Rising
Pan’s new album draws influence from her mastery of the genres of jazz and Western Classical music, yet marries it with the sounds of the locations which she has visited. It ranges from Afro funk to French cinematic valses, from Spanish tango to Middle Eastern tarab (musical ecstasy), plus nostalgic Taiwanese folk songs. Often, the way this amalgamation of styles manifests is through the use of large-scale classical form, structure, and orchestrational prowess, that maintains room for and comes alive through the insertion of jazz improvisation and its ever-iconic rhythm section. It is almost like contemporary chamber music with mixed meter, complex contrapuntal dialogue between different voices, and harmonies derived from modal and atonal structure, yet combined with an ethnic vivaciousness.
Pan’s experiential trifecta of exhilaration, demoralization, and retrospection led her to create Rising, a mosaic of works chronicling the ebb and flow of life’s highs and lows and Pan’s journey to rise above it all. The album, which Pan co-produced with acclaimed woodwind player Ted Nash, features an all-star lineup including Nash (tenor saxophone, flute, and clarinet), Geoff Burke (alto and soprano saxophones, alto flute, and clarinet), Mark Wade (bass), Jared Schonig (drums), and Pan herself on piano and voice.
For Pan, Rising stands as far more than an album, for the music on it is akin to thumbing through a history book of her life. A collection of 12 pieces (13 on the digital deluxe edition), Rising comprises a selection of works that are carefully curated and span a 20-year period of the artist’s life and compositional oeuvre. Each piece is an imprint of a moment, a person, a place, or a challenge that Pan has faced and overcome. “Jazz is about being ‘in the moment,’ and I set out to capture each fleeting moment with a song,” Pan says. “There is no better way for a composer to express her longings and frustrations than putting fingers to keyboard and notes on paper.” Rising undoubtedly recounts a vast array of moments and emotions. With pieces that encapsulate the joy and thrill of being welcomed as a “diva” on her Saudia Arabian tour; to returning to the almost magnetic draw of New York; to recounting the obstacles she faced as a woman of color and immigrant upon her first arrival in America; to the world-changing consequences of her Father’s stroke and making peace with her transformation from being little girl whom her father loved to spoil to being his caretaker, this album is a pouring out of Pan’s heart - and masterfully painting that overflow onto an ebullient musical canvas.