Jason Kao Hwang - Sunday Interview ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Jason Kao Hwang - Sunday Interview

Sunday, November 17, 2024 Sunday Interview No comments

Photo by Peter Gannushskin

What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

When musicians hear each other deeply, exchanging essential energies, faster than cognition and more deeply than emotions, to ultimately unify within a consciousness of truth, even for a fleeting moment, is a great joy and inspiration.
What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

Musicians with the imagination to discover their individualism, which opens the expression of soul.
Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

There are too many artists that I love equally. John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Jeff Beck, Keith Jarrett, Borah Bergman, and Cecil Taylor, are a few examples.
If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

Borah Bergman. Though we played many sessions at his place, we never recorded. I wish we did. Borah is a great original who was a true friend.
What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

I will strive to grow my creativity and skills as composer, violinist, and violist.
Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?

I don’t listen to much pop music…I like Taylor Swift when she sings just with her guitar or piano, not in the pop arrangements that diminish her lyrics… Brittany Howard is great. Going back, Queen, James Brown, Aretha Franklin.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I am grateful for who I am, a person with strengths and flaws. The strengths could not exist without the flaws.
Which of your albums are you most proud of?

Soliloquies, Human Rites Trio, Critical Response, and Uncharted Faith are my most recent recordings. I am proud of all of them. I’m in my prime now.
Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

In the process of mixing my own recordings, I listen to a track hundreds of times. Once the CD is released, I rarely listen again.
Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

No single album comes to mind. But, I do listen to the work of my favorite artists that I listed above.
What are you listening to at the moment?

William Parker’s and Ellen Christi’s brilliant Cereal Music. Memoir, poetry, and social critique interwoven magically within WP’s inimitable storytelling. Ellen’s glorious voice. Evocative sound design and music casts a spell. Also, box sets of Monk and Dolphy.
What artist outside music inspires you?

Right now, the poetry of Bob Holman and Patricia Spears Jones.