Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses (Pi Recordings)
Jen Shyu
Released April 2021
Arts Fuse 2021 Jazz Critics Poll Top 10 Vocal Album
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=YgjY_87IJIM
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About:
Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses, the new work by sui generis vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, is a collection of songs devoted to the marginalized voices of women around the world, and a profound elegy to personal loss. It follows Song of Silver Geese (Pi 2017), which The New York Times named one of the best albums of the year, and Downbeat called “spellbinding” and “rapturous.” The album also features the return of Jade Tongue, an ensemble made up of musical innovators with whom Shyu has created music for over a decade. They last appeared on her groundbreaking and highly acclaimed 2015 Pi release Sounds and Cries of the World, which NPR called: “no drive-by encounter between musical cultures, no cherry picking of exotic licks. This is research and experience, absorbed and reimagined.”
Shyu’s latest album is dedicated to her father, who passed away in April of 2019. It was shaping up to be another banner year: she was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim and United States Artist Fellowships, and – as she has done numerous times before in places such as Korea, Timor, Indonesia, and Taiwan – had set out for five months in Japan to immerse herself in the study of Japanese traditional music, its language, and biwa performance practices. It was shortly into her residency that she was informed of her father’s unexpected death and so flew immediately to her parents’ home in Texas. While helping her mother go through her father’s possessions, Shyu came across her childhood diaries. Reading them helped transform Zero Grasses into a coming-of-age story about her ambitions, legacy, and personal reflections on the racism and sexism that she has faced throughout her life. The subsequent events of 2020 also made her reflect further on the ongoing racism in our society and life during a global pandemic.
The music on Zero Grasses spans the full range from ancient to modern, referencing traditional Javanese music, Japanese “katari” (or speaking the song) that is sung with the biwa, East Timorese chant from Ataúro island, all derived from her 15-plus years of immersive fieldwork on languages and traditional musics of her own ancestry and other cultures. Her work is unique in its combination of languages and musical forms from these traditions, contemporary composition, jazz, improvised music, and dream-like narrative. It’s an innovative architecture of sound that could never be heard anywhere else. Accompanying her with thoughtful sensitivity are Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Mat Maneri on viola, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Dan Weiss on drums. Together they reflect the anger, sorrow and wistful longing of the music.
Much of Zero Grasses can be found as part of her eponymous theatrical solo performance, which was commissioned by John Zorn and premiered in October, 2019 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. It is her third fully-staged, multimedia production – all of which she has conceived, produced, composed, and performed herself – following Solo Rites: Seven Breaths in 2014 and Nine Doors in 2017. As in all her projects – a practice she calls “multilingual, ritual music dramas” – Shyu draws upon an astounding array of disciplines: dance, narrative storytelling, theater, in addition to her singing in five languages (Javanese, Indonesian, Resuk from Timor Leste, Japanese, and English), playing multiple instruments (Japanese biwa, Taiwanese moon lute, and piano), and incorporation of ancient performance practices absorbed from her immersive studies.
In addition to the pieces from the theatrical production, the album also includes two pieces – “Display Under the Moon” and “A Cure for the Heart’s Longing” – taken from Nine Doors. Shyu composed “Living’s a Gift” (commissioned by American Composers Forum) and “Lament for Breonna Taylor” in 2020 at the height of the pandemic and the outcry over the gross injustices and killings of Black lives. Shyu sings all the vocal parts on the former – her first composition for choir – which is set to the heartbreakingly wise words of middle schoolers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter is dedicated to Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman brutally murdered in her own apartment by police who had forcibly broken into her Louisville, Kentucky home. The song quotes from interviews with Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and represents Shyu’s desire to honor and give voice to Black lives that have been destroyed. “The Human Color” is a piece first recorded on her album Jade Tongue (Chiuyen Music 2009) about the history of Chinese indentured servants who were kidnapped and labored alongside enslaved African people in Cuba in the 19th century under Portuguese and Spanish colonialism. She recorded it again as it speaks to this moment in history, a call for solidarity in the ongoing war against racism.
The sudden passing of Shyu’s father changed everything for her, including her approach to Zero Grasses, and her own attitude toward her career, ambitions, life choices, fertility, and family. “I was suddenly confronted with questions of legacy, one’s future children, what possessions really mean, what you’re doing with your life, all these questions burning while you’re feeling unfathomable grief,” she said. Though it is far-reaching and ambitious, it is ultimately the most deeply personal work of Shyu’s career.
“With Zero Grasses, I’m challenging myself again, starting from scratch,” Shyu has said. “The work is still being built because it is so deeply personal and current to what’s happening in my life; now sitting beside death, in a way, from my dad’s passing, experiencing ending sand beginnings of relationships with pressing issues very close to home, that are also undeniably global. Creating this piece in particular has been like excavating objects, memories, and experiences from my childhood impulses, and seeing how they shaped this living, breathing moment. Almost like solving a mystery; tapping into dreams and visions and the powerful choices we make.” It is a palpable homage to her father, who encouraged her to follow her heart and inspired her to “live life as I envision it.”
Track Listing:
1. Living’s A Gift – Part 1: Springtime 1:55
2. Living’s A Gift – Part 2: Everything For Granted 1:23
3. Living’s A Gift – Part 3: My Unsolved Regrets 3:19
4. Living’s A Gift – Part 4: Joyful 2:30
5. Lament For Breonna Taylor 6:42
6. The Human Color 3:39
7. A Cure For The Heart’s Longing 3:53
8. Body Of Tears 4:09
9. When I Have Power 4:13
10. Finally She Emerges 3:28
11. Display Under The Moon | 月下の陣 9:07
12. Father Slipped Into Eternal Dream 6:44
13. With Eyes Closed You See All 4:51
14. Life As You Envision 4:17
Personnel:
Jen Shyu: vocals, percussion, piano, Taiwanese moon lute, Japanese biwa
Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet
Mat Maneri: viola
Thomas Morgan: bass
Dan Weiss: drums
Recorded January 11, 2019, and August 11-12, 2020, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY,
Produced by Jen Shyu
Recorded, Edited and Mixed by Ryan Streber
Mastered by Scott Hull
Cover Art: Era Mera III (Red Water III), by Maria Madeira
Package Design by Simon Grendene
Executive-Producer: Seth Rosner, Yulun Wang
Review:
The way that I relate to Jen Shyu’s work has evolved. When I first listened some years ago, it eluded me. But the more I learn about what’s behind and inside the music she makes, the more curious I get, and the more incredible it becomes.
Zero Grasses began as a musical-theatrical work that was commissioned by John Zorn, and it premiered onstage in October 2019. Earlier in that year, Shyu was in Japan, had planned to be there for six months of research for Zero Grasses, but it was cut short when she was notified that her father had suddenly died. The album Zero Grasses is dedicated to him, as well as being “a mourning and reckoning for women and people of color, across time and into this pandemic” (album liner notes). After the pandemic struck, Shyu was moved to rework and re-record most of the songs that made it onto the album, entrusting a timeliness and urgency that also captures the renewed social demands for racial justice following numerous tragic events in the U.S. during 2020.
Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses is an album of resolute compositions—attending to “joy and anger, sorrow and happiness”—expressed through evocative improvisions. The pieces were composed by Shyu, and in addition to singing she plays piano, Taiwanese moon lute, Japanese biwa, and percussion. She performs with a deeply talented ensemble called Jade Tongue, comprised of Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Mat Maneri (viola), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums). While Shyu’s voice and lyrics are often the sonic focal point, they hang on a canvass of the ensemble’s creative instrumentation.
Throughout Zero Grasses, Shyu integrates a multitude of socio-cultural, historical, and personal influences of her art, all while giving a masterclass in vocal styles and techniques. She sings in at least five languages (of the ten she speaks). “Display Under the Moon” is a traditional Japanese song with Shyu on the biwa, a wooden lute which she plays with a piercing, aggressive string attack, like shots fired amidst the gentle exploratory tangle of the ensemble. Morgan’s bass playing has an unexpected and uncanny rapport with Shyu’s assertive biwa. Also, Shyu’s voice has an arresting quality and range—bold, then restrained, then raspy, then breaking. This is the longest track on the album, and positively avant garde in its execution.
To really appreciate this album, and much of Shyu’s music, it may be important to see her performing. Afterall, Zero Grasses was born from its greater theatrical work, and listening to the music without having any sense for the physicality and visual dimensions of Shyu’s art, significant aspects are missed—a bit like watching a movie with the mute on. At least for me, hearing and seeing her perform has been revealing. To get a sense, you might spend some time with this striking performance: Jen Shyu & Tyshawn Sorey – at The Stone, NYC – Aug 3 2014
Zero Grasses opens with a four-part suite titled “Living’s a Gift,” whose lyrics were authored by middle school students (Mimi Broderick’s choir students at MS 51William Alexander Middle School, Brooklyn, NY). Shyu captured their written reflections, which contrast the joys of springtime in 2020 with the concurrent sorrows of the pandemic, and offer us a glimpse into the adolescent mind struggling to make sense of it all and cope. Due to the pandemic, plans to record the middle school choir for the suite had to be scrapped, and instead Shyu multi-tracked her own voice to depict the themes of each part of the suite, including lush harmonies, call and response, mimicked sounds of nature, and polyrhythmic stops and starts. Throughout, the Jade Tongue ensemble plays with oceans of space. Akinmusire and Maneri dialog mournfully, Weiss colors with delicate brush and symbol work, and Morgan’s warm bass tones anchor everything.
“Lament for Breonna Taylor” remembers the Black medical worker killed by police in Kentucky in March 2020, an event that further fueled wide-scale demands and protests for racial justice in the U.S. The first half of the song is a hushed instrumental dirge, coalescing into a funeral march with Weiss’ subtle snare rolls, and culminating in a heartrending cry of voice, trumpet, and viola. Shyu sings the words of Ms. Taylor’s mother, adapted from interviews after her daughter was killed.
There’s so much happening on this album—I liken it to looking a massive multi-panel painting, where every space has something different, but equally compelling, going on. From the song lyrics sourced from disparate historical and cultural texts, to instrumentation and vocal styles that Shyu has honed during years of multinational research and study, to the mesmerizing conversation happening among the deeply talented improvisers—the listener really needs to take time with it all. I find that when I listen to this album, I can’t really be doing anything else. It demands my full attention. And judging by the kinds of recognition she’s received—the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Award, among others—her work deserves close listening.
For more listening opportunities: Shyu has produced numerous albums as a leader, including the first female-led and vocalist-led album Pi Recordings has ever released, and has multiple lauded recordings with her Jade Tongue ensemble. She’s performed and recorded extensively with Steve Coleman’s Five Elements ensemble, has a duo album with Mark Dresser titled Synastry (Pi, 2011), performs on Anthony Braxton’s Trillium E (New Braxton House, 2011) and Trillium J (New Braxton House, 2016), Bobby Previte’s Rhapsody (RareNoise, 2018), as well as Dan Weiss’ Sixteen (Pi, 2016)
Anthony Simon (The Free Jazz Collective)
