Sue Yang

I fell under jazz’s spell when I was fourteen, after hearing Eric Dolphy. I grew up on Jeju Island in South Korea, and the fact that I could even encounter Dolphy’s music there felt almost miraculous. But once I did, there was no turning back. I began subscribing to Japan’s Swing Journal, and from that point on I plunged into jazz completely. When I moved to Seoul for college, I started building my own jazz archive in earnest, collecting records, books, and materials as passionately as I could. At twenty-six, I founded Jazz Hipster, a monthly magazine that became the first jazz magazine in Korea to be sold in bookstores. We even had a correspondent in New York and interviewed artists who were just beginning to emerge at the time, including Brad Mehldau. The following year, I opened a jazz club in Seoul called Hot House. I also worked occasionally as an FM radio jazz DJ. It was a time when jazz was truly booming in Korea. I also presented concerts in Korea, inviting musicians from the United States such as Bob Moses and John Lockwood. In 2003, I moved to Boston. Since then, I have gone back and forth between Boston and New York, hearing many extraordinary performances. I am especially drawn to modern jazz and the avant-garde. I have also done some piano and vocal performance myself. Today, I work as a mental health therapist, but jazz remains one of the deepest currents in my life. Through Deep Listening Jazz, I now teach jazz virtually and continue sharing the music that first transformed me as a teenager. For me, jazz is not only an art form. It is a way of listening, thinking, and living.