By Jung Joo-ri and Kim Minji
Photos = Hub Music Agency
Seoul | April 10, 2019

Korean jazz diva Youn Sun Nah recently released her tenth album "Immersion," first in Europe on March 8 and Korea on April 10 and scheduled for launch in Asia and the U.S. She will also continue her world tour through next year.

In 1995, Nah moved to France to study jazz at Le CIM (Centre d'Information de la Musique), the country's first jazz school. She debuted as a jazz vocalist with the release of her first album "Reflet" in 2001.

She gained fame for her solo performance in 2013 at the Théatre du Châtelet in Paris and performing in a 2017 duet with jazz great Herbie Hancock at "International Jazz Day – All Star Global Concert" in Havana, Cuba. She now appears in over 100 performances worldwide every year.

New focus on sound

Promoting her new album in Korea, Nah said in an interview with Korea.net on April 10, "My new album differs from my previous ones, so I'm curious if my fans love it." With her previous nine albums all recorded through one-take studio sessions, she chose to focus on sound for her latest work and spent three weeks in the studio recording. "Rather than a day or two, I wanted to spend a longer time recording. This was an effort to transform the original acoustic music and create new sounds," she said.


Seven of her new album's 13 tracks are original songs she composed and the rest are pop covers. "My own songs in this album were composed in Bretagne, northwestern France, a region with great love for music that hosts various music festivals," she said. "I showed 15 songs I made at home to a producer. He said he wanted to make an album with them, but I also really wanted to include my covers. So I eventually had half of the album be my covers and the other half my originals."

Nah's covers on the album range from Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" to George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity." On how she selects songs, she said, "I never fix an album's concept. I rather choose the type of music I want to make based on my feelings. Most of the songs I choose are music that popped into my mind or those I heard on the radio."


Jazz with Korean emotions

As a jazz vocalist for 18 years, Nah highlights "Korean emotion" as the basis of her music. "Honestly, 60 percent of myself comprises Korean emotions. When I was young, I used to sing along with the songs of Korean musicians like Poet, Village Headmaster or Sanullim. I think this is why my music has similar emotions to Korean music," she said.

"Wherever she goes, whoever she meets" has become her musical motif. "I am inspired by people, landscapes and music in the cities I visit. The beginning and ending parts of jazz are mostly fixed, while the middle part is improvised. So some pieces that are two minutes long in the album can sometimes be performed for 15 minutes. By communicating with the audience, it becomes a completely different kind of music," she said.

Nah said she hopes to constantly communicate with her fans via her performances and albums. She also sent the following message to Korea.net readers: "When given a chance to perform, I never say no. I'd also love to communicate (with fans) not only through albums but also through meetings. I really wish to meet you."

etoilejr@korea.kr