A year ago, Jazztopad was visited by a Polish improviser who has been based in Amsterdam for a long time: pianist Marta Warelis. This year’s festival will feature a duo of artists who, like her, began their studies in the Netherlands over a decade ago, where they soon settled, made musical acquaintances, and founded bands. Today, the Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong and the Scottish trumpeter Alistair Payne are described as representatives of the Dutch jazz scene.
They know each other very well, because they have been playing together in various bands for a long time. The last album on which you can hear their performances is the one authored by Payne – This Thread Walks released earlier this year. However, their cooperation in the quintet led by the Korean drummer has been going on much longer. This group has three albums to its credit, and has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, at the Vortex club in London, and in the Basement Sessions series at the famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. While Hong focuses primarily on working with her own band, Payne much more often accepts invitations to play as a sideman: for example, from guitarist Teis Semey, drummer Guy Salamon, or composer and conductor Tijn Wybenga.
The Korean and Scot formed a duo during the pandemic – there is no denying that this kind of intimate format definitely made it easier to make music during that difficult time. As it turned out later, this was not a short-lived venture. In 2020, their album IN: Slow Walk was released, and they found their feet in this formula so well that – in addition to their ongoing collaboration in the Hong quintet – they continue it to this day. When you listen to their album, as well as the video recording of their performance for the Le Guess Who festival, it is easy to notice that they both attach importance to a refined sound. They are colorists, interested in varied articulation, exploring sounds of different colours. They make music based on prepared themes but approach them quite freely. The way they phrase and respond to each other’s playing is full of subtlety and sensitivity to detail. It’s an elegant, erudite conversation, with participants particularly sensitive to sonoristic nuances.