*****
This review is from: Voice (Audio CD)  By Grady Harp

 ‘There are voices that speak our thoughts, emotions and needs. They vibrate the air to deliver the contents.’ - Yuko Otomo, January 29, 2016 
  
Concerning the content of this recording, Jason Kao Hwang states, ‘Each of the poems I chose had a personal resonance. They felt like my voice speaking words of my own to express essences that I could not bring to consciousness before. I also heard music in them. All the poems have an inherent and unique flow of rhythms, textures and colors that would challenge and engage music. Aware of this dynamic, I composed sonic spaces that allowed each poem to fully resonate. These spaces created were always infused by improvisations, orchestrated for the unique voice of each musician & vocalist, and developed in direct correspondence with the poems’ evolution. Throughout each poem’s sonic architecture Deanna Relyea and Thomas Buckner were fully empowered to improvise so that the poems would truly become their words, which they chose to sing or speak. In this recording, each word is a sound and each sound is a poem. I am grateful for these indivisible vibrations that offered me lifelines to grow. 
  
And from Yuko Oltomo’s album notes, ‘VOICE is also a community project. It grew out of the shared garden called New York City. Like a tree or a wild flower, it grew out of our commitments to our creative lives. As for the poets and musicians involved here, we’ve all known each other one way or the other over the years through joys, struggles and a shared spirit to make the world a better place. Some of us met at various creative spaces such as Basement Workshop and A Gathering of Tribes, crossing the borders of genres and cultural differences.’ 
  
The Music is by Jason Kao Hwang', the poetry by Lester Afflick, Fay Chiang, Steve Dalachinsky, Patricia Spears Jones, Yuko Otomo, and Davida Singer. 
  
The ensemble - Tom Buckner, Deanna Relyea, voice, Joe McPhee, tenor sax/pocket trumpet, William Parker and Ken Filiano, bass, Piotr Michalowski, sopranino saxophone/ bass clarinet, Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet/ flugelhorn, Andrew Drury, drum set, Sang Won Park, kayagum, and Jason Kao Hwang, violin/viola. 
  
This is a multifaceted experience – one that extends the range of music and feeling and poetry and life. Grady Harp, January 16

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