REVIEWS OF THE HUMAN RITES TRIO, SECOND LIFE
The interplay between the musicians in the colorful structures results in dynamic music that bring forth some of the most formidably structured, impassioned and studiously crafted music that you will have heard in decades. - Ann Carlini, Exclusive Magazine Read Full Review
Across all four compositions, what stands out is how the trio moves between freedom and underlying logic without ever losing the thread. Lines can fracture into three separate, seemingly unrelated ideas and then suddenly cohere into a single shared direction, as if the musicians had planned the reunion all along. That combination, spontaneity that behaves, in hindsight, like inevitability, has always been at the centre of Hwang’s music - Frank Pfeiffer, Editor in Chief, Paris Move. Read Full Review
For Jason Kao Hwang, improvisation has never meant abandoning structure. His music tends to occupy the fertile territory between the two, creating pieces in which spontaneous exchanges can acquire the inevitability of composition. On “Second Life,” Hwang returns to that territory alongside bassist Ken Filiano and drummer-percussionist Andrew Drury, reviving his Human Rites Trio for a four-track, 45-minute set built around communication, tension and constant transformation. - SKOPE. Read full review
REVIEWS OF THE FIRST CD, THE HUMAN RITES TRIO
Violinist/violist Jason Kao Hwang's trio with Ken Filiano (bass) and Andrew Drury (drums) is one of the most finely honed small groups in the improvised music scene...It all comes together on the closing "Defiance", the telepathic interplay, the storytelling, the rotating narratives and the sterling musicianship. Robert Bush, New York City Jazz Record. Read Full Review
The veteran New York violinist/violist Jason Kao Hwang, who's worked with Anthony Braxton, William Parker and the late Butch Morris, among others, creates work under his own name that resist categorization: Sometimes it's jazz, sometimes cham,ber music and sometimes entirely uncategorizable ... Which is to say that this is heavy, profound music. - Philip Freeman, Downbeat Magazine Read Full Review
Human Rites Trio, Downbeat Magazines Best CDs of 2020. See magazine page
2020 El Intruso International Critics Poll votes Jason Kao Hwang first for violin/viola. See web page
Human Rites Trio, Top Ten Recordings of 2020 by Robert Iannapollo, Cadence Magazine. Read Magazine Page
...features playing of the high-wire, rough-and-tumble variety, the trio's expressions rooted in the rapport the musicians have developed over time. Such unpredictability makes for exciting and engaging music, and the greatest takeaway has less to do with the compositions and more with the always evolving interplay between them. Ron Schepper, textura.com Read Full Review
Mirroring the onslaught of the pandemic and our attempts to adapt to a new normal, the angular fits and starts of “Words Asleep Spoken Awake, Part 1” give way to a structured groove and anthemic melody, while “Part 2” transitions from bristling frenzy to haunting elegy. The episodic suite incorporates funk, swing, and free-form sections, with seamless transitions between recurring motifs and individual solos that demonstrate the trio’s uncanny chemistry... - Troy Collins, Point of Departure Read Full Review