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Jen Shyu

Born in Peoria, Illinois, USA, from Taiwanese and East Timorese parents, 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award recipient JEN SHYU is an experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi- instrumentalist, dancer, producer, and Fulbright scholar. Larry Blumenfeld (Wall Street Journal) writes, “...Ms. Shyu is among New York's most invigorating vocal presences. And perhaps the most enigmatic.” She has produced six albums: For Now; Jade Tongue; Inner Chapters; Raging Waters, Red Sands; Sounds & Cries of the World, and is the first female artist and vocalist as bandleader on the Pi Recordings label with the widely praised album Synastry with legendary bassist Mark Dresser. After graduating from Stanford University, she became the vocalist of 2014 MacArthur Genius Award saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Five Elements from 2003 to 2011 and has presented her own music at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bimhuis (Netherlands), Salihara Theater (Indonesia), National Gugak Center, National Theater of Korea, to name a few. She has also performed with Dave Burrell, Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, Mat Maneri, among others, and in Anthony Braxton’s operas Trillium E and Trillium J. Known for her specialization in lesser known and disappearing traditional musical forms in Taiwan, Korea, China, and East Timor, Shyu studied Javanese Sindhenan and dance for two years on a Fulbright scholarship in Indonesia 2011-2013. She then received a six-month scholarship from the National Gugak Center to study Pansori and Gayageum Byeongchang in 2013, and has also won fellowships from Asian Cultural Council, Bronx Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, and commissions from the Jazz Gallery and Roulette Intermedium, Inc. in Brooklyn, NY.

Shyu currently leads her band Jade Tongue (Ambrose Akinmusire, Dan Weiss, Thomas Morgan, Mat Maneri), and is touring her solo opera called SOLO RITES: SEVEN BREATHS, directed by renowned Indonesian filmmaker-director Garin Nugroho. It premiered on May 28, 2014, at Roulette. Her new album “SOUNDS & CRIES OF THE WORLD” will be released by Pi Recordings in the fall of 2015.

Awards

2016 Doris Duke Shangri La residency, 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award, Fulbright Scholarship to Indonesia 2011 - 2012, 2015 South Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs Korea Foundation Award, 2013 South Korea Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Tourism / National Gugak Center CPI Fellowship, 2010 Travel Study Jerome Foundation grant, 2009 Jazz Gallery/Jerome Foundation Vocal Commission for premiere of "Raging Waters, Red Sands," Montalvo Arts Center, Yaddo, and MacDowell Fellow, 2008 Roulette Space/Jerome Foundation "Emerging Artist" Commission & World Premiere of "Cry of a Nomad" with choreographer Satoshi Haga, Asian Cultural Council Fellow, Bronx Council on the Arts "BRIO" Award for Composition.

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“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

“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)

“The singer Jen Shyu, singing parts of her piece “Solo Rites: Seven Breaths” in Korean and English, playing various lutes and zithers and percussion instruments, combined movement, acting, singing, and playing into long-form songs that could remind you of ancient court music or Joni Mitchell. Everything she did — every turn, every breath — came with mindful emphasis.” – Ben Ratliff, NY Times, on Solo Rites: Seven Breaths at Winter Jazz Fest, 2015 (Read HERE)

“Her voice was remarkable, moving from a whispering, almost silent, call to a wailing goddess, and then into a straight singing and dancing spirit.” – Ken Vermes, Jazz Police, on Solo Rites: Seven Breaths at Center for New Music, 2015 (Read HERE)

“The vocalist’s control is remarkable, weaving odd serpentines from low, guttural plunges to the crystalline shimmer of “Kind Of Nine.”” –Shaun Brady, Downbeat Magazine, on Pi Recordings’ Synastry with Mark Dresser, 2011 (Read HERE)

“Shyu is a remarkable phenomenon, shifting registers with startling ease and tonal resourcefulness, moving from conventional pitching to a yodel-like ambiguity without fuss. She blends fragile, light sounds with dark, low notes, ruminative hummings and improv in a personal language that fuses English, Taiwanese, Mandarin and several others.” – John Fordham, The Guardian, on Synastry, 2011 (Read HERE)

“Shyu matches their [David Binney, Shane Endsley, Dan Weiss] virtuosity and sings with palpable nerve, her enunciation of Chinese an outflow of unpredictable timbres….It's a remarkable achievement, with rich theatrical implications for the concert setting.” – David Adler, Time Out, on Jade Tongue, 2009 (Read HERE)

“Shyu deftly integrates ethnographical research with innovative new musical structures, producing work that is both cerebral and visceral.” – Wilbur Mackenzie, All About Jazz, on Jade Tongue, 2009 (Read HERE)

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