: pianist Marcos Silva (Flora Purim & Airto) at the Jazz School in Berkeley, CA and bassist Nilson Matta (Trio da Paz, Joe Henderson) in New York. She had fallen in love with Brazilian jazz and bossa nova when she heard Brazilian singers such as Paula Morelenbaum and Luciana Souza. Tseng’s poetic vocal expression is now both longing and blissful, building upon Brazilian rhythms and melodies genuinely and vivaciously.
Coming to Washington DC in 2009, Emy was pleasantly surprised to discover there was a very active Brazilian jazz community. By guiding and encouraging her to record and improve upon her show, she has now established herself as a foremost interpreter of modern and Brazilian jazz, performing alongside her bands of acoustic guitarists, bass players, and percussionists residing in the DC and NY areas.
On her debut album, Sonho (meaning “Dream” in Portuguese), Tseng utilizes such excellent musicians as guitarist Matvei Sigalov, keyboardist Wayne Wilentz, Leonardo Lucini or David Jernigan on bass, drummer Alejandro Lucini, percussionists Bruno Lucini and Roberto Berimbau, and saxophonists Lyle Link and Andy Connell (who doubles on clarinet). Several works feature the Brazilian guitarist Rogerio Souza as well. The music ranges from traditional pieces with Souza, to modern Brazilian jazz with Sigalov, and a couple of jazz standards. As an organic and innovative album, Sonho has received critical acclaim in the jazz community as a freshly inspired and vibrant presentation of the genre. "...the result is an exquisite bossa nova portrait delivered by a talented artist with a marvelously understated, yet appropriately passionate approach to the robust material." - Nicholas F. Mondello - All About Jazz
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Emy Tseng: Sonho
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Fifty-plus years after saxophonist Stan Getz and singer/guitarist Astrud Gilberto captured composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and served up bossa nova for popular consumption, musicians continue to eagerly return to Brazilian classics. Logically, the integration of attractive bossa textures with the Great American Songbook has been another phenomenon. Thus, the bossa nova resource has been incredibly robust and long-lived.With Sonho, her debut CD, Washington, DC-based vocalist Emy Tseng shrewdly embraces and expands the genre by selecting gorgeous material from ...
read moreEmy Tseng: Sonho
by Dan Bilawsky
Washington, DC-based vocalist Emy Tseng always had music in her life, but it took awhile for her to settle into the role of Brazilian-based seductress" or jazz singer." She started on the piano at age four, branched out into singing in high school and continued to explore the vocal arts while knee-deep in academia at Brown University, studying math and physics, and MIT, where she attended graduate school. All the while, Tseng kept on singing, but her focus was on ...
read moreVocalist Emy Tseng’s Impressive BrazilianJjazz Debut, “Sonho” Set For February 5, 2013 Release On Mei Music
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Michael Bloom Media Relations
The release of Emy Tseng’s debut recording Sonho is a happy event for fans of modern Brazilian jazz. Emy has a memorable and haunting voice along with a real feeling for the music, and her interpretations sound authentic. Utilizing some of the best musicians in the Washington D.C. area, Emy not only does justice to the music she loves but she invigorates the style. Emy Tseng was born in Taipei, Taiwan, moving to the United States with her family when ...
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"...she has the charm, knowledge, technique, and creativity to make her a real contender." Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
"... Emy Tseng is real. A remarkably clear voice. An adept student working hard at her craft. More than that, a gifted artist starting on a long path." Brian Arsenault, International Review of Music