Synchronicity by jeong lim yang

24 bit / 96k

Following up her imaginative 2022 release Zodiac Suite: Reassured (“bold music … bursts with freewheeling, chip-on-the-shoulder modernism” – All About Jazz), Korean-born, Brooklyn-based bassist and composer Jeong Lim Yang is proud to announce the release of her newest recording, Synchronicity. Partnering with three great fellow improvisers in violist Mat Maneri, pianist Jacob Sacks and drummer Randy Peterson, Yang navigates the indefinable human connections at the heart of this music. “I’ve been dreaming of playing with these musicians for many years, since I moved to New York in 2011,” Yang says. “I would always go see them play, then come back home, not even say hi,” Yang admits. “Little by little, I got to know them in other settings.”

Synchronicity was defined by Carl Jung as “the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.” As Yang puts it, “Serendipitously, things happen. You’re thinking of a friend you haven’t seen in years, and the friend shows up. That’s how I felt with this band when we played.”

Along with her evolving work as a leader (beginning with her 2017 Fresh Sound debut Déjà Vu), Yang has become a fixture of the Brooklyn jazz scene, making frequent sideperson appearances at essential spots such as Barbès, LunAtico and Bar Bayeux. She has played in groups led by Jason Palmer, Kenny Wollesen, Yuhan Su, John Chin and Ernesto Llorens, among others. She is a member of Oscar Noriega’s Crooked Trio with pianist Marta Sanchez (in which accomplished reedman Noriega plays drums exclusively), and a co-leader of the quartet Mute with Kevin Sun, Christian Li and Dayeon Seok. She also records her singer-songwriter material under the name Miss Ambivalent.

Harnessing the synchronicity between these fine bandmates, Yang wrote a program of tunes (the off-kilter swing piece “Salad for Lunch” is composed by Sacks) characterized by their capaciousness. “I tried to give as much space as possible — minimal directions,” Yang explains. “There are many ways to lead a band, but with this band, I wanted that to be the concept.”

“Ordinary Waltz,” for instance, “has form and structure, but I left the improvisational section to be very freely interpreted, both in pulse and harmonically,” Yang says. There’s an almost country-folk lilt to the piece, with Maneri evoking fiddle music at first before the collective improvisation unfolds. Yang’s solo bass break near the end showcases her refined yet powerful touch and energetic rhythmic flow.

What’s immediately striking at the outset of the title track is the sound and interweaving of the instruments themselves, with Maneri’s yearning and elusive viola responding to Sacks’ atonal clusters in perpetual motion as Yang and Peterson respond in turn. Yang’s solidity and woody bass tone, pizzicato and bowed, provides a firm foundation. Peterson channels a bit of the late Paul Motian on the slow and moody “Morning Glory” as well as the closing ballad “Body Nor Soul,” loosely based on the perennial standard “Body and Soul.” The even slower, almost Chopin-like “Weeping Dream” finds Maneri at his most haunting and vulnerable. “Stimmung,” titled after a German word that straddles the definitions of tone, mood and atmosphere, opens with a spirited bass/drums duo conversation that dips in and out of swing time. The program reveals many facets on repeated listens, capturing the sizable abilities and vision of one of the great emerging bassists and bandleaders of our time.

jeong lim yang is also known as lim yang. lives in brooklyn, NY. plays the bass, writes music, and plays in multiple bands... no biggie

jeonglimyang.com