This is Asian-flavored modern jazz -freewheeling and vibrant music.

12 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: World Fusion, JAZZ: Weird Jazz



Details:
Red: The CD

Last year, three Hong Kong musicians realized they shared a common vision: create a music that would combine the freedom of jazz, the hard-edge of post-rock, and the soft lyricism of Asian music. The three formed a band, and after months of behind-closed-door rehearsing, are launching their first
CD. Calling themselves Red, an allusion to their roots in China, the musicians are Peter Scherr, a composer and former bassist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; Guy Le Claire, one of Australia's top guitarists who has studied traditional music in China and India and jazz in North America; and Andrew Collier, a classically trained percussionist who learned his jazz swing on the streets of New York City where he was raised.

Their music mixes jazz, fusion, and incorporates Asian instruments including gongs, bells and woodblocks. The music reflects their varied backgrounds. Listen to the quiet, compelling melodies in Le Claire's tune "Song for
Mamar". Scherr's compositions are inspired by everything from the clanking of cars in Hong Kong to a monestary in Tibet where the young monks - barely in their teens - struggled to stay awake as they continuously chanted.
Collier brings the grit of New York to "Abby's Song" - named after his daughter -- that alternates between sweet melodies and a funky backbeat.
"Although we love playing straight-ahead jazz, we get excited when we explore the mix of western fusion with Asian sounds," says guitarist Le Claire.