Daring Mind (Motéma)
Jihye Lee Orchestra
Released March 26, 2021
JazzTimes Top 40 Jazz Albums of 2021
The Guardian 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2021
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTSY6nUP1eV67yEOe5yQ5QVbKx1xn4BUo
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About:
Produced by Lee, in collaboration with the innovative composer and Secret Society bandleader Darcy James Argue, and with renowned trumpeter Sean Jones as a key contributor, Lee’s Motéma debut showcases the South Korea native’s personal and adventurous storytelling approach to large-ensemble jazz over the course of nine spellbinding compositions.
As a follow up to her widely-acclaimed 2017 debut April, Daring Mind presents selections from Lee’s ‘Mind’ Series, including her BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize-winning “Unshakable Mind” and her Manny Albam Commission “Revived Mind.” The album reflects her struggles, doubts, joys, and hopes while living in the amazing city of New York. The compositions explore the human mind, heart, and soul, the various states of the human psyche from confusion to rage to enlightenment.
Lee describes composition as a form of record-keeping for herself, as the documentation of her life, the process of finding musical equivalents to the images, thoughts and emotions in her mind. She writes first and foremost for herself, to release her feelings, which makes her music deeply personal. “My goal is to invite listeners into my creative world, to relate to my stories, and to reflect on the truth that as humans, we share similar struggles and triumphs regardless of where we come from. It is my hope that we can create genuine connections with each other through art,” she says.
A native of South Korea, Lee had no jazz or classical training growing up, and she first found success in Korea performing as an indie pop singer. She graduated from Dongduk Women’s University with a degree in Voice Performance, discovering her love of large-ensemble jazz only after beginning her studies at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2011. Confidently she began to explore her own identity and voice within this exciting, historically rich medium, winning Berklee’s Duke Ellington Prize just months after declaring her Jazz Composition major (and again the following year). Though she could never have anticipated this new path, she has followed it to greater heights, moving to New York in 2015 and earning a master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of the great Jim McNeely. “Her music is imaginative and creative.” says McNeely. “And she’s not afraid to take some exciting chances in her writing.”
Navigating the transition from pop singer to jazz composer has given Lee a different angle on jazz composition, providing her not only with a lyrical melodic sense but also a way of imagining characters in every composition, and writing memorable themes with which people can identify. Her first instinct is not to find chords and melodies — Lee is not herself an instrumentalist — but rather an idea, image or message, and then find a way to express it through musical elements. All of this and more is realized on Daring Mind.
Daring Mind begins with “Restless Mind”, which emulates the bustle of New York City with its twisted rhythmic feel and repetitive notes. Featuring Sean Jones and trombonist Alan Ferber, the vibrancy and beauty of a pre-COVID city that never slept is on rich display in this dazzling opener. Following is “Unshakeable Mind”, winner of the 2018 BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize. Inspired by the competitive environment of the New York music scene and the effects it has on one’s own psyche, “Unshakeable Mind” explores the nature of a determined and persevering spirit, with strong solo and ensemble support from alto saxophonist Ben Kono. The gorgeous “Suji” comes next. Written for one Lee’s dearest friends, this bright composition features only major chords played through chamber-like instrumentation. Kono once again plays a leading role here, as does pianist Adam Birnbaum.
Gears shift on the fourth track, “I Dare You”, which was commissioned by American entrepreneur Matt Mullenweg. “Since I am not a traditional swing big band style composer, sometimes I face the famous question ‘what is jazz?’” states Lee. That same question arose in an interview with Wayne Shorter by Max Dax in 2014, and his answer is “To me, jazz means: “I dare you!’” This is the title of this song and in many ways the inspiration of Lee’s entire approach to jazz. “I believe that jazz is not a style or genre, but a daring spirit, being creative by cultivating your instincts.” Tenor saxophonist Quensin Nachoff shines on this track which is full of sonic surprises.
The BMI Manny Albam Commission piece “Revived Mind” showcases soloist Mike Fahie on trombone. This colorful composition is an homage to nature and Earth, to rebirth and rejuvenation. Track 6, “Struggle Gives You Strength” was originally written for Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz and once again features Sean Jones. On this uplifting and inspiring composition, Lee comments: “Struggle is an essential part of life and it molds us into beautiful individuals with character.”
The final third of Daring Mind features the bluesy “Why Is that” with solos by Jones and alto saxophonist Rob Wilkerson; the dissonant tri-tone filled odyssey “Dissatisfied Mind” which ruminates on the negatively that can intrude ones’ thoughts; and “GB”, a stunning closer inspired by love found and lost. Highly cinematic, the beauty and joy of happy memories slowly gives way to crushing breakdown, before reluctant acceptance sets in. As an aspiring film music composer, this vivid track particularly showcases Lee’s great potential in that arena. With the release of Daring Mind, Jihye Lee makes a major statement that will likely propel her, deservingly, to the top echelon of contemporary jazz composers and bandleaders.
Tracking List:
1. Relentless Mind 06:20
2. Unshakable Mind 09:58
3. Suji 08:55
4. I Dare You 05:51
5. Revived Mind 06:46
6. Struggle Gives You Strength 05:59
7. Why Is That 05:52
8. Dissatisfied Mind 05:56
9. GB 09:24
All compositions by Jihye Lee
Personnel:
Conductor: Jihye Lee
Woodwinds: Ben Kono (alto & soprano saxophone, piccolo flute, flute, clarinet), Rob Wilkerson (alto saxophone, piccolo flute, flute), Quinsin Nachoff (tenor), Jeremy Powell (tenor), Carl Maraghi (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet)
Trumpets: Brian Pareschi, John Lake, Sean Jones, Alex Norris
Trombones: Mike Fahie, Alan Ferber, Nick Grinder (all tracks except 2, 5), Mark Patterson (tracks 2, 5), Jennifer Wharton (bass)
Piano: Adam Birnbaum (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9), Haeun Joo (tracks 2, 5, 8)
Electric Guitar: Sebastian Noelle
Double Bass: Evan Gregor
Drums: Mark Ferber
Guest artist
Sean Jones: trumpet
Recorded January 15 & 16, 2020, at Sear Sound, Studio C, in New York City
Produced by Darcy James Argue and Jihye Lee
Associate Producer: Migiwa Miyajima
Recorded and Mixed by Brian Montgomery
Assistant Engineer: Owen Mulholland
Mastered by Gene Paul, G&J Audio, NJ
Cover Photo: Hyemi Kim
Design: Sukbum Kim
Review:
A decade ago, an apprehensive yet thrilled Jihye Lee walked into the Berklee College of Music with no jazz background or knowledge of the English language. A South Korean native, she had never even visited America before moving there. “I wanted to become a composer, that was for sure,” she recalls to JazzTimes about her uncertain freshman year. “But I didn’t know if I should be a classical composer or a film-score composer or a singer/songwriter. I was so afraid and overwhelmed.”
The only available course in her lane was jazz composition, which she declared as a major—despite not knowing Count Basie from Gil Evans from Thad Jones.
What happened next was meteoric. Lee didn’t just rapidly absorb the language of those three jazz giants; within months, she won the school’s Duke Ellington Prize. The following year, she won it again. Today, she’s one of the freshest and most distinctive composers on the New York scene. “I’m not a traditional jazz composer who writes swing tunes or big-band music,” Lee explains. “I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s just not me. Sometimes I can get insecure that I don’t write music like Count Basie. When people ask, ‘What is jazz?’ I don’t know the answer.” Which reminds her of the time the tenor saxophone titan Wayne Shorter answered the same question in a 2013 NPR interview.
“Jazz shouldn’t have any mandates. Jazz is not supposed to be something that’s required to sound like jazz,” Shorter declared. “For me, the word ‘jazz’ means ‘I dare you.’”
Those three monumental words inspired a tune, “I Dare You,” from the Jihye Lee Orchestra’s radiant new album Daring Mind, which came out March 26 on Motéma Music. Themes of pluck, nerve, and self-actualization soak into nearly every other title on the album—“Relentless Mind,” “Unshakable Mind,” “Dissatisfied Mind,” “Struggle Gives You Strength.” And, true to the album’s title, Lee’s career has been a series of wild leaps—from uprooting her life in South Korea to her work with masters like Ted Nash and Andy Farber at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop to her current life as a New York City transplant.
“I wrote all the compositions after I moved to New York; it’s my New York life story,” Lee says of Daring Mind. “All of them are speaking about my stories, my thoughts or my feelings while living in New York [since] 2016. I think, mostly, it’s about my struggles as a musician and a human. There are compositions about friendship or love.” Specifically, she’s talking about “Suji,” a tribute to an old friend in Boston, and “GB,” the initials of an ex-boyfriend in South Korea. That relationship lasted long-distance for a while, before it became clear to Lee that her destiny was in America—as part of the jazz world—for life.
Morgan Enos (JazzTimes)
