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Sizhukong

IZHUKONG絲竹空爵士樂團 - An Innovative Ancient Sound from Taiwan

In this rejuvenated music, oriental aura and Chinese-kung-fu-like skills are beautifully blended, and a new kind of Chinese music is born with a soul of jazz.

Where does Jazz fit in the music of the world today? How does a citizenship of jazz musicians from every corner of the world adapt and transform this once idiomatically American form? Where is jazz headed next?

Sizhukong, a unique ensemble led by Yuwen Peng, is one good answer to this set of questions. A composer/pianist born and raised in Taiwan, Yuwen received her jazz training at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and returned to Taiwan with a jazz mission. This group is her latest effort to bring jazz into conversation with the old and new cultures of Taiwan. Combining traditional Chinese and modern jazz instrumentation, bringing new styles to traditional songs, Sizhukong takes traditional Chinese music into the modern age and transports jazz and other modern styles back into the past. In March 2007, the group released its first album, also called “Sizhukong”, which catches great attention of both music lovers and critics.

Performances including:

2005 Taipei Arts Festival 2005 & 2006 Taipei Film Festival Opening Concerts 2005 & 2007 Taichung Jazz Festival 2007 Zhu Jia Jiao Water Village World Music Festival in Shanghai, China 2008 Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia 2008 National Theater‧Concert Hall Summer Jazz, Taipei 2008 Jarasum Jazz Festival, Korea 2008 The ANMC21 Cultural Events--‘Enchanting Asia’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2008 The 1st Cross-strait Cultural Industries Fair in Xiamen, China 2008 Hong Kong Jazz Up Concert

Members:

Yuwen Peng: piano, composition Toshi Fujii: drums, percussion Alex Wu: erhu (Chinese violin), percussion Joyce Chen: liuqin, ruan (Chinese lutes) Chihping Huang: dizi, xiao (Chinese flutes) Martijn Vanbuel: bass, composition

Si, Zhu, Kong, the combination of these three Chinese characters elicits an abundant range of meaning:

si 絲 Silk

zhu 竹 Bamboo

kong 空 Emptiness

sizhu 絲竹 Musical Instrument, Music

sizhukong 絲竹空 The pressure point at the end of the eyebrow

sizhu kong 絲竹 空 Music is emptiness... Music is not meant to be controlled or manipulated...

Tags

3
Album Review

Sizhukong: Hand In Hand

Read "Hand In Hand" reviewed by Ian Patterson


For fans of Taiwanese jazz-folk fusioneers Sizhukong it's been a long wait for the follow-up to Spin (Sony Music, 2012.) The band, formed in 2005 by pianist/composer Yuwen Peng, could never stand accused of rushing its releases but that's not a bad thing when the music produced is of a consistently high quality. In the intervening years Sizhukong has toured internationally, changed record label and personnel, but essentially, its musical identity, on this, its fourth recording, remains largely the same, ...

9
Album Review

Sizhukong: Sizhukong: Spin

Read "Sizhukong: Spin" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Taiwanese band Sizhukong has come a long way in five years since its debut recording, Sizhukong (Sizhukong Music, 2007). Blending jazz idioms with traditional Taiwanese/Chinese folk music, that record announced the arrival of a unique Asian ensemble, whose exciting, highly lyrical playing sounded not just newly minted, but newly conceived. Pianist/leader Yuwen Peng had recently graduated from Berklee and wove her flowing jazz lines throughout the exotic mix. And, in a captivating collaboration with South African mbira/djembe player and singer ...

218
Album Review

Sizhukong: Paper Eagle

Read "Paper Eagle" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Jazz's first century has thrown up few examples of Chinese folk music which has found new voice in this idiom. Buck Clayton, in collaboration with Li Jinhui, spent two years in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, adapting Chinese folk music to ballroom jazz, but nothing was recorded. Jazz's second century should see a change in this situation, and leading the way is Taiwanese group Sizhukong, whose second CD is a stunning advertisement for the possibilities of Chinese folk music merged with ...

1,179
Interview

Sizhukong: It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Oon

Read "Sizhukong: It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Oon" reviewed by Ian Patterson


It is something of a paradox that the western world knows so relatively little about modern China, even as the awakening giant's influence in the world is increasing. Who knows exactly what music is fermenting in its endless metropolises and among its multitude of ethnicities? Who knows what musical experiments and innovations are exciting passions and inspiring its youth?

With something like 10 million people migrating every year to China's cities, it seems inevitable, though, that old musical ...

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115

Interview

Chinese Jazz Fusioners Sizhukong Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Chinese Jazz Fusioners Sizhukong Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Source: All About Jazz

It is something of a paradox that the western world knows so relatively little about modern China, even as the awakening giant's influence in the world is increasing. With something like 10 million people migrating every year to China's cities, it seems inevitable that old musical traditions will find new voices once merged with influences such as electronic music, hip-hop, rock and jazz. Most likely, much experimentation is actually taking place among a population numbering 1.3 billion.

As yet, however, ...

”Sizhukong embraces the ethos of jazz fusion: its music takes established forms--jazz and classical Chinese styles--and gives them a new twist.” --Tapei Times

“This beautiful music is at once familiar and exotic. The spirit of jazz is very much to the fore in the arrangements and in the improvisation and sits in perfect harmony alongside centuries of Chinese tradition. If Weather Report had come from China they might have sounded something like this.” --Ian Patterson All About Jazz

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hand In Hand

Feeling Good Records Co.
2017

buy

Sizhukong: Spin

Sony Music
2012

buy

Paper Eagle

Sizhukong Records
2010

buy

Videos

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