Music has added the most richness to the world when artists combine influences to create an unprecedented sound world, and portray images and messages through unique means. By this definition, the cross-cultural learners will always lead the pack. Stanford graduate Jen Shyu has dedicated her life to cultural fluency that speaks in her compositions. As a world traveler, she has studied in Brazil, Taiwan, Timor, Korea, China, Indonesia, and others, and has picked up a new native instrument and dance style from each place. Also notably a speaker of ten languages, she will often bounce between languages mid-song to create a culturally blurring but unifying experience. As many Eastern countries birth prized vocal traditions that combine improvisation and micro-tonality, Shyu has spent her life building a virtuosic array and illustrative vocal performative palette. She has worked with many notable jazz performers including Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer, and Michael Formanek, and is the recipient of many renowned awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a United States Artists Fellowship. Of East Timorese and Taiwanese descent, Shyu says her limited and murky understanding of her own ancestry only strengthens her personal voice in music.
Her brand new album with her Jade Tongue ensemble, featuring established names such as Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet and some others, acts as a lament for people of color and a dedication to her deceased father in the events leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Entitled "Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses," Shyu's unwavering attachment to jazz throughout her years of study are no less apparent here, with a complete ensemble also featuring bass, drums, and viola. The ensemble is completed and led by Shyu's vibrant voice and work on the Taiwanese moon lute and Japanese biwa, a distinctively sounding plucked string instrument. A smooth constancy in sound from the bass and drums create an environment for an ever-changing vocal texture, with comments from the other instruments and graceful imitations such as the breathy voice to choked trumpet interaction. "The Human Color", concerns the stories of Chinese indentured servants under Spanish and Portuguese influence in Cuba in the mid 19th century. The album also features a "Lament for Breonna Taylor," where Shyu's unique collection of percussive elements is displayed in the form of funeral bells, and a collective wash of sound from the ensemble builds to a climax as the refrain, "Who will say my name when I'm gone..." is repeated to eerie intensity.
Part of the inspiration for the album arose from the re-visitation of her childhood diary after the death of her father. Lines from it have made it on to the album, most notably on "When I Have Power," where blatantly racist interactions are recounted through the plain and clear speech of a child. Complaints of exclusion intensify and melt into impassioned traditional Chinese vocalizations, growing to a chant, and accompanied by ritualistic drums with a haunting trumpet solo and extended string comments. Shyu's biwa playing is most prominent on "Display Under the Moon," alongside her wildly colorful singing in Chinese, imitating her bells and gongs as well as the rest of the ensemble. A passionate, flute-like trumpet solo blends incredibly with the emotional utterances from the strings.
Several tracks including "Lament for Breonna Taylor" can be heard on Shyu's profile on the Bandcamp platform. Social commentary and criticism has always had a prominent voice in art music, and with history being made constantly, the music will follow to properly honor it.
Sources:
Finchum-Sung, Hilary Vanessa. "Artistic Habitus in an Intercultural World: A Tale of Two Artists."The World of Music, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 21-40. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44841968. Accessed 13 Apr. 2021.
https://jenshyu-pi.bandcamp.com/
Photo credit: https://www.jenshyu.com/jenshyupress.html
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