The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| Oh! Linda’s making waves Down Under ‘Future of jazz’ Posted: 18 Nov 2011 06:30 PM PST MELBOURNE: A Malaysian-born musician who has turned the jazz world on its ear is eager to bring her music home. Linda Oh, 27, has been described by one reviewer as "the future of jazz". The composer and double bass player managed to fit in a visit to Malaysia earlier this year. She said her desire to perform in Malaysia, especially in Penang where her father comes from, was strengthened by the wonderful time she had catching up with friends and relatives. "I hope to perform in Malaysia, but it has to be at a festival or some event that's big because of the distance needed to travel," Oh said. Born in Petaling Jaya to Oh Teik Kwan and Leow Kim Lan, Linda and the Oh family – including two sisters who are musicians and doctors in Australia – moved to Perth when she was three and started learning classical piano at the age of four. She progressed to clarinet at 11 and bassoon at 13 before an uncle gave her an electric bass. She has not looked back since. During the day, she would play in the high school band and community big bands in Perth and at night she would cover songs by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. In 2002, Linda was accepted into the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where she began playing the upright double bass that has become her trademark. She received first-class honours for her thesis on bass improvisation, which included an exploration of the rhythmic aspects of North Indian classical music. In 2005, she was named the academy's best graduation recitalist. The next year, she moved to New York to complete her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music. It was there that she formed the Linda Oh Trio with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire, who has played with jazz luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Wynton Marsalis. Their debut album, Entry, was released in 2009. Village Voice rated Entry one of the best albums of that year. New York musician and writer Vijay Iyer named it in his Top 10. The critics were effusive in their praise for Oh. "She knows more about tension and release than most bassists twice her age," said The Washington Post while The New York Times said Oh's "self-generated energy fuels go-for-broke improvisation". Her follow-up album, Moving Pieces, was released this year. There was also the score for the Student Academy Award-nominated film Wianbu, about the mistreatment of Korean comfort women in World War II, and Plan C, a documentary about the effects of environmental geo-engineering. Oh is currently working on another documentary score, this one for An Australian Citizen's Diary, about a Rwandan refugee living in Perth. — Bernama Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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