Jazz Band – Fly in Jazz

A Local Band

By Lisa Crone and Douglas Baumwoll

Photographed by Lisa Crone

We both did a search on Google for “jazz bars Korea” and 99 percent of the results talk about jazz venues in Seoul, with a few mentions in Busan. But did you know that you can see high-quality jazz right here in Gwangju? That’s right, every Friday night you can head into Chungjang-ro neighborhood and stop in the Speakeasy pub, a local hot spot for foreigners and natives alike, seeking out a light social atmosphere combined with live music. The owner supports local live music and one of the frequent players is Fly In Jazz, a band whose members are all students from Honam Theological College in Gwangju. The band’s lineup has changed over the years as members graduate and move on to other pursuits; however, the music has never stopped. The band’s founder and original piano player, Sun Lee, was a music professor at Honam. She created the project in order to provide her students with an opportunity to play jazz in an authentic atmosphere in Gwangju. Speakeasy provided the stage where she and her students could do their thing without feeling too much pressure. Fly In Jazz provides a relaxed, yet polished, musical experience for folks to enjoy alongside a beverage, enjoying life and decompressing from their work week.

Sun Lee, who earned both her B.A. (University of North Florida) and M.A. (Florida State University) in the United States, has a unique Korean perspective on the brand of jazz disseminated here in Korea. How did she end up studying there? Well, she has got a made-for-the-movies anecdote on that count. She first became interested in jazz when, as a high school student, she “accidently” heard some music being played in a record shop. Although she had been playing piano her entire life, she did not recognize the musician or genre of the music. She queried the owner about it, and he told her that the player was Marcus Roberts, a blind jazz pianist from America, and that the music was called “jazz.” She was so impressed by the tunes she heard, indeed “yearning for a new style of music,” that she decided to go to America to study jazz, seeking out Roberts, a professor at Florida State University, and studying under him. The rest is history for her, as she has attained her dream and is now an accomplished jazz pianist and professor in Korea. About Roberts, she said, “Even though he was blind, the way he played and his thoughts towards jazz were enough to make me love jazz and push me to practice.”

I asked Lee about her perception of the jazz scene in Korea compared to that of America. “In America, jazz is part of the culture, history and social life,” she said. “For jazz musicians, there are lots of opportunities to play even though it is still hard to make a decent living. Jazz is everywhere and I think jazz is more than music for musicians in America. They are also respected as musicians. In Korea, the history of jazz is actually a lot longer than what people think. It has more than 50 years of history. During and after the Korean War, members of the U.S. Army stayed in Korea and brought their culture with them, including jazz music. Many American musicians played in Korea but started to change their style for Korean audiences.”

As for modern-day listeners in Korea, she asserted, “Nowadays, jazz is still an unfamiliar genre for Korean people. It is hard to find places to play so there are not many opportunities for musicians to practice. However, recently there have been more jazz musicians, jazz bars and festivals occurring in Korea. This shows that jazz is becoming more popular in Korea.” As a professor, Lee thinks Korea still has a long way to go in developing its own style of jazz. “In America,” she said, “the jazz programs are very developed and students can learn any instrument they want to, but Korean programs are biased toward learning piano.” Due to this bias, music program curricula lack the diversity and richness of American programs. This is, however, starting to change.

Embodying this changing face of Korean jazz are the young musicians of Fly In Jazz. The lead drummer, Ju Young, is studying vocals but decided to play drums in the band to work on his rhythm, which he considers his weakness. “My dream is to be a singer and song writer,” he said.

Jazz is a genre of music that, generally speaking, does not enjoy a relatively wide fan base; so, many bar owners avoid letting jazz musicians play. Speakeasy, however, is not one of those places. If you would like to support local jazz musicians, pop in on a Friday night at 10:30 p.m. and tap your foot to a jazzy tune of guitar, bass, piano and even trombone, played by the musicians of Fly In Jazz.