Yuwen Peng: Putting a Spin on Sizhukong
Published: December 11, 2012
After Paper Eagle, I
thought I had to try new ways
to put Chinese music together with modern music.
I didn't want to repeat Paper Eagle.
Yuwen Peng doesn't like
resting on her laurels. The pianist, composer and founder of Taiwanese sextet
Sizhukong had already taken a bold step in integrating Western instruments,
African music and jazz harmonies with traditional Taiwanese and Chinese folk
songs on Sizhukong's self-titled debut recording in 2007. The follow-up to
that, Paper Eagle (Sizhukong Records, 2009), followed a very similar pattern, though the
refinement in the band's sound was notable.
More of the same wouldn't
have been a total surprise; after all, Peng had been working for more than half
a dozen years on her musical concept for Sizhukong. However, Peng is clearly a
curious soul, and rather than repeat a winning formula, she chose instead to
head into personally uncharted musical territory by jazzing up Sizhukong. For
the first time, electronic keyboards and electric guitar color the music,
bringing the band's sound a little closer to the jazz fusion of Herbie Hancock—a
major influence on Peng.
Sizhukong's new direction
impressed Sony, which signed the band and released its third CD, Spin,
in 2012. Many of Sizhukong's trademarks are present, from Peng's jazz-inspired
piano and the blend of traditional Chinese and Western instruments.
Nevertheless, this Sizhukong is a different beast altogether—more contemporary
and more adventurous than before. The band's first foray into North America in
March was a great success, vindicating Peng's new musical direction for the
band she started in 2005 upon returning from Berklee to her native Taiwan
All
About Jazz: Yuwen, recently you performed a
special project with Sizhukong. Could you tell us what that was about, please?
That was a concert we did
at the end of September, where we incorporated an aboriginal singer, whose name
is Ilid Kaolo, from the Amei aboriginal Taiwanese tribe. We started learning
the songs and dance from her last year. Together with Ilid and me, there were
two more composers; one is a jazz violinist called Stephane Hwang and then a
pianist/songwriter, also graduated from Berklee, called Chialun Yu. The four of
us would meet every month and learn something from Ilid, so we could put her
tribal songs and dance into our compositions.
We have given two concerts
this year with Sizhukong, a six-piece band, as you know, the singer Ilid, a
string quartet, and Chialun also played percussion and some piano parts. For
the September concert, we added Hwa Jou Shieh, the guitarist on the Spin
album.
AAJ: That sounds like an exciting lineup.
YP: It was fun, but too much work for me [laughs].
AAJ: What was the makeup of the string quartet?
YP: Two violins, one viola and one cello.
AAJ: That sounds like a beautiful combination. Yuwen, after Paper Eagle it
would have been easy to repeat such a successful formula, but with Spin
you've taken a new direction. Tell us a little about the evolution of
Sizhukong's music in the last couple of years.
YP: After Paper Eagle, I
thought I had to try new ways to put Chinese music together with modern music.
I didn't want to repeat Paper Eagle. At that time, in 2010, we thought about
adding an electric sound. We tried it in concert. We tried most of the songs
recorded in the new album, Spin, in concert two years ago already. We used
electric guitar, electric bass and keyboards. We even used some loops in the
concert, surround-sound effects.