Combining free jazz and post-punk rock forms with pointed commentary about issues of race, gender, the pandemic, and political autonomy, through provocative vocal works expressing modern angst, from three Asian-American female performers living in NYC: tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, drummer Wen-Ting Wu, and activist and Tiananmen Square survivor Rose Tang on voice, guitar & piano.
Format: LP Condition: New Released: 2021 Country: USA Packaging: LP Recorded at West Park Studios, in Brooklyn, New York, on December 16th, 2020, by Jim Clouse.
"This extraordinary NYC trio combines free jazz and post-punk with pointed commentary about issues of race, gender, the pandemic, and political autonomy. The group came together to play one song at an event. ESP-Disk', already familiar with the separate work on the NYC scene of all three members, immediately invited them to make an album. After intensive rehearsals, the members recorded the album in a one-day session, then reunited during the pandemic to add words about its effect to an existing instrumental on "8 Steps/7 O'Clock." This album is simultaneously part of ESP-Disk's Drive To Revive Weird Rock and an extension of the label's famed free-jazz legacy.
Rose Tang, a Mongol from Sichuan in mainland China, singsecites and plays guitar, piano, and percussion. Her album with Roses and Roaches, And Yet We Ain't Alone, was released by 577 earlier in 2021. Mentored by free jazz legend Daniel Carter, Tang plays in about 30 bands and ensembles in New York and Seattle. Her music, which she hates to be labeled, may be called punk rock, post-punk, free jazz, spoken word, experimental improv, avant garde, or Chinese rock and folk. Tang calls her music genre "weird shit". She is also a journalist and was a protestor at Tiananmen Square.
Tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, from Japan, plays in a plethora of bands along the jazzock spectrum. She spent three years studying performance and composition at Berklee, where her instructors included George Garzone, Hal Crook, and Frank Tiberi. In 2017, Ayumi joined Marc Edwards and Slipstream Time Travel, led by Marc Edwards, former drummer of Cecil Taylor's band. Currently, Ayumi is a regular member of The Jazz Thieves, GADADU, Eighty-pound Pug, Platypus Revenge, and Big Squid. Ayumi has released two albums of her original compositions, View from a Little Cave (2016) and Midnite Cinema (2019).
Drummer, composer, and educator Wen-Ting Wu Wen-Ting Wu, from Taiwan, combines jazz drive and classical rigor. She was a member of Golden Melody Award-winning band Chang and Lee and Hello Nico in Taiwan before she moved to New York in 2016 and earned her Master of Jazz Performance Degree in Queens College. Besides being a member in Frank Lacy's Concert Jazz Ensemble currently, she leads her own band. The group came together to play one song at an event."-ESP-Disk