Truth Revolution Records is thrilled to announce the release of bassist and composer Vincent Hsu’s Music for the River Jazz Suite: The Spirit of Love River & Mississippi River.

Due out on October 20th, 2023, this innovative new work finds common ground between two seemingly disparate great rivers: Love River of Hsu’s hometown of Kaohsiung, Taiwan and the Mississippi River, integral to the birth of jazz. Fused with Afro-Cuban undertones, of which Hsu has played extensively for most of his career, Music for the River Jazz Suite is truly a singular and unique work of cultural and musical fusion.

Hsu’s fourth album as a bandleader allows listeners to hear Hsu’s compositions brought to life by a large ensemble for the very first time. Music for the River Jazz Suite captures the raw thrill of the concert atmosphere, recorded live at Taiwan’s Weiwuying Recital Hall.

Breathing life to these deeply emotive and soulful works, Hsu is joined by saxophonists Hank Pan, Shen-yu Su, and Jonas Ganzemüller, trumpeter Wen-feng Cheng, violinist Yu-chen Tseng, clarinetist Chieh-an Fan, trombonist Yi-chun Teng, guitarist Shih-chun Lee, pianist Musaubach, drummer Kuan-liang Lin, and conga player Carol Huang.

1. Overture: Cotton Field (10:10)
2. River Is Wide (4:16)
3. Rumba for the River Trilogy: Father’s Melody (10:55)
4. Rumba for the River Trilogy: Memphis Creek (8:20)
5. Rumba for the River Trilogy: Dragon Dance (5:10)
6. Unknown Stars (5:32)
7. A Pilot’s Day on the Mississippi River (7:53)
8. River Workers (8:42)
9. Oya (5:09)

The new recording opens on the dutiful, absorbing ten minute ensemble piece Overture: Cotton Field and then brings us a track that handles the duality of water, the atmospheric River Is Wide, and then comes the Rumba for the River Trilogy: the melodious Father’s Melody, the mixed musical cultures found within the rhythmic Memphis Creek (itself about the city of Memphis), and then we get the celebratory Dragon Dance.

The expressive ballad (a story of hope and determination) Unknown Stars is next up and is itself backed seamlessly by a composition about Mark Twain’s childhood dream to become a steamboat pilot, A Pilot’s Day on the Mississippi River, the recording rounding out on the sincere River Workers, closing on the raw energy of a song Hsu wrote for the rain goddess Yoruba Orisha–Oya, simply entitled Oya.

Music for the River Jazz Suite: The Spirit of Love River & Mississippi River is Hsu’s first work for a large ensemble and features his own compositions performed by a 12-piece band. Its expansive and complex sonic palette comes from unique instrumentation that marries strings, horns and Latin percussion.

The band’s personnel, not unlike the music performed, reflects the globalization of jazz at its finest as the ensemble features 10 Taiwanese musicians and a pair of musicians from Argentina and Germany. “I hope this work can bring attention to the fact that Afro-Cuban music is being played in Asia. I want to share our perspectives on Latin music.”

www.vincenthsujazz.com

Vincent Hsu @ Vimeo

Vincent Hsu @ Facebook