Media Review

Duluth News Tribune

Published November 21 2009

Review: Ying erases musical, cultural differences

Friday night at the Mitchell Auditorium, Yang Ying took an audience of music enthusiasts on a mind-bending ride that magically melded East and West, ancient and contemporary, and classical and rock ’n’ roll.

By: John Ziegler, For the News Tribune

Yang Ying is a gentle giant, and you should know her name.

She is a revolutionary who is methodically and melodically erasing barriers between countries, between cultures and between ways of thinking.

Last night at the Mitchell Auditorium, Ying, with disarming precision and dexterity, took an audience of music enthusiasts on a mind-bending ride that magically melded East and West, ancient and contemporary, and classical and rock ’n’ roll.

Her vehicle is a 2-stringed traditional Chinese instrument called the erhu. It sits vertically on her left hip and is actually bowed, not over the strings violin-style, but between the strings in a tangled fashion that made me look twice and wonder who came up with this design.

On this child-like, almost toy-looking ax, Yang Ying combines the technique of classical music, the creativity of jazz, the passion of rock ’n’ roll, and the depth of her indigenous roots into a fusion that is breathtaking and an aural feast.

“Uninhibited” opened the evening with a driving backbeat, erasing all thoughts that this would be a sedate encounter. Sitting center stage amid her rhythm section, traditional Chinese hat pulled down to almost cover her eyes, Ying took flight sounding like Jean Luc Ponty from a ’70s fusion concert. She bowed and bent notes effortlessly through a complicated maze of 10/8 and 11/8 time signatures and made the erhu sing like a Stradivarius mated with an electric guitar.

In traditional Chinese music, a culture in which music, medicine and happiness are all intertwined both symbolically and in thought, proper expression of each note is prized over speed and flashiness. On the lovely ancient piece “Autumn Moon Over The Han Palace,” Ying showed exacting skill as her dissemination of the melody line was flawless.

Jazz legend Thelonius Monk’s classic “Round Midnight” was rhapsodic and sounded like Monk composed its gorgeous melody specifically for the erhu. Ying’s touch was so delicate that it sounded like a hummingbird fluttering over the harmony. Her improvisation was spellbinding and melded hypnotically with pianist Sam Gingher’s flight of fancy.

Nashville meets New Orleans meets Beijing was the menu on “Funky Chinese Jig.” Ying pulled out all the stops in this original work and sounded like Bob Will’s fiddler Johnny Gimble in overdrive. Guitarist Matt Stewart chicken-picked his Telecaster to the bone, matching Ying’s imagination and energy.

A Led Zeppelin medley of “Stairway To Heaven” and “Rock ’N’ Roll” was the perfect conclusion to a night that was both impressive and illuminating.

As incomparable jazz innovator Charlie Parker said “…?they teach you there’s boundaries to music. But, man, there’s no boundary to art.” Yang Ying showed Northlanders last night, with compelling mastery of her chosen instrument, just how universal the language of music really is.

Ying and band performing in Mitchell Auditorium