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Another brilliant collection of forward-thinking compositions from Hwang, StoriesBefore Within offers a rich blend of jazz and chamber music thatseamlessly merges Eastern and Western traditions into a singular, global hybrid.
-- Troy Collins, All About Jazz March, 22 2008 Read more...

"Embers" is a tragic composition, beginning quietly but taking brutally melancholic turns. Hwang's almost prodigious command over his instrument is impressive and "Embers" is an elegiac conclusion to a story of emotions that change so violently as to defy categorization as the last note fades, tragically, the listener is left with something enduring and beautiful.
-- Karla Cornejo, All About Jazz March, 01 2008 Read more...

Composer and violinist Jason Kao Hwang and his group Edge return with a story to tell on each of the five tracks on Stories Before Within.Hwang has long been a potent force in assimilating various styles of music, particularly Chinese, Korean and Japanese, with jazz.The result has been a startling cornucopia of thematic dynamics.
-- Jerry D'Souza, All About Jazz February, 22 2008 Read more...

Top 21
-- , Rolling Stone Issue #321 Read more...

-- , College Music Journal Issue #1047 Read more...

-- , Earshot Chart #6 March, 04 2008 Read more...

-- , Earshot Chart #8 March, 18 2008 Read more...

Interview with Jason Kao Hwang
-- Sergio Piccirilli, Elintruso dot com Read more...

...an album of richly detailed but gracefully flowing themes.
-- Jason Bivins, Signal to Noise Issue #50 Read more...

But the Chinese ancestry of the composer does not explain all: this album carries the brand of a very unique musician, a sonorous matter that one cannot take for any other.
-- Diane Gastellu, Citizen Jazz Read more...

Hwang has a large heart for melody...
-- Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy Read more...

Stories Before Within is the second disk of its excellent quartet Edge...
-- Gigi Sabelli, All About Jazz - Italy Read more...

Compositions and Conducted Improvisations for a Convergence of NYC String Improvisers Thursday, July 24th The Living Theater, New York City
-- , Read more...

...like the previous release, the music is excellent, open to world influences or modern classical while being predominantly jazz.
-- Stef, Free Jazz - Blogspot March, 18 2008 Read more...

On "Stories Before Within", musicians, compositions, and everything else intersect in extraordinarysynergy. It's a rare occurrence, and even rarer in music as exploratory as Jason Kao Hwang's.
-- Michael J. West, Jazz Review Read more...

A fine offering from a first-rate ensemble.
-- Ted Gioa, Jazz dot com Read more...

Asian-tinged, avant-garde world music at it's best, "Stories Before Within" is highly recommended for people who like their music a little closer to the edge.
-- Brad Walseth, JazzChicago dot net Read more...

An ethnic fusion of enormous proportion, Chinese-American violinist Jason Kao Hwang teams with Korean Sang Won Park, who plays zithers - the bowed six-string ajeng, and the twelve-string plucked kayagum.
-- Michael G. Nastos, MSN Music dot com March, 01 2008 Read more...

...this is a full on version of shape shifting cross cultural jazz as opposed to world jazz. With an educators eye on the music but a groovers ear to the sound, Hwang and his crew add yet another chapter to his diverse discography that never fails to amaze.
-- Chris Spector, MIDWEST RECORD January, 15 2008 Read more...

Jason Kao Hwang/Edge, Stories Before Within -- Composition and improv variations by under-acclaimed New York violin and violist Hwang, who draws on his experience and individualism to cast microtonal studies, with splendid cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, thick-toned bassist Ken Filiano and Andrew Drury, drums.
-- Howard Mandel, Arts Journal February, 12 2008 Read more...

It sounds like the conversations between our inner atoms as we grapple with life and those vibrations. It is provocative and precise...
-- D. Oscar Groomes, O's Place Jazz Newsletter January, 26 2008 Read more...

JASON KAO HWANG/EDGE Stories Before Within JAZZ TOP 40 CHART #32!
-- Jenifre Kayoa-Bonaqeraj, College Music Journal February, 21 2008 Read more...

The title, Stories Before Within, perfectly expresses the storytelling that takes place here, as the tales absorb themselves in the spirit of the listener and surpass time to dwell in the province possessed only by imagination.
-- Jordan Richardson, Blogcritics dot org April, 09 2008 Read more...

It's hard to find four words more likely to condemn an artist to obscurity than these: violin avant jazz fusion. In Huang's case however, it's undeserved. Balanced and compelling, his work is edgy without being pretentious. Worth a listen.
-- Jeff Pinzino
-- Jeff Pinzino, Casual Listening March, 21 2008 Read more...

His debut album Stories Before Within. Hwang—a violinist—is a fresh stream in Jazz.
-- , Nuvoye Russkoye January, 26 2008 Read more...

The music is ancient and modern at the same time.
-- Don Albert, Financial Mail May, 02 2008 Read more...

Both the locale and the ling-go of Local Lingo come across as translocal and translingual when heard as the latest words of the tale composer-violinist Jason Kao Hwangs been telling in his previous CDs, and the voice hes been training to tell it.
-- Mike Heffley, Signal to Noise September, 30 2007 Read more...

Through the 1990s, violinist Jason Kao Hwang mined an exploration of East Asian music...
-- Kurt Gottschalk, All About Jazz November, 09 2007 Read more...

Certainly, having lived in Korea for 15 years, I have some understanding of "where this is coming from I enjoyed this, & hope to hear more in the future - the CD gets a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from us for listeners ready to experience something sonically different!
-- Rotcod Zzaj, Zzaj Productions September, 24 2007 Read more...

Hwang plays melodic yet textural compositions...
-- Aaron Leitko, Washington City Paper July, 12 2007 Read more...

In a class of its own, with a sound like no other group in the festival, was the Fifty Violins in dedication to the much lamented Leroy Jenkins, led and conducted by Billy Bang and coordinated by Jason Kao Hwang.
-- Marc Medwin, All About Jazz August, 12 2007 Read more...

This is something else, not like anything I've heard before.
-- Kjell, Radioholstebro dot dk Read more...

Jason and Sang Won played a totally magical, powerful, and fulfilling set.
-- Taylor Ho Bynum, BLOG OF TAYLOR HO BYNUM Read more...

Both of these men are masters of their instruments and make a very special musical connection. The Asian influence is present in many pieces but this is new modern music played at a high level.
-- Scott Heller, Aural-Innovations Read more...

This memorial piece was an extraordinary work that was coordinated by Jason Hwang and led by Billy Bang. The music was breathtaking, beautiful, dream-like.
-- Bruce Gallanter, Downtwn Music Gallery Newsletter Read more...

Both of these men are great soloists and love to push themselves into unexpected situations. This duo blended ancient (sounding) songs with more modern improvisations and created something quite different.
-- Bruce Gallanter, Downtwn Music Gallery Newsletter Read more...

Coming to terms with sound heritages that are neither European nor African-American is one of improvised music's newest challenges. Yet violinist Jason Kao Hwang is one player who navigates the contradictions with ease.
-- Ken Waxman, CODA Magazine October, 17 2006 Read more...

Violinist Jason Kao Hwang gathers a startling quartet to record Edge. With a flurry of recordings, Jason Kao Hwang stands poised to break through both as an original composer and interpreter of considerable skill.
-- Rex Butters, All About Jazz Read more...

The four manage to meld their individual experiences into a group that can swing hard, evoke the pentatonics and timbres of Asian music traditions or blues edge and push toward freedom.
-- Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise September, 30 2007 Read more...

This disc showcases Hwang's skills as a composer and improviser. Both aspects combine his distinctive fusion of the artful and rustic… He's (Ken Filiano) one of the finest jazz bassists, period. The mercurial Bynum gets better every time I hear him, and Drury is a receptive, agile percussionist. As an improviser, Hwang projects an almost naïve sense of vulnerability – a quality that disappears whenever he's compelled to assert his mastery by letting loose his colossal chops. …This is a compelling example of his work.
-- Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times September, 30 2007 Read more...

The compositions are also sweeping in content and breadth… Edge is a bid for serious jazz recognition. Jason Hwang's crystalline violin tone and his obvious attention to compositional detail make him a successor to—and a step beyond—out-jazz string players like Leroy Jenkins and Billy Bang.
-- Will Layman, Pop Matters August, 18 2006 Read more...

...other than its strong statements from Hwang, as player and composer, is his ability to attract such an excellent quartet that beautifully interprets Hwang's emotionally charged stratagems. And what a group it is! Taylor Ho Bynum brings his cornet and flugelhorn, Ken Filiano adds his splendid arco and fingers-busting pizzicato bass work and the massively unheralded drummer Andrew Drury continually proves his personal touch with each stroke.
-- Jay Collins, Cadence Magazine October, 31 2006 Read more...

Hwang is one of the more innovative American composer/instrumentalists of his generation… Edge lives up to its name in that it provokes keen listening, which ultimately speaks to the interplay within the quartet.
-- Bill Shoemaker, Point of Departure Read more...

This is music of dramatic intensity, which makes sense coming from this particular free jazzer who has also penned an opera.
-- Frank J. Oteri, New Music Box Read more...

Edge is Hwang's newest ensemble… within contexts framed by Hwang, but only limited by the imagination of the group's members, and with these musicians almost everything is possible… sparks fly in this recording…
-- Thomas R. Erdman, Jazz Review Read more...

Hwang's writing embraces freewheeling improvisation and rigid through-written composition in equal measure, allowing ample room for interpretation. Balancing intuitive call and response ensemble interplay with rousing chart-driven passages, Edge is an avant garde thrill ride, and a high water mark in Hwang's already impressive discography.
-- Troy Collins, All About Jazz June, 23 2006 Read more...

The album title could easily refer to the incisive sound of Hwang's violin. He also demonstrates a mournful, vocal cry on "No Myth" and bittersweet lyricism on "Grassy Hills." Taylor Ho Bynum's work on cornet complements the violin effectively.
-- Jon Andrews, DOWNBEAT August, 31 2006 Read more...

The violinist (Hwang) has created works that have the harmony of jazz, the structure of chamber music, and the freedom of invention; all show an expansive, yet focused vision and use structure to varying degrees... Bynum is one of the most exciting exponents of free jazz, and his horn continues to hail the praises of the form... Ken Filiano's bass slows the momentum and brings in a fresh expanse of innovation; Andrew Drury's unconventional percussion accents help makes a compact whole... Hwang completes the spell, his violin a sentinel for emotional power.
-- Jerry D'Souza, All About Jazz April, 30 2006 Read more...

Jason has chosen a perfect quartet to capture his vision, as this group has their own strong sound… "No Myth" opens with some superb violin and cornet interplay, backed by Ken's throbbing bass and Andrew's hypnotic mallet work. This quartet played a great set at the Vision Fest last month… a perfect disc.
-- Bruce Gallanter, Downtwn Music Gallery Newsletter July, 07 2006 Read more...

…the music contained on this CD is intense and emotionally alive.
-- , Jazzitude Read more...

The compositions are strong and the band, when they need to be, is tight. Drury makes smooth but drastic shifts to complement the shifting cinematic pieces, Filiano is solid, Bynum burns and Hwang is inventive as ever. The disc blends to a whole.
-- Kurt Gottschalk, All About Jazz February, 28 2006 Read more...

Hwang has a formidable musical mind and his more detailed passages demand close listening.
-- Brian Morton, The Wire Read more...

THE BEST OF THE YEAR. Our ten favorite full-length opera recordings of the year were Jason Kao Hwang's startlingly original The Floating Box, its complexities untangled by conductor Juan Carlos Rivas (New World)
-- , Opera News Read more...

-- Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News Read more...

Between them Jason Kao Hwang and Catherine Filloux have addressed the problem of combining Chinese and Western styles with astonishing success here.
-- Marc Rochester, International Record Review June, 30 2005 Read more...

The most remarkable work on the program was Bending Duration, Breathing Distance by Jason Kao Hwang, the only composer of the five who was not born in China.
-- Olin Chism, Voices of change dot com April, 24 2001 Read more...

Hwang is his usual virtuosity-on-sleeve self, sculpting crying, keening glissandi with his hummingbird bow and continuously slicing through conventional notions of tempered tonality with voice-like inflections.
-- Derek Taylor, Bagatellan dot com July, 27 2006 Read more...

...the soaring lyricism of Jason Kao Hwang.
-- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune October, 11 2005 Read more...

Violinist Jason Kao Hwang is a source of electricity. Hwang applies sheets of sound to his normally linear instrument, using every resource available to him.
-- Kyle Gorman, THE BUZZ September, 01 2005 Read more...

Indeed, what's striking about Mr. Hwang's music, a stirring blend of Stephane Grappelli's violin improvisations and Morton Feldman's microtonal compositions, is that it makes traditional instruments sound contemporary.
-- Adam Shatz, The New York Times November, 23 1997 Read more...

Chinese-American violinist Jason Hwang is one of New York's unsung new-music heroes.
-- Ed Hazell, The Boston Phoenix February, 24 1997 Read more...

three masterful improvisers who make music unlike anything else you've heard.
-- David Newgarden, College Music Journal April, 10 1995 Read more...

The deep jazz tradition of individualism and emotional truth.
-- , In Motion September, 30 1996 Read more...

Unorthodox tonalities and a fresh compositional viewpoint to escape the geographical gravitational pull of "conventional" ethnic music and jazz
-- A. L., Jazz Report '96 February, 29 1996 Read more...

Jason Hwang played a mutated five-string electric violin with virtuosic intensity
-- Ted Fry, The Seattle Weekly July, 07 1993 Read more...

"Urban Archaeology" is a mind-grabbing set of atmospheres that reflects Hwang's aim of rooting his music in the improvisational personalities of the musicians he works with. It sounds new.
-- , The Wire April, 30 1996 Read more...

Jason Kao Hwang led the quartet through three untitled instrumental pieces, the third of which culminated in a terrifyingly forceful electric violin solo.
-- , Juggernaut Read more...

Jason Hwang's music was an evocation of colors and emotions in a wide spectrum from tenderness to the volatile, piecing fragments, creating dances, in a dazzling, poetic way.
-- , CODA Magazine April, 30 1988 Read more...

Commitment's integrated, thoughtful and deeply satisfying …originality and eloquence… Mr. Hwang's violin tone suggests the eerie cry of Chinese opera singers.
-- Jon Pareles, The New York Times November, 08 1982 Read more...

Jason Hwang's …Glass Shadows creates music that is taut, delicate and highly original.
-- Jon Pareles, The New York Times January, 02 1986 Read more...

Inspired by the inflection and tones embodied in language, Hwang has developed an incredibly original philosophy and approach to improvisation on violin.
-- Julie Lyons Lieberman, Strings August, 31 1996 Read more...

Part poetry, part documentary, "Afterbirth" is a superb film.
-- Julie Semkow, Library Journal Read more...