Jason Kao Hwang‘s Burning Bridge was the first set on the first night. It was a perfect opening set. This amazing octet split in half – three brass stage right: Steve Swell on trombone, Herb Robertson on trumpets & flugel & Joe Daley on tuba, with the drums of Andrew Drury in the center, there were 4 strings on stage left – Jason Hwang on violin, Sun Li on pipa, Wang Guowei on erhu & Ken Filiano on contrabass. There were five or six long pieces which included partially written sections with a series on duos & trios interspersed. A pipa & violin duo was first and it was intense & spirited with the erhu & violin weeping or just bending notes together. There was a written brass trio section with the bass & erhu interacting. No doubt that it was difficult to write for the Chinese instruments like a pipa and erhu, but Mr. Hwang did a great job of blending the ethnic and distinctive sounds of the Far East and the West seamlessly. I had not heard of either Chinese musician before this set, but both were phenomenal. This set was a bit long at nearly ninety minutes but it did give each instrument a chance or two to stretch out and solo at length. Everyone in the octet played at least one amazing solo although it was the ongoing interaction between all the members that made this set so special. The best of several worlds.
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