#Mingjia Jessica Chen

[fyeahcindie]

Listen/purchase: Floatwalking by mingjia

If you go down the rabbit hole of your YouTube recommendations, it can lead you to some amazing discoveries!  =D

Let’s check out Mingjia Jessica Chen!   She is based in Toronto (born in Beijing), she sings, and plays a number of instruments, and is also an artist (@mingjiaart.tumblr.com). 

The song is from her brand new 4-song ep, Feel Seen.  (1 track is just 2 minutes of people talking)  The description tags are: classical, baroque pop, chamber jazz, chamber pop.  See the full musician credits at bandcamp.

I heard her amazing voice earlier today on a song by 魯千千 (Chien Chien Lu):

Vocal-Mingjia Jessica Chen; Vibes-Chien Chien Lu; Sax-Matthew Halpin, Bass-Phil Albert

“Chien Chien Lu is a contemporary percussionist, marimbist, educator, arranger, composer, and jazz vibraphonist from Taiwan. In 2017, She graduated from University of the Arts in Philadelphia.”  See her full description at LinkedIn

Chien Chien is from Taoyuan, now based in Brooklyn, NYC.   I don’t know if she has any official releases but she has several original songs and some classical percussion performances at her YouTube.  There is also some live clips at fb, including a set at Sappho Live Jazz in Taipei from last year.  She leads her own quartet and frequently is a guest of other musicians/bands.

[fyeahcindie]

Closing out Sunday with some lovely jazz from the 魯千千 (Chien Chien Lu) Quartet.   =D

She’s now posted 5 songs from this October 26, 2019 performance at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in NYC.  

[Here is a description of the event from fb: The Chien Chien Lu Quartet, created this year, experienced musicians under the leadership of vibraphonist and composer Chien Chien Lu. As Chien Chien tells it, "the music of the concert is the result of the unique experience of merging two cultures, Taiwanese and American, which sometimes complement and sometimes contradict each other, there is courage, insanity, and passion combining Taiwanese lyricism and nostalgia. There are questions and statements, angels and demons, chaos and peace, the powerful and the delicate, and above all, an in-depth search for meaning and truth."]

Her quartet has Shedrick Mitchell-Piano, Richie Goods-Bass and Jonathan Barber-Drums. (They each have their own projects, and Chien Chien’s trio also includes Richie & Jonathan.)  

I don’t think we’ve ever featured Chien Chien Lu before, although we mentioned her in a post about Mingjia Jessica Chen last year.  

Chien Chien is also a member of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's Quintet.  You can watch a nearly 2 hour live performance at BIMHUIS in Amsterdam from April of 2019 HERE.  (high quality a/v)