JASON KAO HWANG, Myths of Origin

In my previous writeups on the ever-innovative and adventurous avant-garde jazz composer and electric violin visionary Jason Kao Hwang, I have enthusiastically referred to the importance of having renowned jazz academic Scott Currie on hand to pen impactful liner notes that convey the intention, themes and intricate details of Hwang’s compelling free form improvisations.

This dynamic works wonders once more on Hwang’s latest intriguingly titled masterwork Myths of Origin, a socially conscious, 9-track, 42 minute work created for improvising string orchestra and drum set, and, quite notably, features Hwang in the role of composer/conductor rather than featured instrumentalist.

From the opening percussion bang of the tension filled “The Collapse of Gravity” through the mystical, ominous and melancholy closer “Never Forgotten,” it’s an offbeat epic work that, in Hwang’s imagination sprung to life, defies mainstream society’s “enduring fetish” or Orientalist fantasies, which he calls “a history woven inextricably into unconscious biases that can, as evident by the increase of hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic, progress into explicitly racist violence.”

Inspired by jazz, funk and various traditions of world music, this richly orchestrated, sometimes hard rocking affair transcends all those limiting cultural stereotypes  and promotes harmony through a lot of fascinating twists, turns and cacophonous explosions of sound. All, of course, explained quite eloquently by Currie’s stirring liners.