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Event news: Nah Youn Sun at Ronnie Scotts

A live performance from Youn Sun Nah is always a very special event. For her past couple of performances in London she has been with virtuoso guitarist Ulf Wakenius, who used to play with the Oscar Peterson Quartet. This time, she has a four-piece band, performing tracks from her album that was released this month, from ACT Music.

Her last-but-one album was titled Same Girl – and her last three albums have all featured Wakenius in the line-up. But Wakenius’s current project with ACT is an album with his son Eric; and as if to mark the possible change in direction and line-up her forthcoming album is entitled She Moves On. With a range of tracks from Joni Mitchell to Jimi Hendrix as well as some traditional songs and three new compositions by Nah and Jamie and Vanessa Saft (Jamie Saft is on keyboards in the latest album), there’s plenty to look forward to.

Youn Sun Nah with Jamie Saft (piano/Fender/B3), Brad Jones (double bass), Dan Rieser (drums) & Clifton Hyde (guitar)

Nah Youn Sun - Same Girl

Wednesday 31st May 2017
Ronnie Scott’s | 47 Frith Street | Soho | London W1D 4HT | www.ronniescotts.co.uk

Doors open time

First House: 18:00

Ticket Prices:

£20.00 – £37.50 | Book tickets here

Youn Sun Nah is well regarded for her remarkable vocal prowess. The Korean jazz vocalist’s ability to present each song in her own unique style filled with emotion and passion has consistently captured her audience in attentive silence, ending with roaring appreciation. The songstress traverse the vocal spectrum effortlessly to the extent where she’s not just another vocalist, she’s a musical instrument. In 2005, French magazine “Le Monde” described her as “a UFO touching the universe of jazz with a magnificent voice and passionate originality”.

Growing up in a musical family where her father was a conductor and her mother a musical actress, music has always been in her life. She eventually began her own musical journey and made her first debut at the tender age of 23 at a joint concert collaborating with the Korean Symphony Orchestra. The performance was her stepping-stone into the Korean music scene.

Though Nah was making waves in the Korean music scene, she decided to move to Paris in 1995 to study jazz and chanson. Striving for only the best, she enrolled herself into the CIM Jazz School, one of the oldest jazz schools in Europe. She also studied at the National Music Institute of Beauvais as well as the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Conservatory.

At the turn of the millennium, she founded her first Parisian quintet, while it has won a special jury prize at the national jazz competition of the Festival de la Défense. The first of a long list (Jazz Vocal Award from the Académie du Jazz in France, Korean Music Award, Echo Award in Germany …) to one that will be even decorated in 2009 with the insignia of “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2013, the Korean government has awarded her with a special prize for her contribution to popular culture and the arts.

Many venues and festivals across the globe also recognize Youn Sun Nah’s talents. She has been invited to perform at numerous events such as Blue Note Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center (USA), Jazz in Marciac, Théâtre du Châtelet, Jazz à Vienne, Printemps de Bourges (France), Montreux Jazz Festival, Verbier Festival, Cully Festival (Switzerland), Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival (Canada), Enjoy Jazz Festival, Women of the World Festival, Klangvokal Musikfestival (Germany), Heineken Jazzaldia San Sebastian (Spain), Rome Jazz festival (Italy), Pori Jazz (Finland), Mai Jazz Festival (Norway), Festival de Wiltz (Luxembourg), Java Jazz Festival (Indonesia), Penang Island Jazz Festival (Malaysia) and Jarasum International Jazz Festival (South Korea), among many others.

Links:

(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.

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