American Jazz Master Aaron Parks X Chinese Jazz Combo INNOUT: 2024 China 5 Cities Tour | BCAF Honorary Recommendation

In July 2023, the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation organized the "2023 China-U.S. Youth Music Festival" at New York's Carnegie Hall, the first post-epidemic experimental music event for young Chinese musicians to land in New York. In the program, INNOUT (An Yu, Xiao Jun) performed with the new generation of American jazz piano master Aaron Parks, fusing jazz and electronic improvisation, making the classical architecture of Carnegie Hall instantly travel to the future era of spirituality and sophistication.




From March 19th to March 25th, 2024, Aaron Parks will be touring China for the first time with his "Little Big" band, co-presented with INNOUT (An Yu, Xiao Jun). Cities include Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Chengdu. During the show, the musicians will mix avant-garde improvisation with jazz and electronica, along with creative multi-media visual effects on stage, to bring a flowing and imaginative art experience.











Born in 1983, Aaron Parks attended the Manhattan School of Music and in 2008 released his solo debut with Blue Note, Invisible Cinema, which the BBC called "one of the greatest albums of the 200 years! ". In 2013, the San Jose Mercury News named his album Alive in Japan the best jazz album of the year. He has released two albums on ECM, including a solo piano album, Arborescence, and a trio record with Billy Hart and Ben Street, Find The Way. In 2018, he was joined by Greg Tuohey (lead guitar), David Ginyard (lead bass) and Tommy Crane (drums) in a brand new band for the studio album Little Big (released by Ropeadope). The album, which took six years to conceive and release, incorporates elements of indie rock into jazz and has been hailed by PopMatters as "jazz for the new century".




INNOUT is a conceptual duo initiated by young guitarist and composer Xiao Jun and jazz musician An Yu in 2018. INNOUT's music extracts the improvisation and dance elements of jazz music, and organically mixes and amplifies them with the sound design and 44 rhythms of electronic music to bring forth a highly experimental sound quality. INNOUT is dedicated to pure improvisation, and each performance is an immediate presentation of the present and a new generation of thinking about music. INNOUT is committed to pure improvisation, and each performance is an immediate presentation of the present and the birth of a new musical reflection.






An Yu, a Chinese jazz drummer and educator, is the drummer of Mandarin Band. He has been invited to perform and teach in India, UK, Australia and other countries. He was the first Chinese spokesperson for Yamaha Jazz Drums, and has participated as a drummer in many popular programs such as "Dancing with the Stars", "The Gold Star Show", and "The Singer" as the official drummer of the famous musician Li Quan. 2021, An Yu gave his first public solo performance, "The Calm Waves", at the Anaya General Weekend Music Event. 2023, he launched the "Improvisation Co-op" with the APF in Shanghai. In 2023, he and APF launched the "Improvisation Co-op", an improvisation-based music event that brings together pioneering musicians of all styles and genres to form a music community for all music lovers.
 




  
Xiao Jun, jazz guitarist, composer, guitarist of Mandarin Band, now teaches at the Nanjing Arts Institute, and in 2016, his personal band was selected by the Montery Jazz Festival as one of the top 6 bands in the United States. Xiao Jun's first original jazz album "Triangular Prism", produced by JZ Music and released by Sony Music, was selected as the finalist for the Best Performance Recording Album at the 29th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards in May 2018, and won the Best Jazz Performance Album at the 2nd Singing Committee Music Awards in June of the same year. 2022, Xiao Jun was selected for the Fender Next2022 program, and became the first Chinese mainland band to be selected as the first Chinese mainland band to be selected as the first Chinese mainland band to be selected as the first Chinese mainland band to be selected as a member of the Fender Next2022 program. In 2022, Xiao Jun was selected for the Fender Next2022 program, becoming the first musician from mainland China to be selected, and the only jazz guitarist to be selected this year. In the same year, Xiao Jun signed a contract with Universal Music as a worldwide copyrighted songwriter. On September 23rd of the same year, his second original album "Abnormal Ship" was released, and he became the first Chinese musician to release an album in cooperation with Universal Music's legendary jazz label Blue Note, which took the number one spot on the jazz charts of Apple Music, NetEase Cloud Music and other music platforms.







Greg Tuohey is a New Zealand born guitarist. In New York City, he toured with such notable musicians as Seamus Blake, Mark Turner, and Reid Anderson. Currently, he tours and records as an indie rock and Americana artist with Anais Mitchell and Joe Pug, among others. He has also worked with Aaron Parks, Ari Hoenig, Orlando Le Fleming, and Jerome Sabbagh, returning to his roots in improvised music.







Simon Jermyn is an Irish electric bassist and guitarist based in Berlin after 11 years in New York. He leads his own band Obsany and has worked with many top tier musicians. Such as John Zorn, Jim Black, Aaron Parks, Chris Speed, Gerald Cleaver, Chris Lightcap, Tom Rainey, Michael Attias, Anna Webber and many more. He holds a doctorate from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, and can be seen performing at major festivals in the US and Europe, as well as at New York's leading jazz clubs.








Australian jazz trumpeter/composer/arranger/music producer Toby Mak is well known in the Chinese jazz scene for his emotional, deep and elegant trumpet playing, and has collaborated with some of China's top musicians, including Khalil Fong, Ronghao Li, and Yuan Yawei, etc. On the international stage, Toby has performed with Grammy Award-winning Dee Dee Bridgewater, American jazz saxophonist Chris Potter, and Chinese jazz guitarist Lawrence Ku. On the international stage, Toby has performed with Grammy Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater, American jazz saxophonist Chris Potter, and Chinese jazz guitarist Lawrence Ku. Toby has also been invited to showcase his musical skills on large-scale reality TV programs such as "King of Masked Singer", "Star of China", and "The Singer". Toby Mak's original jazz quintet album "Zero Seven Impressions" was released by JZ Music and Sony Music, and was nominated for "Best Album" in the performance category of the 28th Golden Melody Awards.








He has participated in many INNOUT performances and behind-the-scenes projects:UCCA Liu Di Xiao Jun ✖ Alien Collected Light and Feather Series Performing Arts ExchangeINNOUT System Overload Special performanceJZ CLUB Xiao Jun ✖ Alien Special PerformanceINNOUT Anaya Jinshanling Jazz Festival

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