Live Jazz at Ryan's N16 Bar, Stoke Newington

Event information

Currently on tour in Europe, catch this rare UK date from renowned Taiwanese sheng performer Li-Chin Li. She is joined by a legend of the UK improvised music world John Butcher, and host Julian Woods.

Li-Chin Li is a Taiwanese sheng musician, who strives to express her musical creativity beyond auditory stimuli.
In her performance, she wants the audience to enter a world to experience the unknown.
HONORS & AWARDS

The Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music, Taiwan
– The album “Slow” won the Best Fusion Album (2014)

Taishin Arts Award, Taiwan
– The music theater “From Musical Collaboration to Interpersonal Collaboration” received a nomination for the 20th Taishin Arts Award (2022)

– “The Performer” of a talent cultivation scheme titled “Mentor and Partnership Program” at the National Center for Traditional Arts (2016)

– The recital “Taiwan Sheng Girl” received a nomination for the 13th Taishin Arts Award (2014)

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John Butcher is well known as a saxophonist who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of time and place. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and unusual acoustics. Since the early 80s he has collaborated with hundreds of artists – including Derek Bailey, Rhodri Davies, Andy Moor, Phil Minton, Christian Marclay, Eddie Prévost, Magda Mayas, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Sophie Agnel, Gino Robair, Mark Sanders, John Tilbury, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Chris Corsano, Polwechsel and Steve Beresford.

Alongside long term projects he values occasional encounters; from large groups such as the WDR Sinfonieorchester & Butch Morris’ “London Skyscraper”, to duo concerts with Joe McPhee, Fred Frith, Akio Suzuki, Paal Nilssen-Love, Keiji Haino, David Toop, Angharad Davies, Otomo Yoshihide and Matthew Shipp.

Recent compositions include “Penny Wands” for Futurist Intonarumori, three HCMF commissions for his own groups, “Good Liquor Caused my Heart for to Sing” for the London Sinfonietta and “Tarab Cuts”, a response to recordings of early Arabic classical music which was shortlisted for a British Composer’s Award.

“English saxophonist John Butcher may be among the world’s most influential musicians, operating at the cutting-edge of improvisatory practice since the ‘80s. Whenever an acoustic musician starts to sound like a bank of oscillators, a tropical forest, a brook or an insect factory, Butcher’s influence is likely nearby.” – New York City Jazz Record.