Classical music can be quite sonorous and at other times it can sound steeped in the diverging realms of World Music and avant-garde. A good example of an album that mixes atonal classical-influenced music with modern avant-garde and progressive music can be heard on the 2025 album entitled Myths of Origin by NYC area based Jason Kao Hwang. Subtitled For Improvising String Orchestra And Drum Set, the album was performed live and recorded in New York City in 2022 and as such should be listened to as one continuous piece of music. The album features 9 tracks and clocks in at just under 43 minutes.

To assist Jason in this sweeping musical mission the artist has enlisted the aid of an extensive string orchestra while also featuring additional backing of guitar, bass and drum set. Also inspired by jazz, funk and world music traditions, the album in and of itself makes a compelling and challenging musical statement. One look at the artist’s discography, with its numerous album releases, offers verification of his all-encompassing musical background in the NYC area.

Just as much neo-classical in scope as it is experimental instrumental, the music is quite daring and jolting in its approach, almost compelling the listener to pay attention. Although he was born in the U.S., in Illinois, Hwang's music sounds influenced by Chinese music on a subliminal level. Most American ears are used to sonorous Chinese music, which on some levels can also include music from Hawaii. On Myths Of Origin Jason Kao Hwang sounds greatly inspired by the great American avant-garde composers of the past while pushing boundaries for 21st century composers that identify as Asian-American.

 

RMR Speaks To Jason Kao Hwang

RMR: You were born in Lake Forest Illinois in 1957. What was that like, as your parents came from Hunan from central China? Is there a Chinese community in Illinois, say compared to New York City with its large Chinese presence? What did your parents think about life in the US and do you speak Chinese?

Jason Kao Hwang: My father had heard the hospital in Lake Forest was good, so I was born there. But I grew up in Waukegan, which is about 45 minutes north of Chicago. When I was 12, we moved to Highland Park, which was about 20 minutes south. The Chicago’s Chinatown had immigrants from southern China who spoke in the Cantonese dialect. My parents are from Mandarin-speaking Changsha, which is not mutually intelligible.

In both Waukegan and Highland Park, we were one of only two Chinese families. To give an idea of our cultural isolation, while in Waukegan, my father would go through the phone books of the entire Chicago area looking for Chinese names, whom he called to create a Chinese American Association that would gather regularly for picnics. My parents endured the horrors of World War II to make a new life in America.

I grew up under the “melting pot” assimilationist ethos, so my parents did not teach me Chinese. But I would listen to their Chinese conversations deeply, trying to glean meaning from their inflection, rhythm, timbre, and energy. I now imagine this as my foundational musical experience. I speak very little Chinese.

 

RMR: Did you gravitate to Chinese and Asian music early in your life and were you also influenced by Western music say, for example Bob Dylan and the Beatles or was it mainly jazz and global music from the start? What were some of your earliest musical influences and studies like? I know you graduated from NYU so can you say a few things about your musical education?

Jason Kao Hwang: My parents did not play much music in the house. With four kids and no relatives to help, they were busy! Every now and then they might play Teresa Teng or Doris Day record. I do remember my father taking me to a Chinese opera in Chicago, which sounded as strange as hell to me. Violin lessons began at 8 in the public schools. Don’t know why, but I’ve never been drawn to popular music. Of course I liked Dylan and the Beatles, but it was the great classical violinists like Jascha Heifitz and Yehudi Menuhin that I loved.

In high school I studied with Paul Urbanick at Northwestern, a wonderful teacher. Dorothy Donegan and Bill Russo gave a concert and workshop at my school, revealing the world of jazz and blues. I started listening to records by Chicago musicians like Ramsey Lewis and Gene Ammons. I went to Amazing Grace, a club in Evanston, and heard McCoy Tyner with John Blake and Joe Ford, Vassar Clements, and Jean Luc Ponty, which was super exciting. This led me to recordings of Stuffs Smith, and Michael Urbaniak. Highland Park High School had a wave of jazz violinists. Mark Feldman is a couple years older, and Jerry Goodman, about 6 years.

I studied film production at New York University in NYC, but was quickly drawn into the jazz loft scene. Will Connell Jr., a reed multi-instrumentalist and composer, was my first mentor, whom I met at Basement Workshop, now known as a seminal Asian American organization. We formed a collective quartet, Commitment, with William Parker and Zen Matsuura. Butch Morris came to Commitment’s first gig at Joe Lee Wilson’s The Ladies Fort and soon after, called me for his early conductions. I played also in Makanda McIntyre’s orchestra for several years. The late Borah Bergman was a mentor. Reggie Workman too. These were some of the many experiences that formed my jazz education. For violin technique, music theory, and technology, I am self-taught.

 

RMR: Can you describe the term Asian-American jazz or music say compared to Western jazz? Were you influenced by American composers like Edgard Varese and Harry Partch and who were your biggest violin influences? Some of your recordings sound somewhat like progressive rock band King Crimson so do you relate to progressive rock albeit from an avant-garde perspective? One of my big guitar influences was Fred Frith. Do you know Fred?

Jason Kao Hwang: Asian American jazz is not an aesthetic category but an affirmation of Asian Americans who are playing jazz that is informed by their personal history and historical milieu. Jazz inspired and empowered me to be myself in my own voice that is Asian American. The music of Varese and Partch flows into the whole of culture, and most definitely, myself. The sound of the erhu, pipa, biwa, guzheng, gayageum, ajeng, taiko, and shakuhachi also flow into my language. But for my creative process, I listen to my heart and don’t consciously draw from any specific source. I strive to discover the intrinsic.

I’ve been told that my trio Critical Response, because of the processed sounds and structured improvs/arrangements, reminded people of King Crimson. However, my electronics is inspired by the late J.A. Deane (aka “Dino”), who employed technology with innovation and soul. I played with Dino for many years with Butch Morris. We recorded a duo, Uncharted Faith. I was first introduced to structured improvisations when I played with Jerome Cooper. Structure improv, that is the interaction of composed and improvised music to create a greater narrative, has traits shared by some of King Crimson’s work, though they don’t improvise as much. I’m not that into prog rock, but am inspired by creativity in any genre. I didn’t know Fred Frith personally, but love his music. He’s a great innovator. We had common friends.

My violin influences in no particular order include Wang Guowei (Erhu), Leroy Jenkins, Jean Luc Ponty, Billy Bang, L. Shankar, Michael Urbaniak, Stuffs Smith, Stephan Grappelli, Ray Nance, Johnny Frigo, Jeff Beck, Midori Goto, Yuri Bashmet, and others.

 

RMR: Tell us what inspired your mission on your latest album Myths of Origin? Was it just as much composed music as it is improvisational and was it challenging to assemble and record with such a large musical cast? Was there a lot of rehearsal before the recording too place and tell us recording the album at Roulette in NYC and is Roulette in the same place as it was in the 1980s?

Jason Kao Hwang: Myths of Origin was composed to defy mainstream society’s enduring fetish for Orientalist fantasies, a history woven inextricably into unconscious biases that can, as evident by the increase of hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic, progress into explicitly racist violence. Myths of Origin forges a unique language free from the expectations of ethnicity and genre, to revolutionize our relationships to each other. The musicians infuse their individuality into a flow of spontaneous moments that illuminate possibilities for the journey ahead by revealing truths of who we can become. To be transformed by possibilities grounded in truth, is to transcend all Myths of Origin.

I utilize a lexicon of gestures to conduct and empower improvisations that engage my notated score, comprised of 15 notated sections. The conducting gestures can indicate pitch, attack, textures, held notes, densities as well as designate improvisations, orchestral, aggregates, and soloists. My gestures are an outgrowth from the conducting of Butch Morris and Karl Berger. I performed with both of them for many years. What I composed, whether it is a two bar rhythmic riff or full melody, aims to be essential. It is that purity of intention and vibration that will launch purposeful improvisations. The musicians will be in a state of inspiration rather than execution. Though I guide the musical flow via score and gestures, musicians maintain their identity and agency. Though there are traditional divisions in the score, like violin 1 and 2, in the improvisations, the orchestra can be like a tree in which you can hear each leaf shimmer. In terms of duration, what you hear on the recording is 90% improvisation inspired/shaped by a written score.

For our earliest performances, because there was no budget and because the musicians are superb, busy, and difficult to schedule, we had only a 30-40 minute guerrilla rehearsal prior to a gig. We had two gigs prior to the Vision Festival, which were critical to our development. After each I learned, refining the score and conducting cues. For the Vision Festival, there was a budget so we had a one nice long rehearsal to cultivate details and the awareness of improvisational possibilities. We were ready to go!

Roulette was in founder Jim Staley’s loft in the 1980’s. At some point they moved to a temporary home in SoHo before they settled into Brooklyn, where they renovated and equipped a beautiful theater with state-of-the-art equipment. Roulette is one of the best venues for contemporary music in the world.

 

RMR: How many albums have you released and when did you start recording music? What are a few of your favorite and most popular albums?

Jason Kao Hwang: I’ve released twenty recordings. They are my children and I love them equally. Of course I always feel that my most recent - Myths of Origin, Soliloquies, Book of Stories, Uncharted Faith, and the Human Rites Trio, represent my best work.

 

RMR: What violins do you play and like the most and do you play electric violin too and do you have an endorsement with a violin company? Do you alter your sound with effects and devices and do you play other instruments as well?

Jason Kao Hwang: I have contemporary instruments. My violin is by Philip Perret and viola by David Gusset. My solid-body electric is by Tucker Barrett with the bridge pick-up is by Richard Barbera. I love them all equally! All were made one at a time, not by a factory. These are the only instruments I play.

My acoustic instruments have piezo pickups for amplification. When I perform unaccompanied pizzicato solos, like on my CD Soliloquies, I use a reverb pedal and a compressor to help the pizz tone sustain. For my Critical Response trio, I play the solid- body electric violin through a multi-fx processor for wah, pitch shift, distortion, etc. The solid-body has a richer processed sound.

 

RMR: You’ve been in NYC for quite a while but you live now in New Jersey. How has the city changed in your estimation when it comes to music and musicians trying to live and work there these days? What part of the city do you like best when it comes to performing live and also recording and have you performed in other states?

Jason Kao Hwang: Though I live in NJ, my orientation has always been NYC for the music. When I did live in the East Village in the 1980’s, my rent for a small studio apartment was $98/month. Today the rent is probably north of $3000. I walk by that building today and, with the exception of new mailboxes, it looks the same! Because rents were so low back then, there were many clubs, theaters, galleries, non-profits, churches, and lofts that hosted non-commercial music. So many many musicians lived in the East Village. Well that scene is long gone. But new scenes have emerged, particularly in Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens. Creative spirits find a way.

My wife and I moved from the East Village across the Hudson River to Jersey City and lived there for about 25 years. The past 12 years we’ve been in Morris Plains, NJ. Morris Plains is about an hour train ride west of the city, a doable commute to live cheaper and better.

I’ve performed around the US, Europe, and Asia. I record in a number of studios, one in Brooklyn and others across the river in NJ.

 

RMR: Since Myths of Origin was recorded almost 4 years ago are you planning a new studio album for 2026? What kind of ideas do you have for your next album? Do you prefer working in the studio or recording live more?

Jason Kao Hwang: I’ve been releasing a new CD per year. Myths of Origin, being recorded live in 2022 and released this year, is outside the chronology. Recently, Soliloquies; Unaccompanied Pizzicato Violin Improvisations, was released in 2024; Book of Stories, of my trio Critical Response, in 2023; Uncharted Faith, my duo with J.A. Deane, in 2022.

I will release the second CD of my Human Rites trio with Ken Filiano - string bass and Andrew Drury - drum set in April, 2026. It’s a studio recording. My “classical” composition for the Momenta String Quartet, “If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream”, was recorded earlier this year and will be released on their American CD for New World Records next summer.

I’ve composed new music for my four other projects, Critical Response (with Michael T.A. Thompson - drums, Anders Nilsson - electric guitar, myself - electric violin), the quartet EDGE (Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet/flugelhorn, Ken Filiano - string bass, Andrew Drury - drum set, myself - violin/viola), Resonance quintet (Bryan Carrott - vibes, Chris Forbes - piano, Ken Filiano - string bass, Andrew Drury - drum set, myself - violin/viola), and my duo with Sun Li (pipa). Each will eventually record. You might see several releases a year from me in the near future.

Usually I prefer to record in the studio to achieve the ideal sound. Myths of Origin is my first live release for several reasons. First, it was such a special performance, and second, to do a studio production right would be prohibitively expensive. Though I‘m sure we would have performed great in the studio, it was a special night at Roulette. The audience and musicians were so fired up.

 

RMR: What other plans do you have as far as writing, recording, and live performances in the coming year?

Jason Kao Hwang: Over the Christmas holidays I plan to complete the mix of the Human Rites Trio or the April release. Critical Response (Anders Nilsson - electric guitar, Michael T.A. Thompson - drums, and myself - electric violin) will perform at Rhizome in DC on December 20, Quinn’s in Beacon, NY on January 12, and the club DaDa in Ridgewood, Queens on April 10. We’ll probably record in the summer. I have plans for the Resonance quintet in the Spring as well.

As a freelancer, I perform with cellist Tomeka Reid in the Unity Festival at Dizzy’s in Lincoln Center on January 8, and with saxophonist Patrick Brennan at the Downtown Music Gallery on January 13. I’ve been performing in Michael Bisio’s trio, and he plans to record.