| When Helen found Isaac Albéniz's “España, Op.165”, a suite of 6 pieces for solo piano, it was what she was looking for: beautifully written pieces that were distinctive, simple yet profound, concise and with room for adaptation! The resulting jazz pieces range from simple orchestrations to complete transformation. Although she opted not to adapt the “Serenata,” happily her own piece “Sungbird” turned out to be an appropriate “trade.”
"Having come to jazz relatively late (during college when I thought I wanted to be a classical pianist), I've spent most of the years since trying to swing and soak in the blues. At the same time, there is the desire to improvise and write with increasing clarity and variety of texture seen in the classical music I played. Perhaps this CD project is an attempt to begin integrating the different parts of my musical experience. " It’s a real winner. Very rarely has the combination of jazz and classical genre’s worked out. Pianist Helen Sung has done it right, intertwining solo piano works in the Romantic vein with mixtures of band pieces..
George W. Harris, all.about.jazz - Los Angeles - August 2007 |