Taiwan Folk Songs Meet Jazz: Taipei Jazz Big Band Brings North America Tour to New Orleans in Late November
New Orleans is a city in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Taiwan's Ministry of Culture office in Houston (Taiwan Academy) and the New Orleans Jazz Museum (NOJM) have deepened their partnership to bring the Taipei Jazz Big Band to North America in late November: the band will perform in New Orleans — the holy land of jazz — at the 9th Improvisations Gala, and also appear at Asia Society Texas and Louisiana State University (LSU), offering overseas audiences an original jazz feast rooted in Taiwanese folk songs.
The Taipei Jazz Big Band is led by music director and conductor Lee Cheng-yu, a renowned saxophonist and scholar, and brings together Taiwan's top professional musicians active in both classical and jazz circles. The band was selected as a "Taiwan Top" performing arts team by the National Culture and Arts Foundation. The North America tour will present selections from the band's years-long "Taiwan Folk Song Jazz Commissioning Project," which invites composers and arrangers from home and abroad to reinterpret Taiwanese folk songs, nursery rhymes and folk music in big-band jazz form.
The program includes works by Teng Yu-hsien, the "father of Taiwanese folk songs" — "Four Seasons Red," "Moonlight Sorrow," "Longing for Spring Breeze" and "Rainy Night Flower" — as well as "Keelung Mountain Love," "Green High Mountain" and "Harbor City Night Rain." Familiar Taiwanese melodies, woven into the big band's rich brass textures, rhythmic drive and improvisational language, take on new life in contemporary jazz, letting music that carries generations of memory cross language and geography to converse with international audiences.
Notably, the Taiwan Academy in Houston and the New Orleans Jazz Museum have collaborated since 2022, regularly inviting Taiwanese jazz ensembles to the U.S.; NOJM director Greg Lambousy previously visited Taiwan at the Ministry of Culture's invitation, meeting many Taiwanese jazz musicians and arts organizations.
Before departure, the Taipei Jazz Big Band will perform its farewell concert "Feeling Jazz Taiwan" at Taiwan's National Theater & Concert Hall on October 12, presenting the full program of the U.S. tour for home audiences first.
(Source: 世界民報 (World People News), as reported)
Source: 世界民報 (World People News), as reported
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：新奥尔良Frenchmen街Spotted Cat音乐俱乐部内爵士乐队现场演出。摄影：Jeremy Thompson，CC BY 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
