Kevin Sun

   "Better late than never," my high school gym teacher used say. ca. November 23, 2015 at Peter Karl Studio in Brooklyn (earliest photo I could find of myself after moving to NYC) * * * * * I officially moved to New York in late October 2015. I had moved out of the apartment I shared with Isaac Wilson and Ryan Sands in Jamaica Plain, MA during my last year at New England Conservatory in late August, then went to Beijing to spend about two months brushing up on my Mandarin at my aunt's place while also playing gigs and hanging out with the vibrant and friendly musicians on the scene.  A lot has happened in the decade since. I've been thinking about what I could possibly write that would encapsulate the past ~3650 days, and a laundry list of accomplishments and milestones seems like the least useful for myself and for anyone reading this. Instead, maybe more interesting would be my general impression of my time here and how things have been turning out: In broad terms,...

Back in November, I played Close Up NYC with both the bands from Quartets . Earlier that night, I also spoke with fellow saxophonist and D'Addario rep Mike Talento at the club for a video interview promoting the record and also discussing my preference for D'Addario's synthetic VENN reed . The full interview with clips from that night's show is on YouTube , and I'm sharing an AI generated transcript with hyperlinks below: Introduction My name is Kevin Sun, and I play the tenor saxophone. We are at Close Up in New York City, and tonight I'm celebrating the release of my newest album, Quartets .  Beginnings I began playing the tenor saxophone when I was 10 years old in fourth grade [ ed:  actually, I started on alto in fourth grade; totally misspoke here, but I switched primarily to tenor in the seventh grade, if I remember correctly]. My parents chose the saxophone because they saw Bill Clinton play it on TV , and they decided I should try it.  Being a profes...

In just a few weeks, I'll be embarking on my longest self-funded tour to date with Christian Li, Walter Stinson, and Kayvon Gordon (plus Matt Honor on our last date). Last tour was in September with the trio , but this time, we're performing in support of Quartets , which dropped in the fall: Monday, April 21  at Sonoma State Univ., Green Music Center, Room 1029, 1801 Cotati Avenue,  Rohnert Park, CA .      1 p.m.   Jazz Forum Class. Free admission. Information at  music.sonoma.edu . Monday, April 21  at  Big Easy , 128 American Alley,  Petaluma, CA .      7:30 and 9 p.m.  Suggested donation $10-$20.  Information at  bigeasypetaluma.com . Tuesday, April 22  at  Monks Jazz Club , 501 Pedernales St., Building #2E,  Austin, TX .      8 p.m. Tickets $20. Information at  monksjazz.com .   Wednesday, April 23  at  Royal Room , 5000 Rainier Avenue South,  Seatt...

Special thanks to the folks at  WKCR   for inviting me to participate in 's Sunday night show "Live Constructions," as well as to Satchel Peterson for referring me. With the power of AI-powered transcription and formatting, I spent under 5 minutes of human time to obtain this transcript. The original recording of this show can be heard in its entirety here   via WKCR's SoundCloud account. WKCR-FM · Live Constructions w/ Kevin Sun - 2.23.25 Live Constructions: You're listening to WKCR FM New York and WKCR HD. That's 89.9 on your FM dial or online at wkcr.org. It is ten o'clock p.m. on February 23rd, 2025, and you just heard "Black Betty" by Clifford Jordan off of the 1965 album These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Lead Belly . Right now, you're tuned into Live Constructions, a show where we bring you a live in-studio interview and performance every Sunday evening between 10-11 p.m. Right now, we're joined by Kevin Sun and his quarte...

As in 2021 , the time-honored ritual of making end of year lists. I found an unpublished draft for 2022 and didn't even try in 2023, but I think it's still a worthwhile activity: any amount of reflection on the year before diving into the next is a measure of appreciation for experiences had.  This past year, I tried something new on a whim, which was making a long scroll of paper taped from multiple sheets of normal printer paper, then subdividing it into the 52 weeks of the year and adding some creative experiences for each week. After reviewing that through the past 51 weeks, there are some 293 items—not bad, more than I would have thought, almost one little spark or source of inspiration per day. Films: THE ZONE OF INTEREST (starting the year off powerfully) ARTIE SHAW: TIME IS ALL YOU GOT (ended up arranging "Begin the Beguine" and playing it at Lowlands, also learning Artie's legendary "Stardust" solo on clarinet) AMERICAN FICTION (maybe not one fo...

Quartets  is out today.  Yesterday , I wrote some additional notes on the music of the first half, which features Dana Saul, Walter Stinson, and Matt Honor. Today, I'll jot down some more notes on the second half, which features Christian Li, Walter, and Kayvon Gordon. Logistical Notes We recorded the second half immediately following a three-night, six-set residency at Ohad Talmor's SEEDS in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I hadn't originally intended to go back to the studio again after recording what became the first side of Quartets  just half a year earlier (in October 2022), but I'm glad I did. Given the scarcity of gigs in New York relative to the sheer number of overqualified musicians, it's very hard to estimate when you'll get in enough live shows with a band to feel that it's become something, but fortunately with this group of extremely experienced and sensitive musicians, that brief but invaluable residency was enough to develop a band chemistry tha...

Quartets  is out tomorrow.  While the press release tells one easily-digestible narrative about the album in the ballpark of about 700 words, my own story about the songs on the album can be more discursive and less tailored for the eyes of jazz writers. Logistical Notes Although this is technically my seventh album (following, in reverse chronological order: The Fate of the Tenor , The Depths of Memory , <3 Bird , (Un)seaworthy , The Sustain of Memory , and Trio ), it's the tenth "disc" or set of music since it's my third double album, the other two being Depths  and Sustain . I don't think I was intentionally waiting to release music specifically for the quartet format, but in my mind, this is the flagship format for jazz saxophonists—thinking of the Coltrane classic quartet, Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter's '60s Blue Note classics,  and so on.  As a matter of practical consideration, I put this music out as a double album simply because I have a lo...