Stephanie Chou’s Universal Musical Language

Once upon a time Stephanie Chou, a Chinese-American math major at Columbia University, went on a study abroad to China to learn more about her heritage, and ostensibly to study the language.

But while she was there, Chou says, laughing, “I ended up mostly playing with the local musicians. It was a very ‘music is the universal language’ situation.”

Even if music is a universal tongue, Chou is still a musical polyglot. She composes and performs. She not only sings but plays piano and saxophone with virtuosity. And she crosses musical genres with ease and dexterity.

With a blend of Chinese folk instruments and western instruments, Chou crafts a type of East/West/folk/jazz that is expansive to the mind and easy on the ears.

Her upcoming show at the SJZ Break Room will feature a little bit of everything across Chou’s albums—which show a wide breadth of influences.

Listeners can look forward to the mathy, ethereal soundscapes of the album Asymptote and single “Continuum Hypothesis,” the giddy pop of “Millennial Woman,” the balletic soaring on “Ballet C for G,” the deep sense of history and fusion on “Prime Knot,” and the stunning operatic storytelling in “Comfort Girl.”

Performing with her jazz fusion quintet will be Andy Lin on viola and erhu (a Chinese two-stringed instrument), Hyuna Park on piano, Bryan Copeland on acoustic and electric bass, and Ronan Itzik on drums.

This mix of jazz, pop, fusion and folk from a female-led ensemble is another example of a concert curated for eclectic local connoisseurs by the experts at SJZ.

Stephanie Chou plays at 8pm on Nov. 9 at SJZ Break Room, 310 S. 1st St, San Jose, Tickets: $27. sanjosejazz.org

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