KEVIN SUN I & KEVIN SUN II

Endectomorph Music

Kevin Sun, tenor saxophones/composer; Max Light, guitar; Walter Stinson, bass; Jon Starks, drums; Christian Li, piano; Kayvon Gordon, drums.

Kevin Sun is a Chinese American saxophonist and composer living in New York City. According to DownBeat magazine, his music is “intense, harmonically virtuosic and compositionally complex.”  He is also the founder of Endectomorph Music, a Brooklyn-based record label dedicated to creative improvised music.

Sun has released two albums simultaneously. A conceptualist and leaning vigorously towards experimental music, this woodwind player and composer describes his Volume I production as an intensive studio session.  In a quartet setting, featuring guitar, bass and drums, he gives freedom to his musicians to explore his compositions and improvise.

“Eclecticism for its own sake isn’t the point, really. I just like all of this music; every one of these songs means something to me personally, and I shaped them to give the band a strong jumping-off point. For me, the best compositions are at heart vehicles for improvisation,” Kevin explains in his press package.

On Kevin Sun I, they begin with his composition, “Go In” (their first single release) where Kevin Sun’s saxophone dances atop shifting meters.

This is followed by a tune called “Scrollwork” that unfolds at a fast pace, featuring each band member by offering them equally important voices in a four-part rhythmic counterpoint. Kevin Sun and Max Light (on guitar) explore an overlapping conversation, each playing their own unique melody. There is a “hook” to the song that both return to, where they play in unison. Then they branch off again, to take their own individual journeys, each expanding on their own theme.

The freedom in Kevin Sun’s music pushes the boundaries of jazz.  Jazz is actually the music of freedom, born from African American resistance to slavery or enslavement of mind, body or spirit.  It’s a music that demands improvisation and objective creativity.  You hear freedom fly from Kevin Sun’s horn on tunes like “Riot in Lagos.”

On “Belong, Sonny” drummer Kayvon Gordon is wildly featured.  His flying drumsticks set the mood.  Pianist Christian Li jumps in with both feet. Sun adds saxophone sounds that at times remind me of scratches on a chalkboard. I prefer Sun’s rich, warm sound on his tenor saxophone during tunes like “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” This review, from the Kevin Sun II release, features a brilliant piano solo by Christian Li.  Kevin’s second album (Kevin Sun, II) was recorded the following spring in a single afternoon in Minneapolis and at the conclusion of a brief tour. Kevin wanted the recording to reflect the energy and camaraderie of their live performances. This time his trio features piano, not guitar, Kayvon Gordon on drums and Walter Stinson remains solid on bass.

In addition to performing in the United States, Kevin Sun has performed extensively in China and served as the Artistic Director of the Blue Note China Jazz Orchestra from 2018 until 2020. He holds an M.M. in Jazz Performance from new England Conservatory and an A.B. in English from Harvard College where he graduated summa cum laude.

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